What you need to know about the new direct marketing guidance note
Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
FNB Cellphone Banking hits record 2, 5-million
Cellphone banking is said to proving to be a winning formula for First National Bank. Cellphone Banking from the bank has reached the milestone of 2, 5 million registered customers, just six months after hitting the 2-million mark - said to be making it the first bank to record this number of cellphone banking customers.
Michael Jordaan, CEO of FNB, said: "The customer response to Cellphone Banking has been overwhelming. When we launched it in 2005 we did so with our customers in mind - we wanted to change the way they saw and experienced banking. We wanted them to have access to banking that was quick, easy, affordable and convenient - and this accomplishment is confirmation of our goal to deliver a modern solution of doing banking in a cost-effective way."
On 14 September 2010, FirstRand reported that the success of their financial results was partly due to cellphone banking. FNB's service doubled its cellphone banking customers during the 2009/2010 financial year and less than six months later it is claimed to have accomplished a 25% growth rate - pushing up its numbers to 2, 5 million customers.
"It has enabled us to provide our customers with a convenient, safe and simple channel to do banking," says Ravesh Ramlakan, CEO of FNB Cellphone Banking Solutions.
The service aims to enable customers to perform a range of transactions such as (but not limited to) making payments, doing transfers, making balance enquiries, buying prepaid and sending money. Prepaid is apparently a favourite with our customers with more than 67% cellphone banking transactions being for prepaid. It is also claimed that the system's simplicity has resulted in a diverse portfolio of customers using it, with customers from both urban and rural areas and over 65% of them earning less than R100 000 per annum, and falling within the 19-40 age group.
