First National Bank (FNB) recorded over one billion logins on its digital platforms during the financial year ended June.
The bank says its ongoing investment in its integrated financial services platform paid off in the period, as it experienced a robust migration of customers to its digital platforms.
In the year, FNB app volumes surged 26%, across Africa. Customers with limited transactional needs continued to use eWallet as a store of value, with over seven million active wallets, of which 5.6 million are non-FNB customers.
The overall bank performance was solid during the year, which helped FNB report an increase of 32% in normalised profit before tax and deliver a return on equity of 33.3%.
FNB Retail recorded a strong rebound to increase its earnings by 27%, and strategies to acquire new customers continue to yield results as the retail customer base grew by 4% over the period, it notes. The retail division also showed lower impairments across all products.
“The retail segment has refined its customer segmentation in order to support the needs of customers appropriately, with an ongoing focus to provide the right solutions across all income groups.”
CEO Jacques Celliers says: “We are pleased to continue delivering value to customers, despite the current restrictions in economic activity and the present realities of COVID-19. We are enormously encouraged to see our digital platform usage scaling, as this affirms our ongoing investment in our platform journey that started nearly a decade ago.
“These results also reflect ongoing recovery in customers’ income, demonstrated in a rebound in core transactional activity in our retail and commercial segments. Furthermore, we are optimistic that the vaccination programme will lead to a more open economy in the months ahead to afford opportunities to some of the worst affected business sectors.”
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