by Staff Writer
The free Wi-Fi service at FNB has already been used by more than 200 000 customers by January 2017, South Africa’s banking group said on Monday.
Last May, FNB embarked on a journey to transform the design of its branches and started offering free Wi-Fi at a new branch at the Mall of Africa. The bank promised that free Wi-Fi will be a standard offering across branches with the new design.
The bank announced on Monday that the number of FNB branches with active free WI-FI connection has reached 383 as at February 2017.
“By January 2017 over 200 000 customers connected to the internet via free FNB WI-FI in branches. The roll out of free WI-FI is another value-add which shows our commitment to helping all FNB customers bank digitally,” Lee-Anne van Zyl, CEO of FNB Points of Presence, said in a statement.
She added that the fundamental aim of this initiative is to offer cheaper banking alternatives for customers through the availability free high speed Wi-Fi.
Currently, about 187 FNB branches are connected via internet fibre, which enables connectivity at faster speeds.
“The process of providing free WI-FI is ongoing; however, we aim to steadily increase connectivity across most of branch outlets, especially high capacity branches,” added van Zyl.
Over the years FNB has moved to digitise its branches and avail the option of transacting via digital channels or over the counter. This happened in the form of introducing Digital Zones, which enable customers to transact via their online profiles within the branch.
FNB also has dedicated eBankers across 195 select branches that are deployed to assist customers at Digital Zones. The role of eBankers is to assist customers who transact digitally by giving support where necessary.
“We have seen a marked increase in the use of Digital Zones at branches as customers have the option to use online banking, the FNB Banking App or cell phone banking. There’s clearly an appetite for digital banking, but as more customers adopt digital channels we will have to balance this with customers’ education,” said van Zyl.
