Proto’s AI Customer Experience (AICX) solution for consumer protection has been deployed across 30 financial institutions in partnership with the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL). The consumer protection solution will help consumers to instantly file complaints against their financial service providers for misconduct and poor service.
The central bank partnered with Proto, a leading provider of inclusive CX automation, to deploy its AI Customer Experience (AICX) solution nationwide to help consumers seek recourse against their financial service providers.
The technology will be key in addressing the poor service that consumers can face with financial service providers, especially as the sector continues to grow with many new service providers that have short track-records and under-developed consumer engagement practices. This deployment also comes at a time when the CBL is driving a major increase in financial inclusion from 18.8% in 2011 to 50% in 2024, expecting more first-time financial consumers in need of protection than ever before.
After complaints are lodged with the CBL chatbot, the concerned banks or insurance companies have five days to respond to the consumer, while the CBL monitors the progress and quality of the response. The technology helps guarantee consumer protection and is under deployment with additional African financial regulators in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, and Zambia, following its original deployment with the Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP). The BSP chatbot has notably handled a 4x usage surge in complaints during the pandemic, and the data generated by the chatbot was also used to support strengthened consumer protection legislation.
CBL Director of Supervision and Regulations Fonsia Mohammed Donzo said: “Access to financial consumer protection in the country is limited largely due to consumer engagement primarily occurring via email, in-person contact and manual complaint channels that rely upon consumers’ ability to fluently speak or write in English. The Proto AICX solution will enhance the Central Bank of Liberia’s financial inclusion drive and further boost consumer confidence in the financial sector."
Proto CEO Curtis Matlock said: “This chatbot is available via highly-accessible channels, which are essential for including ordinary consumers. In addition to the immediate benefit of improved consumer recourse, this solution has the wider potential to increase overall trust in the fairness of Liberia's growing financial sector.”
With this deployment, financial consumers in Liberia – especially those from historically marginalised groups – now have improved access to financial consumer recourse, and the Central Bank of Liberia has set a new standard for conversational banking service delivery in Africa.
About Central Bank of Liberia
The Central Bank of Liberia maintains price stability and ensures a sound banking and financial system, thereby contributing to the sustainable economic development of Liberia. The central bank commits itself to providing effective support functions through a sound banking and financial control system, appropriate information systems, and the development of competent and qualified staff.
About Proto
Proto is the leading provider of inclusive AI Customer Experience (AICX) solutions for multilingual contact centres in emerging markets, with a vertically integrated support automation product suite and proprietary natural language processing (NLP) engine for under-resourced languages. Proto's deep-learning technology and regulatory partnerships maximise consumer experience, protection, and lifetime value.
