FNB Ropes In Orange For Cellphone Banking

| Monday May 28, 2007 00:00

 

The move follows months after the bank's mobile phone banking were enjoyed exclusively by subscribers of Orange rival, Mascom.

This now means that Orange customers are able to register for FNBB cellphone banking if they hold a qualifying FNBB account, explained Oratile Moremong, senior communications officer at the bank.

Orange subscribers are now able to buy prepaid airtime for themselves or anyone else, as well as provide customers with greater access to banking anywhere, anytime, on either network.

Registered FNB Cellphone Banking customers on the Orange and Mascom networks are also able to buy airtime from either network for anyone else directly from their cellphone.  

In a statement, Danny Zandamela, the FNBB chief executive officer, says his company has enjoyed rapid and extensive adoption of the service, with 13 556 transactions to the value of P5.13 million passing through its systems since November 2006 when the new banking channel was launched:  'This far exceeds the target expected in December, while demand for prepaid top-up has demonstrated the reliance of our customers on this channel for their airtime needs. However, the key drivers for FNB Cellphone Banking adoption will be customer registration and transactions.'

 Zandamela added that at present, FNBB facilitates the registration of cellphone banking through its FNBB branches only, but it is expecting to add other channels in the near future, such as ATMs and the Internet.    With the cellphone becoming an integral part of the modern lifestyle, the chief executive officer says FNBB will continue to work closely with network service operators like Orange and Mascom to make FNBB cellphone banking even more accessible, easy to use, secure and affordable.

'FNBB will focus on getting the Cellphone Banking mindset right by addressing customer concerns around ease of use, affordability, access to service and security. Through this exercise, FNBB will turn improved market awareness of Cellphone Banking into customer behaviour that embraces Cellphone Banking as a convenient banking channel,' said Zandamela. He said that all transactional account holders and all cellphone users intend cellphone banking for use.

'With cellphones becoming a commodity accessible to most of the population, Cellphone Banking is the obvious step in making banking accessible to more people than ever before,' he noted, pointing out that FNBB has several initiatives underway to extend services to the under- and un-banked.