By Olubunmi Adeniyi
Lagos. February 11, 2013: Guaranty Trust Bank has launched its social banking service on the Facebook, taking advantage of over 6.7 million Nigerians on the leading social networking site.
The new offering which is the first of its kind by a Nigerian bank allows GTBank Social Account holders transfer money, purchase airtime, pay bills and confirm their account balance on Facebook.
Speaking on the new service, Segun Agbaje, Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank says the bank is committed to ensure its stakeholders can perform financial transactions at their convenience and would continue to introduce safe and novel alternative channels for them to do so.
The Social Account is different from having a regular GTBank account as it enables people perform banking activities like money transfers, airtime purchases and bills payments while on Facebook, Agbaje clarifies.
He adds that GTBank has been at the forefront of industry innovations within the Nigerian financial services sector and that it was the first to see social media as a viable means to reach its stakeholders and presently has over 950,000 Facebook fans which he cites as the largest for any bank in Africa.
“The Bank’s other recent introductions include GTBank Mobile Money, a highly secure application that allows customers and non GTBank customers perform transfers and payments from their mobile phones, a ‘FastTrack’ banking system that allows customers withdraw money within the bank’s branches using their debit cards, the GTCrea8 eSavers virtual account for undergraduates and the GTBank e-Account for salary earners, which enables them conduct all their banking activities without having to visit a physical bank branch,” Agbaje adds.
The bank’s internet banking platform which he cites one of the most robust in the industry, supports a wide array of transactions such as bills payments, own and third party transfers and foreign exchange transfers to any bank account in the world, according to Agbaje.
GTBank’s alternative banking channels were recently given a Payment Card Industry Standards Council (PCISSC) certification, implying that the channels meet acceptable technical and operational requirements to prevent credit card fraud, hacking and other security vulnerabilities, he adds.
Guaranty Trust Bank plc was established in 1990 and has within the last 22 years come to be recognised as one of the most innovative and service focused banks in the Nigerian financial market space. The bank operates from 188 branches in Nigeria and has banking subsidiaries in Cote d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom.
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