FNBB diversifies revenues as low interest rates bite

To this end, the bank stated in its financial results for the year ended June 30, 2016 that stimulation of transactional volumes has been a key priority with significant growth being recorded.

According to the FNBB chief executive officer, Steven Bogatsu, FNB Connect, a mobile service, registered a 94% growth, with online banking recording 15%, and mobile banking at 16%. Other new offerings such as Hyphen technology have also gained momentum.  “Growth in the branch network volumes showed lower growth levels of only one percent, reflecting success in the bank’s strategy to encourage customers to make more use of the electronic products in favour of visiting branches, so as to pass on real savings to the customers in terms of bank charges,” said Bogatsu. He revealed that the bank grew its customer base by 5.8% in customer numbers and 8.1% growth in account numbers, together with improved cross selling of a wider product range. He added that despite the effective continuation of a moratorium on increases to bank charges, the non-interest income has increased by seven percent, due entirely to increasing the volume of transactions and the range of products on offer.