Artificial Intelligence, New banks

For South Africa’s first challenger bank, conversational AI isn’t just a nice-to-have

  • TymeBank has launched Max, an AI-powered digital assistant.
  • Developed by Finn AI, Max enables the challenger bank to scale.
close

Email a Friend

For South Africa’s first challenger bank, conversational AI isn’t just a nice-to-have

South Africa's TymeBank has launched Max, an AI-powered conversational assistant designed to help consumers learn about personal finance.

For South Africa's first challenger bank, conversational AI is an important piece of its product roadmap.

"Conversational AI is probably one of those things you can define as 'not urgent but very important'," said Coenraad Jonker, CEO of TymeBank. "We don't think you can grow and scale a bank in emerging markets without a conversational interface."

That's because of what Junker likes to call 'the mystery of missing information'. In the US or the UK, it's relatively straightforward to price risk on a new accountholder. There's generally enough financial information in mature markets to make a risk decision.

That's not the case in South Africa. In addition to helping new prospects learn about the digital bank, TymeBank will use Max to learn more about its new customers in order to fill out a credit profile.

"Max is a little piece of magic for us," said Jonker. "It's the missing link in our ability to scale across channels."

South Africa has high penetration of mobile messaging. WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in South Africa (and Africa as a whole). Of the 18 million social media users in South Africa, almost half of them spend most of their time on WhatsApp. Facebook Messenger is the next most popular messaging app.

"With Max, we brought a banking experience to consumers with zero learning curve," said Jake Tyler, CEO of Finn AI, the company behind the technology that went into Max. "It's very familiar to people and we brought the conversational assistant to channels where customers already spend time." Max works in Facebook Messenger and Facebook Messenger Lite.

TymeBank Credit Score Dashboard

Max was launched as part of TymeCoach, the challenger bank's consumer education app. It teaches customers about credit and the interplay between their financial behavior and their credit scores. Tyme eventually plans to use Max to move from a conversation about financial wellbeing to recommendations about specific financial products and services.

"It looks like a version of Credit Karma," said Tyler. "Access to credit and credit scores is big issue in South Africa. This idea of having a personal banker in everyone's product looking after financial health and wellbeing lines up well."

Emerging markets have ecosystem shortfalls that mature markets don't. Onboarding is a big issue. Consumer behavior and regulation mean you essentially need to get into the physical world. 90 percent of transactions happen in cash, so creating a network to enable cash deposits is key, as well.

Since launching in February 2019, TymeBank has installed 730 automated bank kiosks in supermarkets around the country. The company has opened up over 180,000 new bank accounts via online and offline channels. The bank claims it is opening up 4000 new accounts per day.

"What's unique about Tyme as a challenger bank is that it's a hybrid of online and offline," said Finn AI's Tyler. "When someone walks into supermarket and visits a Tyme kiosk, they can walk out in five minutes with an account and debit card in their hands."

TymeBank's conversational AI is about more than acquisition and digital self service. It's also about scale for Jonker, whose business model supports no more than 200 people on staff. The company already employs 120 people. The challenger bank will need to support customers by funnelling them into a more natural channel for them to help themselves.

"We know we can't scale our costs along with our customer base." he said.

0 comments on “For South Africa’s first challenger bank, conversational AI isn’t just a nice-to-have”

Outlier OpinionsMakers

New banks

‘We’re shortening the distance between consumers and the products they want and need’: MoneyLion’s Dee Choubey comments on Q3’23 and more

  • MoneyLion delivered strong third-quarter earnings and revenue last week.
  • Dee Choubey, co-founder and CEO of MoneyLion, discusses where the firm stands today and the trends propelling digital banking heading into 2024.
Sara Khairi | November 14, 2023
New banks

‘Fintechs need to do a better job of talking about how we’re at the forefront of trust and security’: 5 questions with MoneyLion’s CEO Dee Choubey

  • MoneyLion's revenue increased 34% to $93.7 million in Q1 2023 from $70 million in Q1 2022.
  • Tearsheet spoke with MoneyLion's Dee Choubey about the increased revenue for the quarter, the advancing role of AI in banking, and how the banking crisis is affecting fintechs.
Sara Khairi | May 18, 2023
New banks

5 questions with Stash CEO Liza Landsman

  • Stash continues to grow, expanding its B2C offering while it expands into working via a B2B model.
  • We recently caught up with new CEO Liza Landsman about her new role and where the firm is headed.
Zachary Miller | May 04, 2023
New banks

Quick Take: MoneyLion partners with Column Tax – but how does the partnership align with the former’s product suite?

  • In order to provide convenient tax filing experience to its customers, MoneyLion has partnered with Column Tax. So how is this partnership in line with its product suite?
  • MoneyLion shareholders have had a rough ride lately as the firm’s share price tumbled 80% last year and 18% in February this year -- can the company gain ground in the long term on the strength of its underlying businesses?
Sara Khairi | March 16, 2023
New banks

Gamifying financial literacy is tough. Can Greenlight’s Level Up get it right?

  • Financial literacy games can be gimmicky and may fail to find the balance between “game” and “education”.
  • Level Up by Greenlight focuses on gamification in a manner that's sticky, but for the right purposes.
Rabab Ahsan | February 17, 2023
More Articles