National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has improved its product, mobile, online, and digital self-serve capabilities, introducing 25 new features such as mobile & smartwatch payment options, Fitbit Pay and so on, winning it Best Retail Bank: Kuwait at the MENA Banking Excellence Awards 2022. Its fully digital onboarding service using the government’s Digital ID service and new Weyay digital only smartphone bank also helped Mohammed Al Othman, Group GM, Consumer Banking, win the MENA Digital Innovator & Retail Banker of the Year titles. The Best Credit Card & Best Youth Program completed its garlanded evening on 23 June.
NBK has a mobile first strategy and focuses on customer acquisition, payment and expanding its digital offerings, while ensuring that no customer is left behind with automation options in its 66 branches demonstrating its comprehensive omnichannel service. There was even a mobile van-based bank during the Covid-19 pandemic that could reach customers who needed to transact via ATMs and interactive machines.
The ability to split bills and digitally transfer salaries into student allowances also helped customers during Covid-19, and the tight focus on digitalization delivered more contactless and QR code payment transfer options, alongside easy online loyalty redemption and many other digital advances for the future. Not the least was Watani online banking, which gives access to multiple types of accounts and a portfolio of bank, loan, and other services. International transfers via the ripple crossborder blockchain-powered network can be accessed and integration with an NBK capital brokerage account is possible to ensure seamless transfer of funds.
Weyay smartphone bank
Paramount among all the bank’s new launches was the unveiling in December 2021 of Weyay bank, Kuwait’s first fully digital smartphone-based bank. It’s available in the palm of the hand 24×7 of its typically young users. Anyone above the age of 15 can open an account digitally simply by using their governmental mobile-based Digital ID derived from the government’s Civil ID program.
NBK uses open application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect to a multitude of third-party shopping, lifestyle, fintech and other apps to embed its financial, budgeting and payment services 24×7 into customers lives. This is to ensure it has a fully digital platform that suits and can easily serve the everyday needs of modern consumers, ensuring ‘stickiness’, transactions, loyalty, and data – powering analytics and personalization – are all retained on the bank’s platform.
To infinity & beyond:
Best credit card The NBK KWT Visa Infinite credit card won the MENA Banking Excellence Award 2022 for Best Credit Card Initiative for its generous KD1,000 (US$3,300) cashback scheme with 1,000+ merchants participating in the KWT loyalty program, including Ikea, Emirates airline and Vox cinema.
The link to the bank’s mobile app allowing activation by tapping the Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled card on a smartphone, negating the need to visit a branch or call in, was also noteworthy. Two vertical designs and a metal finish can be specified.
The highest cashback offer in Kuwait helps address attrition issues and keep customers loyal, as well as converting cash or debit card usage into the credit card territory. The KWT Visa Infinite credit card contributed almost 60% of overall year-to-date (YTD) flow just three weeks after its recent launch, showing uptake and the social media and other campaigns around the launch were successful.
The crucial KWT loyalty and reward platform allows users to convert points into cashback, travel bookings, electronic e-vouchers, power exchanges with other partners, and do many other things, such as:
Get higher cashback for digital and international payments and across different tiers.
Choose between merchant categories to maximize the cashback offering, which can be up to 10%, the best in the marketplace thanks to strong negotiations with partners.
NBK’s portfolio includes 20 credit cards from Mastercard, Visa and Diners, plus 11 pre-paid products. It provides connectivity to, and interoperability with, a host of other vital loyalty platforms including NBK miles, Kuwait Airways miles, and the innovative UEFA goal points offering. This was unveiled in association with a Champions league card launched in 2021 to target football lovers.
Best Youth Program
NBK’s focus on youth isn’t just restricted to smartphone users of its Weyay bank app. The bank wants to train the next generation of workers too. National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has six pillars in its Sustainability policy that frames its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy, with Respecting and Developing People being one of them. This is operationalized through its career, training, and talent development units, with its NBK Academy in particular gaining recognition at the MENA Banking Excellence Awards as the Best Youth Program for the way it gives Kuwaiti university graduates the ability to expand their skills and knowledge in the banking sector. In order to be part of the graduate program, participants must be:
Kuwaiti citizens, below 25 years old.
