First Ukrainian International Bank launches banking via messenger apps
FUIB now on Viber and Telegram
First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB), a top ten bank in Ukraine, is now providing banking services via popular messenger apps Viber and Telegram. The service will also be extended to Facebook Messenger before the end of the year.
The technology that underpins the service is developed by Corezoid, a US-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider to banks. Corezoid has roots in Ukriane and has another customer there, PrivatBank.
Viber was the first platform to go live, and FUIB says that in the three months since its launch, it had 85,000 loan related requests; 19,000 requests regarding credit cards; and 8,000 requests for currency exchange rates. Mobile phone top-ups were done 1,500 times via Viber during the same period, and 1,200 applications for a loan or credit card were issued.
According to FUIB’s data, 45% of Ukrainians use smartphones, of which half are active on various messenger platforms. The most popular one in Ukraine is Viber (85%), followed by Facebook Messenger (44%), Skype (32%), WhatsApp (20%) and Telegram (11%).
