FNB reinvents its commercial direction, its website, its application and its logo

• FNB has announced that going forward, its management will focus on advising its clients.
• The bank has unveiled a free fraud insurance product for all its customers.
• There are a host of new payment solutions from the bank aimed at making life easier for customers.

This morning, FNB clients were eagerly awaiting news from the bank regarding an announcement that has been teased for the past few weeks.

These announcements, yes there were several, were made at an event at FNB Bank City in Johannesburg this morning. The bank’s managing director, Jacques Celliers, took the stage to explain how the bank was on a journey of change and innovation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwXCoHTRRyk

“For 184 years, our sense of caring has been essential to our efforts to help millions of individuals, families and businesses achieve their dreams and aspirations,” Celliers said.

“Our transition efforts beyond banking are still deeply rooted in our promise to help customers with trusted advice, easy-to-use and secure solutions, and a relevant brand at every stage of life. Our journey to help customers navigate life is similar to the versatile acacia tree, which has been deeply rooted in our brand and continues to grow and thrive despite the test of time,” added the CEO.

Advice at the forefront

The management of the bank is very much focused on advising customers on their finances, family finances or business finances. Thus, FNB invests heavily in advising clients. The CEO of FNB’s Retail and Private Banking divisions, Raj Makanjee, said that over the next five years, FNB will invest to increase the number of its advisers to 5,000.

As such, much of FNB’s digital overhaul is focused on helping customers make smart financial decisions.

So what’s different?

First, the logo has been flattened and simplified in line with trends we’ve seen in the tech space. We’re not fans and we don’t know why that had to change, but we’re not designers.

The bank has also unified the look of its web portal and app. For a very long time, the app and the website felt very disparate. This rebranding exercise should help bring more parity to the two platforms.

Among other changes, customers now have better control over their home page when logging in. The bank is also introducing a new feature called Money Protect. This is free insurance that covers certain losses related to fraud that may occur through the FNB app or through its ATMs.

“We continue to facilitate our customers’ journey from analog to digital and from digital to platform. We’re thrilled to see millions of our customers migrating to more accessible, user-friendly, and secure interfaces. Our digital interfaces have become a one-stop-shop for customers’ financial and lifestyle needs, with over 3 billion transactions and 1.6 billion digital interactions in the last 12 months. Likewise, we recognize that fraud is a reality in our society, and we are continually improving our measures to help millions of our digitally active customers mitigate these risks,” Celliers said.

Other new additions include a variety of enhanced payment solutions, namely:

• Instant payments – A first-to-market instant payment solution that allows customers to digitally pay anyone through the FNB app using just a card number. The recipient receives the money instantly in their bank account, regardless of their banking institution.
• pay me – Allows customers to request payment digitally from any FNB Banked mobile phone number. The person requesting the money simply follows a few prompts, and the “payer” is immediately notified and simply has to accept the request to make an immediate payment.
• ChatPay – Allows customers to pay or request a payment from any FNB customer using the chat functionality of the FNB app without needing an account number. Customers can initiate a conversation using their contact list, and since the interaction takes place within the FNB platform, they can be sure it is secure.
• Bill payments – a fast and convenient way for customers to use the FNB app to pay their EasyPay or Pay@ bills, including municipal rates, medical and other services.
• virtual card – Customers can now use their global virtual cards for travel bookings such as purchasing flights or booking accommodation and adding the virtual card to third-party digital wallets such as Google Wallet or Apple Pay for convenient and safer payments when traveling abroad.
• Speedee App – Enables businesses to easily and securely receive contactless payments on their Android smart devices, without the need for a separate point-of-sale device.

A lot is happening behind the scenes at FNB and these changes would have taken years to prepare.

“Our journey on the platform continues. Whether our clients need help navigating through life, making their daily lives easier, or fulfilling their dreams of a better future, we are committed to helping them achieve their goals,” concluded Celliers.