First National Bank (FNB) says its launch of a new technology system will not see customers on cellphone banking being dumped.<\/p>\n
The bank this month has announced that its new banking API (application program interface) will drive its interface across multiple devices as South Africans increasingly adopt smartphones.<\/p>\n
However, those on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) or cellphone banking will not be left behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cUSSD is still one of our largest platforms and most of our users actually use USSD. However, what we also realised is that in the market at the moment, if we look at current sales trends of devices, it\u2019s only smartphones that are really being sold,\u201d Sahil Mungar, head of Marketing for Digital Banking at FNB, told Fin24.<\/p>\n
The new banking application platform is expected to allow FNB to deliver content as well as a similar look and feel across banking and web platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may have noticed a change in our look and feel, but it\u2019s not just about look and feel. What we\u2019ve really created is a platform that gives us access to features and that we would like to believe are future proof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evolution<\/strong><\/p>\n FNB currently has around 1.5 million customers on its banking application versus more than 2 million on USSD.<\/p>\n But smartphones running the banking application offer significant advantages over the text-based USSD system, explained FNB.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the smart devices we\u2019ve got contextual, geo-awareness, bigger screen, UI [user interface] \u2013 we can have longer transaction flows. So from that perspective, USSD development continues from now until there\u2019s one customer left, but what we also know is everyone\u2019s next device is a smartphone, or a smart-enabled device,\u201d Mungar said.<\/p>\n While FNB’s new banking API is designed to focus on graphic-enabled content, Mungar said that the bank will evolve the text-based interface to match the smart device application.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you\u2019ll find is USSD will go through slight iterations \u2013 not to create customer angst \u2013 but bits and pieces will also align with wording; in terms of placement. From that perspective, we\u2019re really focused on where the market\u2019s going.\u201d<\/p>\n According to research firm Gartner, worldwide smartphone sales growth was slower at 9.7% in 2015. Huawei increased its sales by 53% thanks to demand for lower-cost handsets, according to Gartner.<\/p>\n Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n The system that will stop illegal debit orders in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on banking<\/h3>\n