First National Bank’s (FNB’s) new modular branch design, which was piloted at the newly opened Mall of Africa, cost about 30% less than traditional designs, FNB innovation head Yolande Steyn said at the company’s innovation media breakfast, in Sandton, on Thursday.

The new branch design was not only more cost effective but also “focused on the continuous experience of customers,” she noted.

She highlighted that the new branches had a digital zone, which allowed customers to perform their online and digital banking and where they could be assisted by a dedicated e-banker.

Another innovation showcased was the advent of contactless banking cards, which Steyn noted had been on the agenda of the international banking community for about 20 years. “Contactless cards have now come into fruition in South Africa and FNB has already issued 830 000 contactless cards.”

Meanwhile, FNB had also run a pilot project for the issuing of South African identity documents and passports since 2014 and the service was currently available at three branches in Gauteng and one in Cape Town.

“I believe this is one of the ways that FNB and other banks in South Africa are going to become more valuable to people’s lives and not just be a place to do transactions,” Steyn asserted.

The company also said it had the largest online fingerprint verification system in the country with over 1.9-million verifications being made every month, allowing for safer and quicker transactions.

FNB CEO Jacques Celliers noted that one of the most time consuming activities at branches was the accurate identification of individuals, owing to the various verification requirements.

“The ability to use technology to help improve the speed of verification cuts a significant amount of operational costs and frees up the capacity of our staff to sell more products and give more advice to clients,” he said.

FNB’s cash accepting ATM initiative had resulted in a 64% decrease in teller-based cash deposits since its inception in 2011. Steyn stated that the bank currently receives 2.5 times more cash deposits from cash accepting ATMs than at bank tellers.

The company would also be launching new coin accepting devices; however, it was not clear when this would happen.