(Kyle Venktess/Fin24)
First National Bank (FNB) came out tops as South Africa’s best digital bank with the best mobile banking and best internet banking, according to the latest annual SITEisfaction report by insights agency Columinate.
FNB narrowly beat Capticec for the top spot.
Launched in 2012, Columinate’s SITEisfaction survey is an annual measure of customer satisfaction with digital banking services in South Africa and rates each banking institution with a SITEisfaction score out of a possible 100. The report reveals the behaviours and experiences of the banks’ online customers.
The report found that FNB took top spot not so much because of customers’ rising satisfaction levels with the bank, as a decline in satisfaction levels among customers of Capitec.
“This declining three-year trend may cost Capitec its reputation as a disruptor and is likely due to Capitec’s customers ‘punishing’ the bank for the platform’s frequent unavailability,” states the report.
Capitec, however, still outperformed Nedbank, Standard Bank and Absa by a large margin.
“This is a critical lesson for new entrants such as Tyme, Bank Zero and Discovery to ensure they create a stable infrastructure, with little to no breaks in service or platform interruptions,” states the report.
“Customers’ satisfaction with their primary bank’s total banking experience has steadily and significantly been improving over the course of the last seven years.”
However, the SITEisfaction score for overall internet banking solutions has not enjoyed a similar improvement and continues to lag behind with a meagre 10-point rise from 54 in 2012 to 64 in 2018. — Fin24