FIRST NATIONAL BANK

1. FNB banking app Ranked South Africa’s best banking app this year in the South African Customer Satisfaction Index Survey and in the Columinate Internet Banking SITEisfaction Survey, FNB’s app is being used on more than two million active devices. It boasts features such as “geopayments”, a location-based person-to-person payment system that enables you to find and pay other app users without having their banking details.

The app also enables cardless cash withdrawals, in the event of you misplacing or losing your bank card. You tell the app how much you want to draw and it generates a temporary one-time-only PIN that you use at an ATM.

Another feature is electronic gift vouchers, which you buy using the app and send to another app user, who can store the voucher on his or her app. To redeem a voucher, you present the voucher code to the cashier at the point of sale. 2. FNB smartphone To help enable customers to do their banking anywhere, anytime, FNB offers branded smartphones for as little as R59 a month – with some free airtime and data included.

The entry-level phone, which costs R59 a month for 24 months, is called a ConeXis A1 and is aimed at the price-sensitive Easy bank account-holder. A more high-spec phone, the ConeXis X1, is aimed at customers on upmarket accounts, such as Premier and Private Client, and costs R150 a month (for 24 months) and includes 25 minutes’ airtime and 100MB of data.

The bank offers rebates of up to 100 percent on the X1 instalments, depending on the customer’s eBucks Rewards level.

FNB’s app is preloaded on both phones, and your data costs are zero-rated when using the app and when banking online. 3. FNB Connect FNB Connect is the bank’s mobile offering. Although not a fully-fledged mobile network operator (it uses Cell C’s network), Connect sells contract and pre-paid packages and the cheapest data, according to the bank. Launched in June last year, Connect has more than 400 000 active subscribers.

Connect subscribers can monitor their mobile spend via their banking app, online banking profile and cellphone banking, and subscribers using FNB’s app can make free internet-based calls to other app users and to FNB’s call centre. 4. FNB Life (funeral cover) FNB customers can buy funeral cover from FNB Life at an ATM, via cellphone banking or online. In a bid to broaden access to funeral cover, which many people regard as a must-have, the bank has made its product available on multiple digital platforms. In doing so, FNB scooped a global award at this year’s Efma and Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards.

In addition to simplifying take up, FNB Life has also simplified the claims process by directly verifying claims through the National Population Registry. This means claimants are no longer required to submit a death certificate, only the notification-of-death form. 5. Branch network The bank says its branch network is cool, because 139 branches have wi-fi capability.

FNB has also recently introduced a new mobile banking unit designed to extend banking services to customers in rural communities. The mobile bank is a modified shipping container equipped with an ATM and teller services. Global One account, which meets the needs of most South Africans, instead of different types of accounts all with different fees and terms attached. “We have also taken away all paperwork in the branches, which means you can open an account or get a loan in minutes and have the account or credit available immediately.” 3. Transparency “We honestly believe in doing what is in the best interests of our clients. For that reason everything we do is designed to be transparent so that our clients always know what they get, and know what they pay.” 4. Sunday banking “We pioneered Sunday trading and currently have 270 branches that are open seven days a week. If you can do your grocery shopping on a Sunday, then why not your banking?” 5. Biometric security Capitec Bank pioneered biometric security in the form of fingerprint verification and photographic identification for bank transacting, and is the only bank in South Africa that has all its customers’ fingerprint details captured in its database.