First National Bank (FNB) has temporarily placed a shipping container at Phumlani Mall in Tembisa to help residents access banking services.
The first shipping container bank was intended to be in Mutale in Limpopo; however, FNB decided to temporarily redeploy the mobile unit to Tembisa following last week's natural disaster.
According to a statement, the financial institution transformed the shipping container by equipping it with banking infrastructure such as an ATM to withdraw money and an ADT to deposit money, as well as teller services.
Lee-Ann van Zyl, CEO of FNB Points of Presence, says: "SA still has a large section of the population that has limited access to banking facilities and we want to turn this around.
"The first step for us was to think about an innovative way of delivering a full suite of banking facilities to rural communities in a convenient fashion. We decided to introduce a fully-equipped mobile banking unit that caters for transactional banking, teller services, an ATM and an ADT, which enables customers to deposit cheques, prepaid purchases, opening savings and investment accounts, and the option to apply for a loan."
FNB says the shipping container is designed to extend banking services to unbanked rural communities. The mobile banking units are also movable, therefore if it is no longer responsive to the banking needs of a particular area it can be moved to another location.
"We are consistently looking at ways of making banking accessible to all South Africans. This is evident in our constant review of our footprint and through electronic channels that provide for easy access to banking without having to walk into a branch," says Van Zyl.
The bank says it will continue to assess additional sites where there may be demand for mobile units.
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