Bank of Banks Initiative: MCB as a key partner for African banks

MCB’s “Bank of Banks” value proposition is a flagship initiative of the Group in support of its international expansion strategy, notably in Africa. This initiative consists of providing a palette of adapted solutions to financial institution counterparts, and aims at positioning the Group as a regional hub for handling trade finance, payments and cards operations outsourcing services, alongside offering business solutions to financial service providers in Africa and Asia.

So far, MCB has partnered with more than 200 financial institutions worldwide. In FY2019 alone, MCB partnered with and assisted some 91 financial institutions worldwide, including over 60 in Africa and spanning 24 countries, enabling clients to gain access to state-of-the-art services offered by various entities, and thus helping them to underpin capacity building and business growth initiatives, while accessing industry best practices.

The initiative also positions MCB as a key partner for institutions aiming to boost their business to new heights through collaboration. Over the years, an increasing number of African banks choose this unique framework to enhance their capacity, service quality and delivery, with the value-added benefits of improved customer satisfaction and reduced costs. With our unique and holistic offering which is cemented on an ‘open book’ approach, we deliver fundamentals to our partners who benefit from strategic advisory, knowledge sharing and state-of-the-art framework.

The “Bank of Banks” philosophy is at the heart of MCB’s annual Africa Forward Together (AFT) seminar, which regroups the Group’s C-suite clients and key regional institutional players to promote the sharing of successes and the development of collaboration opportunities through frank discussions around the issues we are challenged with. The latest AFT was held on 2nd-4th October 2019 under the theme of ‘’Beyond Numbers’’ which is in line with MCB’s strong belief in meaningful, sustainable and mutually beneficial partnership beyond traditional indicators of profitability and financial ratios. The topics covered included human resources, client’s segmentation, sustainability, payments innovation, regulatory framework and cloud computing, understanding risk beyond numbers and alternative financing solutions, among others. The seminar allowed over 35 banking executives present to better discuss issues related to day-to-day running of their businesses, within a relaxed and casual setting.

A better feeling of these friendly moments via the AFT Video

“When you say MCB is a Bank of Banks, it does really mean that, because they get to share with us their success stories and what they have actually practiced internally. We had a session where they would display how they retain talent and we’ve also seen how Mauritius is to be a hub for businesses”.

“The theme this year, Beyond Numbers, fits very well with what’s happening globally and within Africa. Normally, we, as bankers, always think about numbers but we do not think about the responsibility that we carry to give back to the communities. We’ve listened to both people talking about numbers but also importantly people talking about their responsibilities.”

Going forward, MCB intends to pursue the fostering of its network in the region, and continue its active partnering with regional counterparts to contribute actively to the development of banking and financial services, notably in Africa.