FNB app attracts 30,000 devices

Financial services group First National Bank (FNB) said on Wednesday that its banking application (App) has generated R160 million worth of transaction volumes having attracted 30,000 paired devices since its launch two months ago.

The app, which was designed and built in house by FNB, launched covering three out of the top four global mobile operating systems, namely iOS (Apple); Research In Motion (BlackBerry) and Android (Samsung, HTC Motorola to name a few) respectively.

The app averaged more than 500 downloads per day, and continued to rise subsequent to the recent launch of new Blackberry handset models.

Farren Roper head of products and markets at FNB Connect said: “The number of downloads since launch has exceeded our expectations. We would like to think that this has been fuelled mostly by positive customer word of mouth. We have had more than R160 million worth of transaction volumes already sent through the FNB App with close to 90,000 financial transactions processed to date. So our customers are not just downloading the App, they are using it.”

The FNB App was most popular on the iOS (Apple) platform with 58% of paired users being iPhone users. This was followed by BlackBerry at 25% and Android at 16%. The top Android users were Samsung at 44% followed by HTC at 27%. Of BlackBerry users, the most popular handsets to date were the 8520 and 9800 models, FNB said.

“We believe that the current download and usage statistics are sustainable and expect growth over time, with increased smartphone and tablet penetration, additional device models being covered and more functionality being included in the FNB App,” Roper added.

Blackberry users did not incur a data charge when using the FNB App, due to an agreement between FNB and BlackBerry manufacturer, Research In Motion where the data consumption used by the FNB App was included in the Blackberry Internet Subscription. FNB indicated that this would likely also result in increased uptake amongst BlackBerry users in the months to come.

“The results are by no means indicative of handset models, but most likely a factor of having launched initially on touchscreen devices only. When you consider that we are gradually covering more devices, as well as the remaining operating system in the top four- Nokia Symbian, this is really a very solid download rate. With smartphone penetration increasingly on the rise, the FNB App is also well positioned to continue to give value to a growing pool of FNB customers, well into the future,” Roper concluded.

FNB was also expected to make an announcement relating to Nokia Symbian in the forthcoming weeks. - I-Net Bridge