A unique, turnkey digital lifestyle platform designed for the youth market and launched by Standard Bank combines banking, lifestyle and social functions for a generation that is accustomed to managing their day-to-day needs with the flick of a thumb across a mobile’s screen.
The Sorted digital lifestyle platform is the first of its kind to be launched in South Africa, it is linked to a prepaid debit card and is designed to bring lifestyle requirements under one ‘roof’ enabling young Standard Bank customers to keep their fingers on the pulse of their busy lives through a range of specifically-designed tools.
“The Sorted platform is unique in several aspects. It is a platform which supports the young, constantly moving and innovative lifestyles of the new generation of customers. Sorted, enables the user to access multiple lifestyle services including social media products under a single digital platform, “says Mr Lincoln Mali, head of Card and Emerging Payments at Standard Bank.
“The banking aspects of the digital platform run in the background and are ready to support the user whenever financial capability is required. What makes it stand out as a new generation banking product is that it is customisable. Partners, at this stage mainly tertiary institutions and schools, are able to brand the linked Sorted debit card, which enables the financial services and issues it to students who can exclusively access and use ‘institution-specific’ offerings that are part of the Sorted platform.”
The banking tradition of having solutions designed and then sold onto consumer niches had been totally ‘turned on its head’ for the development of Sorted, says Mali, explaining that the construction of the product began in 2016 when a group of young graduates at the bank, were asked to build an offering.
“We were conscious that the Sorted challenge was different. We had to change the perception of banking held by the younger market and set out to achieve this by showing that banking can be innovative. Our approach was to work towards concentrating on delivering a ‘Customer Power of One’ experience by designing a platform that was customisable to individual needs.”
“We believe we have achieved our objective by delivering a solution that seamlessly delivers solutions that our younger customers want.”
“Although Sorted was created to serve the 18 to 23-year-old market, we believe that it will appeal to parents who have children that are school learners whom they wish to experience some financial independence. In the event of a Sorted account being used by a minor, parent monitoring of financial transactions can be enabled.”
The parent or guardian can also almost become a student’s private banker by placing funds in different Sorted ‘pockets’. So, money destined for school or academic fees cannot be used for other purposes. Defined purchases on campus can also be controlled.
Turning to the future of Sorted, Mali says that the platform is another step towards achieving Standard Bank’s inclusive digital banking vision based on providing customer access to multiple services through the use of specially designed solutions.
The solution had already attracted the attention of a number of tertiary institutions and schools. Sorted also presents opportunities for bodies concerned with making educational loans to streamline student payments and also empower recipients.
An awareness drive, which would include roadshows at various partner tertiary institutions, would begin early in 2019 to back the launch of Sorted.
The Sorted platform was also built to benefit Standard Bank’s partners. The fully customisable platform also enables its partners to service their customers. This platform gives the capability for partners to originate their customers through safe and secure on boarding channels; partners can brand this white labelled platform to issue they’re own lifestyle and banking services, ranging from personalized cards to a customised mobile app. The platform comes with service and management tools, allowing Standard Bank partners to have an end to end customer servicing ecosystem. The business intelligence tools behind this offering will give standard bank partners the ability to know their customer to the power of one.
“Sorted is a truly new generation banking solution. It takes account of the youth market’s specific needs and blends functionality across boundaries that, until now, could only be satisfied through several sites. As befits a 21st-century youth product, Sorted is innovative. Future tools that add more value and convenience to the student, as well as participating schools and tertiary institutions, will be added in future.”
