The rise of Equity Bank cannot be underestimated. It has come through as a result of great managerial stewardship, product innovation, a growing loans book, and consistently upward profit trajectory. However, as every coin has two sides, the growth of Equity Bank may have betrayed a side of the bank that is less desirable: corporate relationships!
Last week, Equity Bank terminated its BebaPay service. In a text message sent to its customers, Equity Bank advised its clients to finish their card balance by March 15 or get a refund after March 28, with the option of replacing the old BebaPay card with the new Equity prepaid MasterCard for free.
While it may look progressive for the bank to venture out alone, this new divorce between BebaPay and Equity raises the question: has Equity Bank been poor at managing corporate relationships with its business partners?
The most prominent of Equity Bank’s sour relationships has been with telecommunications giant, Safaricom. For instance, to boost its ATM transactions and overall bank revenues, Equity Bank and Safaricom entered into a partnership that could see Safaricom mobile money transfer service subscribers withdraw cash from Equity Bank’s ATMs.
The deal would see non-Equity account holders withdraw their money from the MPesa account at any of the bank’s branches including those in neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Southern Sudan.
This partnership has since been riddle with difficulties that climaxed last year when Safaricom complained that Equity Bank had blocked its subscribers from making ATM withdrawals from its ATM outlets. After the complaint, MPesa services across Equity Bank’s ATMs were restored.
Then came the controversial M-Kesho mobile banking platform launched by Equity Bank and Safaricom. Although detailed talks were conducted before the product was launched, Equity Bank failed to agree with Safaricom on profit sharing. Apparently, the two giants each wanted an equal sharing ratio. But that was not just it.
There was the issue of double charges for those who were transferring their money from equity accounts to MPesa and for withdrawal. After this launch, Equity Bank launched similar products with Safaricom’s rivals YU and Orange, further complicating an ailing relationship, and leading to the collapse of the deal.
After this cake crumbled, Safaricom partnered with the Commercial Bank of Africa and launched M-Shwari – a mobile phone fixed deposit account – to counter Equity Bank. With Safaricom’s aggressive marketing approach, consumers took on the service, ballooning CBA’s loans accounts from 89,000 to 897,000 in less than 12 months to year 2013. Effectively, the fat loans accounts placed CBA ahead of Equity Bank, with deposits also hitting Sh. 24 billion.
The latest clash between the two giants has been Equity Bank’s ambitious thin sim card roll out, which Safaricom has vehemently opposed, saying that it will expose its customers to potential frauds. The new Equity Bank’s project is being undertaken in partnership with Safaricom’s main rival Airtel.
Noteworthy, before the launch of MVNO, Equity was in talks to purchase YU for Sh. 140 million – a fete that would have come in with a 2 million customer subscription. This deal may as well have gone sour, with equity Bank choosing to set up an MVNO infrastructure at a cost of about Sh. 490 million.
Strikingly, Equity has particularly been shy of aggressively marketing its products, instead mainly relying on word of mouth from its customers. Currently, although Equity Bank is not advertising its Equitel mobile platform, the bank has been marketing the product inside its banking halls, from where it has been issuing customers with the normal Equitel Sim cards.
To counter Equity, Safaricom has now entered into partnership with KCB. With new research reports suggesting that Equity Bank’s mobile venture will do little to counter Safaricom’s MPesa, it remains to be seen how long the partnership with Airtel will last, and or the shape it will take.
