{"id":550698,"date":"2006-11-01T06:41:24","date_gmt":"2006-11-01T06:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/550698-cellphone-banking-takes-off.html"},"modified":"2006-11-01T06:41:24","modified_gmt":"2006-11-01T06:41:24","slug":"cellphone-banking-takes-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/550698-cellphone-banking-takes-off.html","title":{"rendered":"Cellphone banking takes off"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cellphone, once used only to make calls, has evolved into a multi-purpose device which First National Bank (FNB) is using to provide prepaid electricity, telephone and cellular phone services to people in even the remotest of areas. This follows on the bank’s success with selling prepaid airtime at the ATMs.<\/font> <\/p>\n

This saves them time and money in transport costs as they have to travel long distances to buy electricity, cellphone and Telkom airtime vouchers.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Not so long ago, it was unimaginable that you could top up your prepaid electricity on your cellphone or in the comfort of your home without having to go to the shop or stand in a queue at your municipal offices.<\/font> <\/p>\n

FNB says it has recognised the huge uptake of cellphones in South Africa, estimated at about 30 million users, and invested heavily over the past two years towards a technology that enables people to transact using any cellphone device on any mobile network.<\/font> <\/p>\n

This investment has seen the bank increasing its banking footprint in the mainstream market, which makes up almost 60 percent of FNB cellphone banking users. Only cellphone airtime was available on the prepaid services menu when the bank launched cellphone banking in March 2005, in addition to normal banking transactions like transfers, balance enquiries and payments.<\/font> <\/p>\n

And for Len Pienaar, CEO of FNB Mobile and Transact Solutions, this is a significant achievement in the bank’s efforts to use innovation to increase the penetration of banking services in historically neglected areas in a cost-effective way. Prepaid electricity and Telkom airtime – introduced in April 2006 this year – is increasingly becoming a key cellphone banking volume transaction driver.<\/font> <\/p>\n

FNB data shows that more than 50 percent of daily cellphone banking transactions are for the various prepaid purchases, with Western Cape’s widespread use of prepaid electricity now making a noticeable contribution to transaction volume growth. FNB transaction volumes stand at about 700 000 prepaid purchases a month – and still growing fast. This is up from 400 000 in August last year.<\/font> <\/p>\n

More than R12-million worth of prepaid services were purchased on FNB’s Cellphone Banking channel in the month of August this year, a phenomenal growth of R7,2-million from R5-million during the same month in 2005. FNB’s total cellphone banking transaction volumes stood at 540 000 and transaction value of more than R80-million in August this year.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Pienaar says cellphone banking is set for continued growth in the mass market in 2007 as service providers focus on solutions which offer ease of use, low hardware requirements in terms of handsets and services which are affordable for the average South African.<\/font> <\/p>\n

He said FNB is specifically targeting the mainstream market with cellphone banking solutions building on the successes in terms of innovative and convenient banking services in this segment FNB has become known for. All it takes is a bank account and a cellular handset.<\/font> <\/p>\n

"We have taken a decision to face the challenges of rolling out to the main stream market, and indeed, to date we have seen that adoption has been phenomenal in this market as it is driven by need," says Pienaar, pointing out that the ‘wealth’ market has access to a host of other channels over and above cellphone banking.<\/font> <\/p>\n

"The continued focus on the mass market, and the fact that this is a solution which is proven to meet the needs of the mass market, will result in cellphone banking exceeding Internet banking in terms of the number of customers using the service. We’re doubling the number of transactions every six months, and expect to break the 100-million rand mark in terms of monthly transaction value in December," he concludes.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/a> <\/p>\n

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The widespread use of prepaid services by South African households has thrown up lucrative business opportunities for banks to bring previously unbanked people into the financial services loop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}