Mobile News South Africa

One million FNB customers are always inContact

First National Bank (FNB) reached the one million milestone for their free inContact SMS service this week. The inContact service notifies registered FNB customers about any transactions taking place on their FNB cheque, credit card, investment or transactional accounts in real time via SMS or email.

"inContact provides FNB customers with peace of mind, knowing that their funds are secure," says Rowan Suchard, Product Manager for inContact at FNB. "We believe that inContact has become one of the main differentiators between the four major banks in SA, with only FNB offering a comprehensive real time alert service. With the constant spotlight on banking security, services like inContact are more relevant than ever.

"Since the service was introduced in August 2002 FNB has sent over 106 million SMS messages, now averaging nearly 10 million per month. FNB's busiest day is usually the first working day of each month, when debit orders are deducted. On 2 July this year, 1 148 332 messages were sent within 24 hours, more than 13 SMS's per second."

Suchard continues, "Our customers are more empowered than ever and can even tailor the service to meet their individual needs; for instance, notification of transactions over certain amounts can be stipulated, notification during office hours or 24 hours a day can be arranged and the customer can also select the accounts for which notifications are to be sent.

"We continue to see phenomenal growth, with an average of 60 000 new registrations per month in 2004. The inContact infrastructure is incredibly robust and efficient, and thus accommodates the massive volumes passing through the system daily."

inContact was recognised by the US-based World Council on Financial Competition as a key innovation in the banking world for 2003.



Editorial contact

Fleishman Hillard SA for FNB

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