South Africas First National Bank (FNB) has announced a cross-border payment service that will enable transactions to Swaziland and Lesotho via cellphones using the Pay2Cell facility
FNB’s Pay2Cell service, which launched in September 2011, has enabled FNB Cellphone Banking customers to make payments directly into other FNB accounts using only the recipient’s cellphone number.
FNB Cellphone Banking chief executive officer, Ravesh Ramlakan, said, “Electronic channels are changing the way customers transact. Traditionally, making payments to other African countries has been limited to Internet banking for senders or making a deposit or withdrawal through a branch or via an international money transfer company. We needed to have a simpler solution for our customers and launched this cross border payments service.”
Dione Sankar, chief operating officer of FNB Cellphone Banking, added, “Offering cross border payments from a cellphone allows our customers to send and receive money instantly.
“In addition to this, the use of only the recipient’s cellphone number makes the payment process extremely simple for our customers.”
