Standard Chartered Digital Banking App & Keyboard Review; Best Banking App In The Country

Standard Chartered Bank did something no other local bank has done before. They released a fully digital banking application that takes a lot of functions outside of the physical bank branch and crams them into a device you can fit into your pocket. Pretty impressive.

When we initially wrote about the application, we couldn’t show you screenshots because we didn’t have a test account but we found a way and thought better late than never:

Some of the new functions you can carry out in this app that you had to go to the branch for include:

Remotely block your debit card from your phone (if it’s stolen for instance)
adding/removing a signatory to your account
opening an additional account
both local and international funds transfer
changing the pin for your bank card

The application also comes with a keyboard extension that allows you to perform a number of transactions from the keyboard. What’s the benefit? Well, it’s more convenient. Let’s say you want to pay a ZESA bill and someone sends you the meter number in WhatsApp. Instead of copying and leaving the app you can just tap it in from the same chat using the keyboard and that’s pretty damn convenient…

One thing I did find irritating with the new app was security. It’s a bit overbearing. I understand the necessity since it’s an app that links to your bank account but I still found myself annoyed by how many times you have to login again because you’ve been out of the application for 5 minutes. A big deal? No. A minor irritant for me? Yes.

Overall the Standard Chartered Banking application is so far ahead of other banking apps it’s embarrassing. A night and day difference. Hopefully, that motivates other banks to catch up and redesign their apps so that some of us who don’t bank with Standard Chartered can enjoy the same comfort.