Around 1.5 million South Africans are regular users of cellphone banking and the number is set to increase in coming months, says Absa digital channels managing executive Christo Very, who will next week address a conference in New York on the issue.
The conference is being organised by Forrester Research Partners, which, Vrey says, has been seeking to convince US banks mobile phone banking had no future. "They've asked me to tell why cellphone banking in SA is successful," adds Vrey.
Absa, he says, now has just over 500 000 clients using the cellphone channel and he expects this to climb to 800 000 by year-end, as about 30 000 new clients sign up every month.
Value traded is currently already more than R7 billion a year, comprising mostly of account payments and prepaid airtime top-ups. "This is real; it's not a 'foefie' [gimmick] any more," Vrey says.
He adds that, with 38 million cellular subscribers nationwide, "there is a great opportunity for the mobile channel to become the primary banking interface for many South Africans. People are generally becoming comfortable with the idea of using one's cellphone to do their banking; and they are realising the unprecedented convenience of the service."
The rapid adoption of SMS notification services for transactions and balance enquiries has helped familiarise people with the concept of cellphones as a financial services tool, boosting full-service cellphone banking registrations. He notes that about 10 million banking clients are using a "notify me" solution today.
Cellphone banking dates back to about 2001, but was "largely ignored" at first. The introduction of the "notify me" functionality in 2003, to alert clients of movements in their bank accounts, and the subsequent introduction of one-time passwords for Internet banking, in addition to the introduction of other value-added services, changed the landscape, Vrey explains.
Looking into the immediate future, Vrey envisions cellphone banking to converge with other mobile services - like music downloads, images and videos, virtual malls, event tickets, ringtones and chat rooms as the mobile phone evolves from a simple telephony device towards something of a "lifestyle complementer".
Related stories:
FNB extends cellphone offering
SA cellphone banking matures
Mobile commerce hits its stride
Share