FNB introduces Pay2Cell solution

The bank, the third largest by number of customers, said its Pay2Cell solution allowed account holders to make payments to other FNB account holders using only the recipient's cellphone number.

This is the first time such a solution is launched in SA.

FNB has about 7-million customers, of which 3-million are cellphone banking customers.

The bank's market share in cellphone banking ties it almost neck and neck with Absa, SA's largest retail bank by number of customers.

The country's big four banks are engaged in a frenetic race to launch innovative payment and banking solutions using technology such as mobile cellular telephony.

The banks believe SA's mobile penetration rates - the highest in Africa - offered a fertile ground to innovate to reach the rural unbanked, where it is risky and unprofitable to build branches.

The CEO of FNB Cellphone Banking Solutions, Ravesh Ramlakan, said the launch of the solution was motivated by the bank's aim to continue innovating using technology.

FNB had used focus groups to ask customers their views about how to make payment to beneficiaries easier.

During the discussions, it emerged customers were concerned with the "cumbersome" process of entering bank accounts of beneficiaries.

That was when FNB realised that a cellphone number could replace a bank account number because it was easy to remember, he said.

"A lot of customers, whether in the middle to upper segment, do not know their account numbers by heart," Ramlakan said.

"It is even worse in the lower end. But everyone can remember a cellphone number and we therefore thought of using this as a proxy for an account number."

"Our customers no longer need to divulge their account details in order to receive a payment; all they need to do is provide their cellphone number," he said.

For now the solution was restricted to FNB customers because the bank wanted to ensure that it worked before extending it to other banks, Ramlakan said.

The other reason was that rival banks would have to be convinced that they also stood to benefit from such a solution.

"When negotiating with business partners, which can include other banks, it is always difficult but if does work successfully on our side as we know it will, it make probably make it easier during negotiations," he said.

Source: Business Day