The rapidly growing rates of smartphone penetration in microfinance markets are opening up opportunities for increasingly accessible digital financial solutions. When coupled with technology such as Artificial Intelligence, the financial inclusion process is becoming increasingly automated and user-centric.
That is why Aspekt has partnered with FinFun – a fintech company specializing in chatbot solutions for microfinance providers. FinFun’s chatbot solutions allow MFIs and banks to strengthen their relationships with their end customers by enabling them to manage loan requests faster, more efficiently and serve as a channel to listen to customer needs.
FinFun’s chatbots provide a way for people to easily access bank accounts and credit information through their favorite messaging platform in less than a minute. They also provide financial education and transparency through loan simulators and payment calculators. These chatbots serve two purposes – the first is to help MFIs and banks drive sales through a digitized lead generation process, while the second is to provide transparency and accessible banking transactions to customers throughout the entire lifecycle of a loan.
FinFun’s chatbots are compatible with our popular Merchant Platform, which has the option of having its own infrastructure or building custom connections to third-party systems and suppliers and is open and adaptable to all third-party systems. The integration with the FinFun chatbot began with two of our clients one from Madagascar and one from Kazakhstan, both of which are microfinance institutions in the midst of digitalization.
Chatbots are in sync with consumers’ existing digital behaviors since they are on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, so there are minimal obstacles to adoption. The design and user experience are as basic as texting a friend. These chatbots also operate in WhatsApp Lite and Facebook Lite, allowing customers to continue using digital banking services while on 2G networks. In the context of a developing world, this flexibility makes a chatbot more convenient than a mobile banking application. As a result, chatbots can assist MFIs and banks in connecting with clients they would not otherwise be able to contact.
Financial APIs are powerful as they ease partnerships between FinTech’s and financial institutions in a quick and safe manner by exchanging data between systems automatically. This rapid data exchange creates value for the customers by facilitating onboarding, access to account information, transactions and payments. The practical benefits that APIs (such as the APIs accessible through Aspekt core financial software and digital platforms) bring to financial institutions are:
We expect even more successful projects and integrations with FinFun’s chatbots in the future, as this is one of the ways microfinance institutions and banks are trying to serve their customers. If you want to outperform your competitors, you should seriously consider bringing chatbots into your loan lifecycle. It’s simple to integrate into your business and easy to set up.
