“During
the past two years, we have reviewed banking sites across the world to
benchmark ourselves. We currently have over 1.5m online banking customers and
expect this to increase with the new and enhanced platform,” says Lee-Anne van
Zyl, FNB Online Banking CEO.
The
bank’s new website lies at the heart of FNB’s digital banking infrastructure
and the website offers a deeper source of financial information for customers
seeking a more detailed banking environment or quicker mobile transactions.
“We
have created the first truly scalable banking site on the continent, which is
not stripped-down for devices with smaller screens or simply compressed to fit.
The site automatically detects and adapts to the device being used,” adds van
Zyl.
“We
have rapidly evolved to a transaction and destination site where people are
looking for information, downloads and expect to find research capabilities. At
the same time, people expect the site to will perform equally well and to
provide a superior banking functionality on a variety of devices,” continues
van Zyl.
FNB
Online has received numerous accolades in the past years, including the most
popular banking website in Africa, according to a recent survey conducted by web
information company, Alexa. In addition, FNB Online currently dominates
with market share of 35%.
Asked
why FNB was changing its winning formula, van Zyl explained that the new site
was designed to be familiar to customers, but would offer a depth of
interaction that was not possible without a comprehensive re-engineering
project. Some of the enhancements include an improved user experience, being touch screen friendly, easy
buttons and menus, responsive design enabling scalability to multiple
devices with layered, seamless security.
“We
have set out to give FNB Online customers a user experience that builds on
everything they already love, is as close as possible to perfect for ease of
use and will offer a steadily evolving level of banking intelligence. We have
created a site that may appear to be minimalist, but, we have done this to
enable intuitive use and as customers engage, they will find an interactive
platform,” says van Zyl.
The
site was developed entirely by FNB Online developers working at the bank’s
eco-friendly office complex in Fairlands north of Johannesburg.
During
the coming months, FNB will be adding additional levels of functionality to the
site and will be further enhancing the customer experience. FNB has created a
banking platform that evolves in functional levels, rather than a simple
application of graphics that is so often seen on many websites.
“FNB’s
online banking vision is to shape the digital banking experience of customers
on the African continent and we believe this new website will provide our
customers with this in South Africa, other African countries we operate in as
well as India,” concludes van Zyl.
