Equity Bank hosted two meetings yesterday: one that announced the 2019 FY financial results and another one that was exploring options to lessen the adverse economic effect for its customers as brought forth by COVID-19. Today, the lender has detailed measures that would see customers spend less money when transacting across some of its many services.
It is worth noting that the measures are in line with what the CBK and the government asked financial institutions at the start of the week, and all mobile carriers have already waived transaction fees for amounts under KES 1000 so far.
Equity’s measures go live today, and are categorized as follows:
For mobile banking transaction fees, the charges associated with the services have been waived until 30 June 2020. The following transactions are, therefore, free:
- All Equity to Equity Mobile bank transfers
- All Bank to Mobile Wallet transfers
- All Mobile Wallet to Bank transfers
- Customer Payments using Equity Cards
- Mobile payments for Bills, Utilities, Shopping, Fuel, etc.
- Mobile balance and limit enquiries
Secondly, short term personal and micro-loans will be processed through digital means on mobile and internet and credit cards. The lender says that now, credit card limits for the loans will be pre-marked for easy and automatic access for existing account holders by March 31.
Based on the directive given by the CBK, existing loan facilities will be flexible where customers are advised to engage with the lender via its many channels.
The bank has also activated digital account opening and management on its digital channels.
Furthermore, all Equity Debit and Prepaid cards, as well as Equity POSs are now contactless – meaning that customers will tap and go instead of manually handling the devices.
Lastly, the bank says that all services can now be accessed 24 hours a day, including Equity Mastercard, VISA and AMEX Cards, EazzyFx for forex trading, EazzyNet for individuals web-banking, Eazzychama for Groups and Chamas web-banking, Eazzybiz for SME and Corporate web-banking.
