Kuveyt Turk invests in Tensator’s fine gold concept

An investor in the future

Türkish bank Kuveyt Türk is a specialist in interest-free banking systems. It offers services for both individuals and businesses, together with strong and stable investment advice and management.

The bank turns the savings of its profit-sharing clients into reliable and profitable sector-specific investments. This creates new areas of employment, making significant contributions to the national economy. These sectors include textile, metal and real estate.

Kuveyt Türk has been awarded gold, silver and bronze medals by various public institutions and professional associations, such as the Türkish Undersecretariat of Treasury and Foreign Trade, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and Istanbul Ready-Made Clothing Exporters’ Association, due to its many achievements.

The bank allows customers to buy gold, which often requires a lengthy and formal transaction that can be off-putting to many clients. This results in many people investing instead in transformed gold, which carries a higher price and lower return on investment. To combat this, it turned to queuing systems in banks and customer journey specialist the Tensator Group, for a solution that would enable it to offer gold via a secure self-service system.

New technology for a timeless currency

Tensator worked jointly with Kuveyt Türk to develop the Fine Gold concept – a self-service machine that gives customers the opportunity to buy gold in a practical and autonomous way, in privacy.

The machines are designed to attract a new market of those who prefer the convenience and simplicity of making their investment in this way, without the time-consuming formal processes that use up staff resources.

The Fine Gold units are based on Tensator’s Multi-Service Machine, and are developed as a bespoke offering for Kuveyt Türk. Within the specially branded black and gold display unit, it features a 17” touchscreen interface and a unique “boutique” area to display the gold bars on offer.

Tensator also incorporated extra security systems into the machine. These include a strong steel construction, anti-vandal equipment and a range of movement, temperature and fire alarms. It also includes surveillance cameras on both the interior and exterior.

Visitors to Kuveyt Türk branches wishing to buy gold are now able to go to a dedicated area, where they can use the machine in private. They then choose what size of gold bar they need, from 1g to 25g, and how many. Secure payment is then available from card or cash, via the slots and chip and pin console. The whole process is complete within a few minutes, without the need to dedicate staff for long periods of time, and allowing more customers to use the service within the same timeframe.

The original trial of the project included five Fine Gold machines, each installed in a separate branch.

Kuveyt Türk found an immediate increase in the use of its gold investment service with the trial machines, thanks to their ease and speed of use. Having the gold on display also attracts people to make easy impulse purchases.

The bank also found that its employees were able to spend significantly more time helping customers with their enquiries, with more service assistants available at any one time. This has boosted the speed of all services in those branches.

Alan McPherson, CEO of the Tensator Group, believes that other forms of banking may benefit from the technology:

“The Fine Gold solution for Kuveyt Türk is a unique and highly effective response to the current changes in demand for investment products. As the world’s financial climate has changed, people are looking to different methods of investing their money. Historically, the banking sector has often been slow to respond to this. However, Tensator’s solution is an example of how new technology and ideas can help the financial sector to adapt quickly to consumer habits.”

By the end of the project, Tensator will have installed over 55 units.

Tensator will continue to supply Kuveyt Türk with Fine Gold units, technical support and updates, to allow the bank to roll out the concept to its whole branch network in the Middle East.