First National Bank reinforced its commitment to support government`s drive to make banking equally accessible to all South Africans today with its announcement of a new service that would close the geographical gap between it and its public.
FNB announced its intention to use new mobile technology to bring financial services to the mass market. The new service, 321Contact, will role out in a phased approach. The first phase focuses on facilitating the purchase of prepaid airtime through the creation of a real-time link between a customer`s cellphone and the bank`s systems. This then enables customers to view their FNB account balance, verify funds available and top up their prepaid airtime accordingly, all via cellphone. This cellphone initiative follows the inContact service that has already proven highly successful.
According to Themba Vundla, Strategic Delivery at FNB, cellphone technology is an ideal way to boost accessibility to banks.
"In order to overcome one of the greatest barriers to customers - inaccessibility of branches and therefore of banking services - FNB has opted to take its services directly to the public in their own home via cellular telephony. Through the service the bank will become more accessible to 14 million cellphone users situated throughout SA, approximately a million of which are FNB customers."
FNB has said that one of the main reasons for offering prepaid airtime top-up functionality through 321Contact first, rather than financial services, was to allow the market to first become accustomed to this technology.
Vundla said: "We felt it important that the market gain trust and confidence in this service, through a feature that they are familiar with - prepaid airtime. Following this, more advanced functionality will be added."
With 321Contact, no new SIM card is necessary and any cellphone can be used. This service is an extremely convenient way for FNB customers to keep in touch with their finances, enabling them to manage and effectively budget their airtime expenditure, with anytime, anywhere convenience.
Cellphone banking has in the past experienced slow uptake due to the limited number of people who had access to WIG and WAP functionality - customers who were in the upper (and overserviced) end of the market.
Vundla says: "321Contact is aimed specifically at a segment of the market that is often ignored. We expect that with the range of benefits 321Contact offers, as well as the simplicity of the service, the adoption rate will grow quickly in a relatively short space of time. This gives FNB a stepping stone for the offering of additional customised financial services to a market who will benefit from this type of cellphone access."
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