First National Bank on Tuesday unveiled a R100-million technology investment programme to expand its ATM network infrastructure across the country during 2006.
As part of the programme, the bank is launching a new in-store FNB retail ATM machine targeting small to medium retailers. A total of 500 new machines will be installed throughout South Africa by August this year.
The bank said their investment would enable FNB to convert its ATM network, currently operating on the traditional OS/2 platform, to a Java/Windows-based platform — a first in South Africa.
FNB said the new ATM machines would be able to identify the customer by his or her name. It said their customers would be able to make the fastest ATM cash withdrawals in South Africa within 20 seconds. This represents an improved performance of six seconds, and FNB said it should reduce customer queues at their ATMs.
The deployment of the first new ATM machine commences at Montague Gardens in Cape Town on Tuesday, with the machine expected to go live on Wednesday. This follows a successful pilot at Scala Supermarket in Johannesburg and at Elsberg Spar in Germiston on the East Rand earlier this year.
“By targeting small-to-medium retailers, sharing risk and reward, we have devised a low-cost model which is profitable at low-level volumes,” said ATM CEO Mike Arnold.
“Retailers benefit from increased footfall and turnover, and an additional revenue stream from commission payments. FNB’s collaboration efforts increase with targeted sales to the FNB Commercial and FNB Corporate base.
“Alternatively, non-customers are targeted with ATM sales, resulting in additional business for FNB and increased customer access to our banking services,” says Arnold.
The deployment of the new ATMs will add to the existing 2 600 ATMs and 1 500 mini-ATMs FNB has nationwide.
FNB currently has a 28% share of Saswitch volume, and enjoys the best reach for ATM access for LSM 1-5, in terms of the Financial Sector Charter targets.
FNB introduced traffic fine payments via ATMs in 2004, offering real convenience for a grudge payment before the significant due-by date.
“At FNB, we did not wait for new technology to innovate. We worked with the old to test consumer reaction and began to introduce meaningful one-to-one communication with our customer base via the ATM. Now, with the new Java/Windows platform, execution will be far easier,” says Arnold. ‒ I-Net Bridge