By Moses Nosike

It is truly the first and indeed first in all. History has its reckoning that over 127 years of banking operation, in spite all the environmental, operational and industry challenges, FirstBank has refused to be beaten by others in the sector.

Many of its competitors came into operation but just like a vapour disappeared after a while. Many went into merger to survive, others were acquired, but FirstBank remains unmoved and undefeated. It has stood the test of time even at the most challenging periods and at the face of stormy waves that has forced others into extinction, the bank has always overcome and become more stronger with new innovations. First Bank of Nigeria Limited is the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 127 years.

With over 750 business locations and over 130,620 Banking Agents spread across 99% of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, First Bank provides a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services to serve its over 30 million customers. The Bank has international presence through its subsidiaries, FBN Bank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.

From the management source, the bank has been handy at promoting digital payment in the country and has issued over 10million cards, the first bank to achieve such a milestone in the country. FirstBank’s cashless transaction drive extends to having more than 10 million people on its USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code and over 4.5 million people on FirstMobile platform.

Since its establishment in 1894, FirstBank has consistently built relationships with customers focusing on the fundamentals of good corporate governance, strong liquidity, optimised risk management and leadership. Over the years, the Bank has led the financing of private investment in infrastructure development in the Nigerian economy by playing key roles in the Federal Government’s privatisation and commercialisation schemes. With its global reach, FirstBank provides prospective investors wishing to explore the vast business opportunities that are available in Nigeria, an internationally competitive world-class brand and a credible financial partner.

FirstBank has been named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” six times in a row (2011 – 2016) by the globally renowned “The Banker Magazine” of the Financial Times Group; “Best Retail Bank in Nigeria” for seven consecutive years (2011 – 2017) by the Asian Banker International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards and “Best Bank in Nigeria” by Global Finance for 15 years. Our brand purpose is always to put customers, partners and stakeholders at the heart of our business, even as we standardise customer experience and excellence in financial solutions across sub-Saharan Africa, in consonance with our brand vision “To be the partner of the first choice in building your future”. Our brand promise is always to deliver the ultimate “gold standard” of value and excellence. This commitment is anchored on our inherent values of passion, partnership and people, to position You First in every respect.

First, our investigation revealed that FirstBank parades best of seasonal and professional managers that are second to non at head of affairs. Again, those managers riding on their professional acumen reposition the bank’s operation with result-oriented strategies. In their foresight and proactiveness, FirstBank in most cases gains insight of what the future holds for financial institutions especially banking sector anywhere it operates.

However, FirstBank’s untiring attitude towards introducing innovations in the banking system has made the bank a pacesetter while others follow behind. Good a thing, those innovations are not only flexible and accessible but they are customer friendly and banking made easy. Such innovations have empowered customers to carry out banking transaction with the bank at their comfort zone, even on the go with the bank’s Apps. This is owning to the fact that FirstBank values customers’ time, so the introduction of Apps saves time of going to banking halls for business transaction. Its seasonal and professional managers look more promising and ever ready to deliver set goals and objective of the First Bank. This has a lot to say in terms of manpower development which FirstBank management has ever considered very imperative. Quality training of its employees has given the bank edge over its competitors. At the level of innovation First Bank has introduced and attained, it not only operates banking, it teaches banking at its peak, and its branches across the globe is a justification that the bank has come a long way changing the lives of customers through different product offerings.

Best Online Banking: Its online innovative offerings are unique and of course first of its kind in the history of banking sector . To mention but few of such offering such as First Econnect. With its ebanking products and services, customer can pay bills, send/receive money, monitor every transaction on your account, make cashless purchases online or in-person and much more. All these can be done on an internet-enabled mobile phone, PC or tablet, from wherever you are in the world. Its First Online provides customers internet banking platform that allows you as a customer, perform transactions such as funds transfers, bill payments etc. Via internet, anytime, anywhere.

What about FirstBank PayPal? It provides you an online payment solutions company offers simplified and secure online payment without the need to reveal financial information or card details to the merchant, protecting users against fraud and FirstBank has entered into an alliance with this payment service etc.

In loan offering, FirstBank has made it easy for individuals, start-ups, organization etc. to better financially reposition their business, family, education by designing different categories of loan portfolios that can benefit customers. Such offerings include, First Credit, Automobile Loans, Personal Home Loans, Salary Loans, Joint Mortgage, Revenue loans and overdraft Commercial mortgage, Health Finance, Health Finance product Guideline, First Trader Solutions, SME products Financing, Local Purchase Orders finance. FirstBank helps your business plans to come to fruition.

New innovations: In this era of fintech technology, FirstBank is leading in that financial technology space. It has created a global platform for conversation around the future of innovation.

First Bank is also first in its contribution to the evolution of banking and financial service delivery which has made its operation flexible, accessible for the benefit of customers anywhere in the world. This and more are the reasons FirstBank and its subsidiaries deemed it fit to organise the just concluded Fintech summit for the benefit of banking and other financial institutions to keep abreast with the evolution of fintech financing in the banking industry.

On the Fintech summit, the CEO, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan while addressing his listeners on the theme: Open Banking and its Derivative Opportunities in the Financial Ecosystem” said that the Fintech Summit is organized by First Bank to create a global platform for conversations around the future of innovation in the financial technology space, while the objective is to contribute to the evolution of banking and finance service delivery.