Have a high-grade point average (GPA).
Hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree & have a maximum of two years’ work experience.
Candidates undergo three panel interviews. First, with the Recruitment department, then with Talent Management, and then a third and final screening interview is held with the General Manager of Group Human Resources and the GM of Consumer Banking, Mohammed Al Othman (see boxout). Once selected, NBK Academy inductees are employees.
Out of the 150 candidates in the last two cohorts 30 joined the Academy. Average class size is 15-20 people in each ‘wave’ lasting approximately six months and running twice annually. But quality is the prerequisite, not mere numbers. Since its establishment in 2008, the NBK Academy has 408 graduates so far. The average tenure of graduates is five years, but some stay much longer at the bank and 33% of current supervisory and managerial roles are filled by Academy graduates. There is also a High-Fliers subset program to identify future leaders and train them accordingly.
NBK Academy graduates rotate through different areas of the bank to give them a good understanding of each function and Talent Management creates individual profiles to ensure the bank has insight into each participant’s strengths, weaknesses, and preferences, so that they can be streamed accordingly. As they progress through the bank, annual reviews check on career progression and an electronic e-learning module must be passed to demonstrate competency in their selected position upon graduation.
Local and international vendors provide the training via private Kuwaiti universities and e-learning modules from Euromoney Learning (UK) and Thomson Reuters (USA), among others. NBK senior managers visit and give seminars as well. Technical and soft skills are taught, alongside on-the-job training, and the curriculum is continuously updated to reflect market trends. Some examples of recent courses include:
Boosting Productivity,
Marketing Skills,
Digital Trends in Financial Markets,
Banking and Credit & Creativity and Innovation,
Financial & data analysis, and much more.
MENA Digital Innovator & Retail Banker of the Year
National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) group general manager (GM) of Consumer Banking, Mohammed Al Othman, was named the region’s Digital Innovator & Retail Banker of the Year at the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Banking Excellence Awards 2022, held on 23 June. His two titles were awarded for the way he has driven the bank’s digitalisation and his focus on youth. For example, the smartphone-based Weyay bank aimed at youngsters will ensure many more generations of users continue to use the bank, especially as the app is embedded into their everyday digital lives with multiple payment and lifestyle connections.
It would have been easy to just focus on mass affluent wealth segments that are instantly profitable. But Al Othman felt the bank also had to think about the next generation and serve their smartphone-based needs to ensure longevity and that people joined to feed the value chain.
Al Othman wanted the Weyay secure app to be designed by the young of Kuwait for use by the young, and he ensured this by maintaining tight oversight of the project. The new digital only smartphone bank addresses youngster’s ambitions, worries and challenges and meet their dream of having a bank – and many useful connected lifestyle apps – all in the palm of their hand.
Automated credit decisioning in the Loan and Card Origination system at the bank, was also crucial to power the digital services Al Othman wanted to see at NBK. This requires automated document scanning and recognition, paperless application and auto generation of all documents, and complete integration with credit bureaux. All of which has been achieved in the back-end with added functionality such as the aforementioned digital on-boarding capability and a front-end focus on the customer experience (CX).
Happy customers spend more and stay longer so designing digital services that prioritize easy, quick CX pays dividends in the long-term. Digitally serving customers via online / video / WhatsApp and social media channels also helps to keep customers happy. New products such as the KWT Visa Infinite credit card and loyalty program, new payment options, finance for entrepreneurs, and the Zeina for Children account, all additionally contributed towards Al Othman’s win.
As GM of NBK Consumer Banking, he leads a team of 1500, including some in the data management centre of excellence. Al Othman hosts regular ‘town hall’ meetings to give employees chance to ask questions, share ideas, buy-in to the digitalization drive, and interact with the senior leaders.
Innovation comes from fostering a team spirit and Al Othman has done this so successfully he has got the trophy to prove it – and the results. Digital transactions have grown by more than 50% year-on-year (YoY) and double-digit growth in the more efficient self-service channels is evident.