First National Bank has launched its first hi-tech “dotFNB” store in Johannesburg. The outlet is meant to introduce customers to FNB’s various digital channels and show off technologies like an “interactive surface” that supports both touch interaction and augmented reality and allows customers to interact with the bank and its products and services.

The store offers customers a virtual environment to explore the bank’s online solutions, videoconferencing with financial experts for more complex products the bank offers, and what it calls “interactive mechanisms”. The bank says it has also “applied augmented-reality technology” in the dotFNB store.

“With the gathering momentum of digital self-service banking, customer experience has become an even more important element in our business,” says Barry de Witt, CEO for FNB’s banking channels.

“We are seeing a movement across our branches away from transactional banking towards pure service and product delivery. While our traditional branches are here to stay, dotFNB is a view of future banking.”

Aside from an advanced deposit-taking ATM, the new facility is cashless.

Customers can open a cheque account at the store and, assuming they qualify and complete the necessary documentation, can walk out with an Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy tablet or any of the other devices FNB has been offering its customers.

“By creating dotFNB, we are creating a vital link between the convenience of digital banking and the customers’ need to interact with us in a technology-focused banking outlet,” says De Witt, in a statement.