Paynet data to help banks gauge client potential

The next time you receive a telephone call, it could as well be from your banker, asking you to apply for a car loan or take up a mortgage.

Customer care firm Kencall and payment services provider Paynet have entered into a partnership that will see them make targeted marketing calls to bank customers based on their spending habits.

Paynet will offer Kencall names and contacts of potential borrowers based on a database provided by 31 banks that have signed up for its payment services such as the Pesapoint ATMs.

The partnership introduces targeted marketing into Kenya’s financial sector, whose legality is yet to be tested.

Kenya banking rules limit the extent of client information which banks can divulge to third parties.

Mr Bernard Matthewman, the group chief executive officer at Paynet said the two companies will not have inappropriate access to financial information of the clients they will be dealing with.

“The whole concept of information being provided to banks is for them to handle data analysis on their own customers. What may possibly be sent to a call centre could be a person’s name and some standard research type questions,” said Mr Matthewman.

He said the call centre will only see names, contact numbers and an agreed script on the suitable information on a customer.

“Kencall would have no access to the banks core systems or data (nor does Paynet) and therefore no access to financial information,” said Mr Mathewman.

The Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), which is the industry’s lobby organisation as well as a central secretariat that formulates the members’ self-regulation code, said it was not party to the agreements between the Kencall and Paynet.

“KBA does not have agreements with Paynet or Kencall,” said Mr John Wanyela, executive director of the bankers’ association.

Mr Mathewman said information gathered from the targeted marketing enable financial institutions to reduce cash spent on advertising and also raise chances of reaching the targeted customers.

The partnership will also enable Kencall, a firm that handles third party jobs such as customer care on commissions for clients mainly in the telecommunications sector, widen its client’s base by incorporating the financial clients.

“The information age is moving beyond just storing and accessing data to a place where information is used more intelligently to drive the bottom line” said Nik Nesbitt, Kencall’s chief executive adding: “This relationship combines the ability to use telephonic research and historical data to analyse customer behaviour and target the right products to the right people”

As the parent company for Pesa Point, Paynet serves 31 banks that have data on card usage by individuals or corporate firms.