Dr. Adesola Adeduntan said, “This year’s edition themed “Open Banking and its Derivative Opportunities in the Financial Ecosystem” promises to be exciting and engaging with a line-up of local and international thought leaders ready to spur the conversation around the prospects for open banking. The theme recognizes the increasing pervasive role open data, cloud technology and artificial intelligence play in the financial ecosystem. Open banking today demonstrates the practical fusion of these variables, presenting remarkable potentials that can redefine product development, customer experience and overall value creation; with multiplier effects for both players and consumers.

According to him, the Regulatory Framework for Open Banking in Nigeria, issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria on the rules and premises under which financial data sharing can take place across the financial ecosystem and the National Information Technology Development Agency’s (NITDA) Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019, are demonstrations of the future of regulations around Open Banking.

Continuing, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan said, “As an institution of 127 years and having traversed series of regulatory transformation over the years, First Bank will continue to play its role in furthering conversations to refine regulatory frameworks and shape thoughts on industry and societal developments. We will also continue to demonstrate our support for start-ups and innovators in the fintech space by providing them the relevant data support and infrastructure to enable them scale appropriately. Every step we take continues to be geared towards strategically positioning us as the bridgehead and reference point for fintech and financial services providers across the African continent, as we will continue to lead the charge towards realizing the future of banking”.

Dr. Adesola Adeduntan said, “I am very optimistic that the financial services industry will benefit from the conversations at this year’s Fintech Summit. I am also positive that this platform will continue to come up with innovative solutions to further drive growth and deepen financial inclusion as we explore the inherent opportunities in Open Banking with other experts across industries. Thank you once again for joining us, and I wish you a most rewarding experience at the Fintech Summit.

Leading the discussion as the Keynote speaker alongside other panellists at the FirstBank concluded Fintech summit is Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Lead Faculty, Tekedia Institute who said that, one of the finest moments in Nigeria’s entrepreneurial ecosystem happened in the decade of 1990s when new species of banks were created. What happened then was “intra-bank” integration where the banks essentially linked their branches into a mammoth network, making it possible that once you open an account in one branch of a bank in Nigeria, you can bank from all the bank’s branches. As we moved from voice telephony to the mobile internet age, we upgraded that “intra-bank· to “inter-bank” through NIBBS, offering a unified quasi-banking ordinance. With Open Banking, this evolution goes beyond banks to now include insurance, mortgage, etc to drive the new age of application utility era which I expect to be massive.

From the 7th century Tang dynasty of the invention of paper money to the Great Debate of Pythagoras and to the modern concept of coopetition, one thing has been constant: industries advance when they find ways to cooperate even as they compete against one another.

Open Banking is a vista to advance the financial services sector, and accelerate innovation and improve service delivery for citizens, unbounded and unconstrained by disparate ecosystems. Financial APis will change economies, but they can only be super-potent if powered within a unified regime which open banking offers.

Across all domains, “open” offers abundance, and open banking has a promise to redesign industrial architectures and unleash a new dawn for the wealth in nations.

Ankit Sharma, Director/Strategy & PWC

“Open Banking has the potential to transform the way we bank. Global . multiple economies have embarked upon their Open Banking journeys and there is a lot of anticipation to see how things might unfold. It is expected that Open Banking will increase competition and financial inclusion. lower barriers to entry and improve customer experience. Through Open Banking. Financial Institutions (Fis) can perform efficient onboarding and credit underwriting.

Additional. through Open Banking. Fls can offer facilities for personal finance management. In the future, we are bound to see multiple other examples that will allow Fls to create unique product propositions and help them differentiate their services through personalized digital experiences. Based on the work I have done in the Americas and Europe, I look forward to talking about what Open Banking has to offer and how it has and will change banking in these regions.

Ope Adeoye, Chief Plumber/Onepipe

“At OnePipe, we believe that in order to deepen financial inclusion. financial services Just like fast moving consumer goods) need a distribution mechanism.

An approach where non-financial institutions can partner with banks and other financial institutions to distribute unique designed financial services to their target audiences at proximity.

Open banking in general and BaaS (banking as a service) specifical can accelerate this outcome.

Taiwo Shonekan, Head, Customer Experience & Value Management, FirstBank

“In today’s financial services industry where customers are better informed and Banks provide homogeneous products, it has become imperative to wrap lifestyle offerings around financial services. This phenomenon has been proven to improve customer buying decisions and experience; those who will succeed are those who take this ‘customer power’ serious.

Open Banking provides that gateway for innovations that can help achieve this feat. Innovators in various sectors can access customer data via open APis to provide personalized experiences through artificial intelligence or other technologies. As a Bank that is forward thinking, First Bank’s partnership effort with Fintechs will be boosted to accommodate customer needs outside traditional banking services. We have started the journey to offering segment based, targeted and differentiated services to demonstrate our aspiration to meet specific customer needs.

Hopeful. this Open Banking exploration in the Nigerian financial services industry will help in creating ‘customer magic’ as we are seeing in other regions global.

Paris Valakelis, Co-Founder/Truid

“Open Banking is more than just a framework that empowers consumers to share their banking data, it’s a key milestone in the future of digitizing finance. For both financial services and consumers alike, OB is the next iteration of financial experience. New experiences, like the one-dick-credit experience developed by trulD, now encompass every step of the traditional system, in a single process in under 3mins.

Outside of just banking, an Open Finance framework, which is being explored by South African regulators will be adapted to encompass all financial services like pensions, loans, mortgages, and investment funds.

The major banks are progressive in nature, and despite the development of a regulatory framework still in its nascent stages, the big banks are already embracing OB and connecting their processes to platforms like ours in order to aggregate data between existing banks. creating new & innovative experiences for their customers; from rapid onboarding through to ana ics powered innovation.