Orienting the media on its workings, the bank’s Head of Customer Channels Effie Malange said 24/7 represents the various electronic channels that Standard Bank is providing on the backbone of its digital banking platform known as Finacle.

She said by a click of a button, Standard Bank customers can transact freely from their mobile phone, laptop or computer from any location at any time using the 24/7 ingenuity and its other product segments.

“With 24/7, a customer can do banking wherever they are, without physically visiting the bank, without being limited by the time a bank opens and closes and on holidays and weekends,” she said.

The innovation—accessible both off-line and on-line—will help deepen financial inclusion and bring efficiency in the Malawi economy, the bank’s senior official has said.

She said 24/7 has been designed to give customers limitless access to financial inclusion by transacting virtually from their phones, computers and with Visa cards.

Malange said 24/7 enables payment of utility bills, medical cover, international money transfers or e-commerce, pay examination and school fees, buy phone airtime and inter-bank transfers and settlements, among others.

The Head of Customer Channels said the added advantage of 24/7 is that it empowers customers to manage their personal finances by creating and running typical accounts such as savings and monthly payments on their own.

Malange said the 24/7 has also turned the bank’s Visa Debit card into a one-stop-shop solution as customers can use it to make off-shore payments up to $3,000 and use it abroad without the need to ask the bank to physically load cash before departure. Prior, the bank’s cards could only be handy in domestic ATM and POS transactions but can now be used at any Visa ATM locally and abroad.

To access the service, customers require to download the 247 App from Appstore or visit their nearest Standard Bank branch where they will be linked.

The 24/7 channels are also available for small and medium enterprises as well as large corporations for use in tax and supplier payments, salaries and other critical transactions.

Recently, the bank’s Chief Executive William le Roux said the introduction of digital payment channels was helping the bank’s customers achieve tax compliance. He said this follows a partnership with Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) which has enables SMEs and other corporates to pay tax online using the respective 24/7 product segments of Enterprise and Business Online (BoL).