
Our most recent member in Africa, Chase Bank Kenya, ranks number 15 in the Kenyan market, but as Marianne Nyangi, Head of Chase Woman explains, the bank lives and breaths a segment based strategy, and is poised for significant growth.
GBA: Tell us a little about how you think about segments at Chase Kenya and how Chase Woman fits with your strategic approach.
Marianne Nyangi: Six years ago we decided to target the Asian community as a specific segment and that has really worked well for us. We’ve since sub-divided it into what we call the Tiger communities-Chinese, Korean and Japanese. We also segment Africans into East and West African and we have a European segment to cater to the Dutch, English and Italian communities living in Kenya. We have Chase IMAN, which focuses on Sharia compliant banking. During all of this work, we started noticing that women had different situations and expectations than men and that got us thinking about the Women’s Market.
GBA: How do you embed this segment strategy in your culture?
Marianne Nyangi: We have strong Relationship Managers and strong Product Specialists so we can offer tailored specialized services by segment. We have a young motivated workforce, over 60% of whom are women. Last year we set up a Mentoring Club, where older women are mentoring the younger women coming into the bank, to support work/life balance, career development etc. We are showing the world that we are serious about women and that women are treated equally. We want to be known for being the Bank of Choice for women in Kenya.
GBA: How do you segment the Women’s Market?
Marianne Nyangi: We traditionally focused on High Net Worth women and now are making a big play for women entrepreneurs. We have sub-segmented this further to encompass women groups and young women. We want to reach women at all levels, so they can grow with us.
GBA: How do you categorize an SME as ‘women owned’?
Marianne Nyangi: The business has to be at least 51% owned or 20% managed by a woman or a woman has to be the key decision maker in the company. Our average woman business owner has 10+ employees and a monthly turnover of 500,000 Ksh (US$ 5,763).
GBA: In what ways do you verify that the business is really ‘women-owned’?
Marianne Nyangi: There are a couple of ways. First, at the point of account opening we ask some questions to verify the ownership and management of the business. Then we conduct a site visit to verify that she meets our criteria for women-owned. We didn’t always do the site visit, but started doing so when we realized that some customers were saying the business was women-owned when in fact it was not.
GBA: We know that many banks in East Africa demand property title in order to collateralize a business loan, and that many women do not hold title. How do you bypass this need?
Marianne Nyangi: We do various things. We look at the ‘nature’ of the business, understand how it works, look at her invoices and talk to her suppliers and customers. We look at her account behavior for a three- to six-month period of time. Importantly, we take unconventional collateral. We accept chattel mortgages of business assets; debentures on company assets as well as shares in the Nairobi stock exchange. For small microloans: 50,000 to 200,000 Ksh, (US$575 – US$2,300) women guarantee each other. We look at the guarantor’s identification and evaluate her on the strength of her bank account behavior.
GBA: So you go quite deep into the market, you offer microfinance?
Marianne Nyangi: Yes. One of our goals is to take a woman from being unbanked to being banked. So we offer microloans at preferential rates through a government provided fund (Women Enterprise Fund). It is very popular.
GBA: Beyond loans, what is your Value Proposition to women?
Marianne Nyangi: Chase Woman account holders have access to a wide range of services namely:
- Access to credit at a lower interest rate and flexible collateral requirements
- Access to advisory services from our panel of specialists
- Financial education seminars
- Access to the Chase Woman Resource Centre where women link up and share success stories, view our calendar of events and get tips from mentor entrepreneurs
- Access to a wide range of networking events where they connect with other women and establish business relationships
- Investment advice from our sister company Genghis Capital and Winton Offshore
-As told to the Global Banking Alliance for Women
Chase Bank Kenya
AT A GLANCE
(as of December 31st, 2013)
# Of employees: 907
# Of full service branches: 34
# Of ATMs: 32
# Of customers: 54,785
USD value of outstanding loan portfolio: US$460 M
USD value of deposits: US$600M
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