Kenya: Standard Chartered Bank partners with firms to host its branches

Standard Chartered Bank on Thursday started hosting its branches in offices and outlets of firms in a cost-cutting bid while building a physical presence.

The bank has partnered with Artcaffe to open three new branches in outlets owned by the restaurant chain in Nairobi, Isiolo and Nanyuki.

It will add more firms in the office space co-sharing model as lenders seek lean operations to grow profits.

StanChart has recently shut branches and shed jobs with heavy investments in digital banking that has reduced the flow of customers in its outlets.

But the lender is seeking to connect with its customers through face-to-face meetings, prompting the shift to the least-cost office-sharing model.

“One of the realizations clear to us as a bank is the times of doing things alone are gone and partnerships are the way to go. Clients no longer want banking done the way it was done traditionally. Clients want to take their coffee or food while doing the transactions,” StanChart Bank chief executive Kariuki Ngari said.

The bank has picked Artcaffe due to its high presence with 50 outlets across the country.

The coffee, bakery and meal outlet have ambience and Wi-Fi services, which have been attractive for business and casual meetings, inviting setup of the bank within the space.

The lender has continued to pursue its strategy of enhancing efficiencies through expansion of digital services while de-emphasizing brick-and-mortar operations.

The partnership comes after the bank closed eight branches and laid off 200 staff last year on the back of Covid-19 and also pushed by many customers doing transaction on digital platforms.

Stan Chart recorded 94 percent of clients using mobile banking in the 2020 financial year. The digital transformation that started in 2016 also led to cutting down of rental charges and decline in salaries expenses for the lender.

It is now operating 22 branches from 42 in 2016.

The rental charges have dropped by more than half to Sh216.64 million in the year ended December 2020, from Sh534.29 million in 2016.

Employee costs however increased over the period by 9.1 percent to Sh7.67 billion due to Sh1.35 billion spent as redundancy costs.

Stan Chart closed the year with 1,280 employees – a 117 drop from the previous year.

The bank spent Sh4.88 billion on staff costs in the nine-month period to September, from Sh5.43 billion in the same period last year.

It will also roll out service centers in Junction, Sarit Centre, Village Market and Kitengela, similar sizes to the co-shared space however on sole-tenant basis, as part of the move to cut costs.