The rise of fintechs might be shaking up the banking sector in developed countries, but African banks are taking full advantage of this technological revolution. So argue the co-founders of TagPay – Yves Eonnet and Hervé Manceron – in their new analysis of the digital revolution, Fintech: The Banks Counter-attack. The book was released in Paris on September 25 , 2018 at the headquarters of the digital transformation company, onepoint.
“Africa is the Silicon Valley of banking,” say the authors. The bank of the future is being invented in Africa, and it is more agile and close to its customers. TagPay is behind the first Digital Banking System (DBS), which not only provides banks with the open architecture, real-time capability and agility they need in a digitalized world, but also offers an integrated solution that allows a financial institution to be set up in six months.
(TOP: From left to right – Henri-Pierre Druaut, Partner at Onepoint; Hérvé Manceron, COO and co-founder of TagPay; Alexandre Maymat, Head of Africa, Mediterranean & Overseas at Société Générale; and Yves Eonnet, CEO and co-founder of TagPay).
The authors show how fintechs have been powerful tools for financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa. In a region where the population remains largely unbanked but whose growth in terms of access to smartphones is the fastest in the world (+ 350% increase between 2007 and 2016), digital banking is the solution to the shortcomings in traditional banking infrastructure.
The second major observation of the book is that the popularity of digital banking solutions in sub-Saharan Africa makes the region a source of inspiration for the rest of the world. “In terms of disruptive innovation, the weight of the installed systems is an obstacle that is always difficult to overcome. The lack of existing systems frees Africa from these constraints, allowing it to realise its financial inclusion projects. The continent is making a technological leap by deploying the digital bank to serve these new populations. This is how Africa has invented before our eyes the bank of the future.”
During the release of the book, TagPay announced a partnership with onepoint, designed to provide integrated digital solutions to banks around the world.
TagPay started as a mobile payment technology provider, then became one of the first mobile money platforms, targeting banks with financial inclusion goals. TagPay is now a mobile digital banking platform provider, with all the features of a core banking system, centred around the mobile phone.
TagPay was founded by Yves Eonnet and Hervé Manceron in 2005. It set up its first mobile money platform in Namibia in 2010. Société Générale acquired a minority stake in the company in June 2016. The firm has its headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris.
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