Andrew Anastasiou Tells Us What Is Expected With Online Banking Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has shocked the world and forced an extensive amount of businesses to close their doors. In India alone, it is estimated that 30% of all businesses which were closed due to the pandemic may never open their doors again and resume operations. Even enterprises that had the ability to switch from physical premises to online shopping have been hit due to the speed that the outbreak spread and the inconvenience it caused.

One sector that has come to the surface during the pandemic however, is online banking and digital banks. Digital Banks or Neo-Banks are institutions that have no physical stores or branches where customers can freely enter to do their daily banking. These new financial institutions are 100% online and can only be used digitally. Of course, they all have their offices where employees are present, and in some cases customers can visit the premises to open accounts, but in general everything is done online including verification and account opening.

Andrew Anastasiou, the Cyprus based entrepreneur who is currently bringing digital payments to over 500 million people in Latin America and Africa, explained to us the benefits of using digital Banks now that health and safety have become of paramount importance after the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of Andrew Anastasiou’s companies is called WireWallet, an online banking platform that provides virtual IBANs to businesses and individuals in order to perform online wire transfers, currency exchanges, and direct debits. WireWallet is classified as “digital banking”, as there are no physical branches, and everything necessary to make a transaction is done online. Andrew Anastasiou justified the position of digital Banks against traditional Banks by stating that there is really no need for an individual to visit a Bank nowadays to make a transaction or to even open an account, due to the vast amount of verification technology available to verify someone’s identification and to combat identity fraud.

After Covid-19, Andrew Anastasiou put a strong emphasis on the responsibility of the banking sector to ensure that no daily banking tasks that can be done digitally should be done physically. Things like sending money to family abroad can be done fully online, as well as paying utility bills and rents. Daily transactions being done physically by visiting a Bank should become a thing of the past and the Finance Sector needs to take into consideration their duty to ensure the safety of their customers.

Many are in agreement with Andrew Anastasiou, and the vast majority of Financial Institutions have started the process of re-evaluating their procedures to ensure that anything that can be done online is being done and that the need for physical visits to Banks are limited to cash deposits and cheque cashing.