Going Digital the Right Way: The Top 3 Priorities for Banks in Growing Markets

From branches to bytes, the shift is underway. But how do banks in growing markets go digital with lasting impact?

Across Africa, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, banks are stepping up their digital transformation efforts. According to KPMG’s Future-proofing Banking report, banks are accelerating enterprise transformation to improve customer retention, operational efficiency, and resilience. The same study shows that investment in digital innovation continues to rise, even in tougher economic conditions.

Yet while investment is increasing, execution is what defines success. Legacy systems, fragmented tools, and fast-changing customer habits make it difficult to know where to focus.

Working with banks at every stage, from early adopters to institutions rebuilding entire digital ecosystems, has revealed a clear pattern: success comes not from adding more digital touchpoints, but from focusing on capabilities that create desired customer and business outcomes.

Here are the three priorities no bank in growing markets should compromise on.

Seamless, Secure Onboarding: The New First Impression

The first experience defines the entire banking relationship.

More than half of customers abandon digital onboarding if it takes longer than 14 minutes (PwC, 2024). The causes are well known – fragmented steps, manual verification, and slow approval times.

Getting onboarding right starts with connecting the fundamentals: identity, automation, and accessibility. This means: 

• Integrated ID verification: connect directly to national ID databases or approved registries where they exist. This single step removes much of the friction and risk in customer identification, providing a trusted, verifiable foundation.
• Smart automation and biometrics: use AI to read documents, match faces, and flag anomalies instantly. Automation speeds up approvals while keeping security high.
• Built-in compliance: embed eKYC and AML checks from the start so regulatory requirements are met without manual overhead.
• Simple, tiered access: allow “soft onboarding,” giving customers limited access immediately, then expanding as verification deepens. This helps reach new segments while staying compliant.

The priority isn’t adding more channels – it’s building a secure, intelligent, and compliant foundation that lets every new customer get started confidently. Once that’s achieved, broader omnichannel experiences can naturally follow.

Connected, Omnichannel Experiences: Getting the Balance Right

Having a mobile app doesn’t make a bank digital. Real transformation happens when all channels—mobile, internet, ATM, and agents—work together as one seamless ecosystem, journey-first across channels.

Digital is a way of working, not a destination.

Yet complexity can harm experience. The most successful banks don’t pursue app-first strategies or feature proliferation. Instead, they focus on outcomes over features, optimizing for time-to-value rather than time-to-ship. They recognize that data and controls are as important as UX—and that the best user experience is when the service completes itself.

A connected digital ecosystem enables banks to:

• Deliver seamless transitions between channels, powered by shared data and intelligent automation
• Stay flexible and open, integrating fintech partners and third-party services without disrupting core systems
• Scale efficiently, improving speed, performance, and consistency across all touchpoints

Our client, one of the largest banks in Egypt, provides a strong example of how a unified digital strategy can transform engagement and efficiency. By the end of 2024, the bank reported more than 1.7 million active users on its digital channels and a 60% year-over-year increase in digital transaction value. 

What made this transformation possible? A shift in mindset, from activity to outcomes. Rather than chasing vanity metrics like downloads or session time, the bank focused on what really drives value: time-to-value, straight-through processing rate, customer satisfaction, loss/error rates, cost to serve, and first-contact resolution. These metrics were not just tracked – they were reviewed regularly, with clear ownership and accountability.

By aligning teams around these outcome-based KPIs, the bank was able to reduce friction, accelerate product rollouts, and continuously improve customer experience across its digital channels.

Hybrid Reach: Digital Scale, Local Trust

In growing markets, access is still a defining challenge. Digital adoption is rising quickly, but physical presence — through branches and agents — remains critical for inclusion and trust.

According to the Global Findex 2023 report, mobile phones are now a major driver of account ownership. Yet many customers still rely on agents or cash-in/cash-out points to fully participate in financial services.

A true hybrid approach operates on two fronts:

Physical Extension Through Agent Banking: Agent banking bridges the access gap effectively. The International Finance Corporation notes that agents can cut transaction costs by up to 25% compared to full branches. They help banks reduce branch traffic, mobilize deposits through community access points, and allow customers to onboard digitally but transact locally.

Digital Infrastructure for Leapfrog Growth: But hybrid reach isn’t just about physical distribution—it’s about building the right digital foundations:

• Leapfrog adoption: Enabling wallets, QR payments, and instant payment rails that skip traditional banking infrastructure
• Real-time integration: Connecting tightly with Central Bank Instant Payment Networks to give customers real-time transactions and settlement
• Inclusive design: Building for low-end phones and patchy networks to ensure no customer is left behind
• Plug-and-play capabilities: Faster partner integration through open APIs and modular architecture
• Embedded finance: Leveraging real-time money movement to unlock new use cases – from merchant payments to micro-lending at the point of need.

The best digital strategies extend physical reach through technology while building infrastructure that enables rapid, inclusive innovation—strengthening local relationships while expanding access at scale.

Building Digital with Purpose

For banks in growing markets, digital transformation isn’t about speed — it’s about focus.

The priorities are clear:

1. Fast, secure onboarding that builds trust from the start
2. A connected, right-sized omnichannel experience that follows a customer journey – first approach  
3. Hybrid reach that combines digital convenience with local access.

Together, these capabilities create a foundation for sustainable digital growth — improving efficiency, deepening loyalty, and driving financial inclusion.

At CR2, we help banks build this foundation through unified digital banking, onboarding, and payment solutions designed for high growth market needs and conditions. Let’s chat.