Absa, South Africa’s largest retail bank, has launched a new product that will rapidly expand access to a range of banking services that have traditionally only been available to the affluent. FlexiSelect, a new concept in banking, promises to usher millions of South Africans into the financial mainstream.
“FlexiSelect is a unique product that now gives people earning as little as R2 000 per month access to a range of banking facilities, including investment and savings products, overdrafts, small loans, housing loans, vehicle finance, credit cards, wills and a range of insurance products,” says Sonja van Vliet, Absa general manager: flexi banking services.
Research has identified a significant number of South Africans who need and want products and services that are not offered to lower-income earners at present.
“All people have their own aspirations but in the past the low-income market was treated as one homogeneous mass. FlexiSelect is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ offering. It is a totally new and unique concept. It’s all about choice and flexibility.”
FlexiSelect is a bundled cluster of financial products and services, the foundation of which is a transmission account that allows a full range of transactions through automated teller machines, points of sale, branches, cellphones, the internet or telephones.
Customers can then choose from a range of investment, credit, insurance and other products and services that will be linked to their core FlexiSelect account. All of these products and services are specifically designed to meet the special needs of this income segment.
FlexiSelect clients are automatically eligible for a number of additional free services, including emergency medical evacuation, access to emergency medical advice by telephone, health counselling, legal assistance helpline and funeral support and assistance.
The result is a comprehensive offering that can meet the full spectrum of financial needs in one package.
“On the basis of a comprehensive needs analysis conducted in the branch, every account is specifically tailored to the individual customer’s needs,” says Daphne Motsepe, Absa managing executive: mass market. “FlexiSelect customers can structure their own fees and choose only the services and products that they specifically need.”
“FlexiSelect falls squarely in line with the requirements of the Financial Sector Charter that calls on banks to become more accessible and viable to the mass market,” adds Motsepe. “But we believe it goes much further than that. It will improve the lives of many people who in the past never even got bank statements.”