First National Bank has launched a new service called Pay2Cell that allows its accountholders to make payments to other FNB accountholders using only the recipient’s cellphone number.

To make a payment, customers must be registered for cellphone banking. To receive payments, they only need to be registered for inContact, FNB’s SMS notification service. There is a limit of R1 500/transaction.

Ravesh Ramlakan, CEO of FNB cellphone banking solutions, says the service is in line with a shift to electronic and cardless banking. “Our customers no longer need to divulge their account details in order to receive a payment,” he says. “All they need to do is provide their cellphone number.”

Ramlakan says FNB is hoping to encourage more of its customers to use cellphone banking and that of its 7m customers, 3m are already using mobile banking services.

Since Pay2Cell was launched in beta 10 weeks ago, there have been more than 7 500 transactions on the service worth in excess of R3m. Customers can use the service via USSD by dialing *120*321# or via the FNB mobile website.

The service is only available to FNB customers, but CEO Michael Jordaan said in a tweet on Wednesday: “For once I would actually like our competitors to copy FNB’s innovation so Pay2Cell can work across SA”. — Staff reporter, TechCentral