DURBAN – FNB is becoming the first bank in South Africa to offer consumers the convenience and safety of ‘Tap and PIN’ on ATM transactions.
The innovation allows consumers to safely tap their contactless card on the contactless reader of an eligible FNB ATM and enter a PIN to finish the transaction.
This functionality is currently available across 100 FNB ATMs and more will be upgraded during 2019.
The Bank estimates that ATM ‘Tap and PIN’ will reduce the time it takes to make a withdrawal by up to 20 seconds per transaction.
Also, FNB customers will also enjoy further protection against card skimming devices by not having to insert their card for a withdrawal.
The chief executive of FNB Retail, Raj Makanjee said that this is a major step in the bank’s plans to continuously improve the convenience and safety of its banking ecosystem.
He added that technologies such as contactless provide opportunities to streamline interactions to align with the needs of consumers.
"In the last three years, consumers have processed approximately R1 billion worth of contactless payments from 5 million transactions on FNB issued Credit and Debit Cards alone.
"The frequency of use by consumers has grown by between 100 percent and 300 percent on our credit and debit cards respectively, highlighting the confidence of our customers in adopting new and secure payment methods.
"Having started issuing contactless cards three years ago, we now have over 8.5 million contactless enabled debit and credit cards in the hands of consumers," said Makanjee.
Consumers’ appetite for contactless payments is equally reflected in FNB’s digital payments stream which includes FNB Pay on the FNB App as well as FitBit Pay and Garmin Pay.
FNB Pay processes an average of 700 contactless transactions per day while more than R1.5 million worth of contactless transactions were processed on FitBit Pay and Garmin Pay in the last two months.