FNB introduced the no monthly fee transactional account to enable customers who did not transact regularly with a choice to suit their transactional behaviour.
The bank said that 50,000 Smart Account Zero accounts were being opened on a monthly basis.
FNB said that it had signed up 740,000 accounts since 2009.
"With only 23.5% of South Africans being formally employed with full time jobs and consistent incomes, it became apparent that there is a need to accommodate individuals who have different transactional needs and will not benefit from a traditional bank account with regular monthly fees."
"The Smart Account Zero has the full functionality of a transactional account, but with a fee structure tailor-made for this particular target market," said Pieter du Toit, CEO of FNB Smart Product House.
Amongst the 28% unemployed market in SA, 7.4 million spent their average day looking for work, while 1.5 million adults were engaged in activities such as craft making, looking after their households and livestock, doing piece jobs and working from home to generate income.
According to FNB, many millions of people were sustained through crafts and creativity. "The majority of crafters prefer an account without a monthly fee. The Smart Account Zero is therefore perfect for the huge number of South Africans supported by the informal job industry," it said.
Earlier this month, the bank said its EasyPlan branch network was now paying out more than R100 million a month in loans to low and middle income clients after just two years in operation.
"This time last year we were paying out just over R10 million in loans per month. FNB EasyPlan's growth confirms that a one size fits all approach is not relevant. Each and every market segment and sub segment thereof require tailor made solutions for growth and sustainability," said Line Wiid, CEO of FNB Smart Solutions.
The EasyPlan branches were a part of FNB Smart Solutions, a focused division in the bank responsible for servicing mainstream customers - customers who earned up to R100,000 per annum. "We opened our first EasyPlan branch eight months after we took a decision to grow our presence in the mainstream market," Wiid said.
"We had to overhaul our products on offer for EasyPlan, points of presence, pricing and processes. Importantly we needed to remove cash out of the branch, and today, two years later, we have 120 branches, paying out in excess of 100 million rand per month and signing up a significant percentage of our banking accounts," Wiid added.
Through EasyPlan, FNB was able to offer loans from as little as R250 - opening its doors to consumers who never previously qualified for formal credit.
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