Ongoing investment in its digital platform continues to yield results for big-four bank First National Bank (FNB).
The bank today announced interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2021, saying pre-tax profit increased 31%, with an improved return on equity of 39.7%.
FNB notes operational performance was bolstered by a macro-economic recovery, deposit growth and an improved credit performance, coupled with continued platform innovation.
According to the bank, digitally active customers increased to 6.21 million and logins totalled 804 million for the period.
It says a new record of 89.5 million logins on the app was recorded in the month of December 2021.
FNB increased its customer numbers by 3% to a combined total of 10.69 million, comprising 8.82 million customers in South Africa and 1.87 million customers in its ‘rest of Africa’ market.
It states eWallet users increased by 6% to 5.95 million.
Jacques Celliers, FNB CEO, says: “Our interim results demonstrate our ability to help and remain relevant to our retail and commercial customers in every economic context.
“Our investment in platform innovation puts us in a better position to assist customers across transactional activities, payments, investments, credit, insurance, telecommunications and value-added services such as rewards and lifestyle (nav»).
“As the country and our customers transition from the past two years of COVID-19 impacts, we expect more opportunities to deliver value to our customers through integrated financial services on our trusted digital platform.”
Retail, which services the needs of individual customers, recorded strong pre-tax profit growth of 38%, with good deposit and customer growth, reduced impairments and impressive product innovation, says FNB in a statement.
Commercial pre-tax profit increased by 19%, supported by a rebound in transactional activity, management of impairments and the acquisition of new customers.
The bank notes the rest of Africa delivered a 64% increase in pre-tax profit, with sustained customer growth and improved credit performance.
It adds that efforts to accelerate digital migration among customers in the rest of Africa continue to show progress, with digital penetration increasing to 32.8%.
The rest of Africa also expanded the footprint of its Cash Plus service, with an additional 492 outlets in the six months to December 2021.
FNB says it continues to scale its investment activities, as its wealth and investment management unit grew its customer base by 12%, with assets under management increasing by 17%.
The bank comments that it continues to expand its value to customers with innovative solutions and value-added services.
Among its solutions is the virtual card on the app, which has seen 1.2 million virtual cards activated, with over R2.4 billion in spend values since its launch.
FNB is also scaling its growth in device payments, with customers performing 9.7 million transactions worth R3.4 billion in value, during the six months to December 2021.
According to the bank, nav»Money, a money management tool to track spend and credit status, has seen a 56% increase in usage to reach 2.5 million users, while nav»Home has paid out R33.4 billion to place families in homes since inception.
The nav»Car digital garage has loaded 729 000 vehicles, and 108 000 vehicle licences were delivered, it says.
Third-party electricity, mobile and digital vouchers facilitated by FNB Connect on its digital platform increased by 3% to R9.1 billion and FNB Connect provided customers with 3.96 billion megabytes of data over the period.
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