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FNB extends cross-border payment options

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 22 Sept 2014
FNB customers can now send money to Zimbabwe and Mozambique via the banking app.
FNB customers can now send money to Zimbabwe and Mozambique via the banking app.

The latest version of First National Bank's (FNB's) banking app for smartphones offers customers the ability to send money across the border, from SA to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

FNB says, since the launch of its transactional app three years ago, it has seen rapid uptake in users and transactions. "The introduction of a cross-border money transfer service is an important next step."

FNB launched a money transfer service for South Africans to send money to Zimbabwe via cellphone banking in April last year, with the capability to send money to Zimbabwe through online banking following in November. The Mozambique money transfer on both of these platforms was launched in June.

Giuseppe Virgillito, head of FNB Banking App, Mobile and Connect, says the money transfer service is an important addition to the banking app as there is a growing need for ease of payments between countries. "And, with an increase in affordable smartphones, more customers will be using app banking."

To use the money transfer service, smartphone users need to either download the FNB banking app or upgrade their current version of the app from the appropriate app store, depending on the operating system of their phone.

"For customers who do not have a smartphone, the service continues to be available via cellphone and online banking," says FNB.

Recipients do not need to be preregistered, but need to hold an identity document of the country where they are receiving the funds. Money can be collected at selected OK stores throughout Zimbabwe or at one of the 15 FNB branches in Mozambique.

Leonora van der Plas, head of cross-border remittances at FNB, says the bank will continually enhance the cross-border remittance service functionality on the FNB banking app.

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