ORANGE EYES BANK GROWTH AS SERVICE BOOSTS BRAND

INTERVIEW: Orange’s head of mobile financial services Paul de Leusse (pictured) pointed to a reduction in churn from customers in France which take both communications and financial services, as he outlined plans to expand its bank to Romania and West Africa.

Speaking to Mobile World Live for its latest Themed Week programme, de Leusse cited internal figures stating users taking both telecommunications and banking services showed 15 per cent higher satisfaction levels alongside lower churn.

Of its 1 million Orange Bank customers gained since launch in 2017, around 40 per cent use it as a current account as well as making mobile payments, 20 per cent have credit facilities (often for handset financing) with the remainder buying mobile handset insurance.

“As you see all the banking products we create are as close as possible to the telco,” he added, noting “one of the strongest synergies is in distribution”.

In addition to digital channels it also takes advantage of the scale of its existing retail footprint to aid the fledgling service.

Orange Bank launched in Spain during November 2019. Last month the operator unveiled plans to take it to markets in West Africa starting with the Ivory Coast, initially using a tie-in with its mobile money platform already operating in the region.

In terms of Europe, its next market looks to be Romania, where de Leusse flagged a potential launch later this year.