FNB says South African consumers and businesses are increasingly using smart devices to make contactless tap-to-pay payments. According to FNB, its retail and commercial clients processed in excess of R4.2 billion in contactless payments via smart devices in 2021, compared to just R640 million in 2020. The average monthly spend has soared from just R53 million (2020) and R350 million (2021) to nearly a billion (R935 million) in the last 3 months. 

Raj Makanjee, CEO of FNB Retail, says, "The growth validates our belief that digital is central to the future of payments, and we are encouraged by our customers' appetite to embrace digital migration. We believe that digital payments enable consumers, merchants, and providers to improve the efficiency of the payments ecosystem. As a result, we're thrilled to be facilitating this transition by providing our customers with a broader range of industry-leading payment solutions on our digital platform."

The sentiment is echoed by Gordon Little, CEO of FNB Commercial, who says, "Businesses are critical to accelerating the adoption of digital payments by enabling wider acceptance. "This is why we’re equipping our merchants to be able to support and drive such a migration, and we’re pleased with the sustained growth in the rate of digital payments acceptance among our merchants," he says.

Through FNB Pay on the FNB App, the bank supports several digital wallets, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit, and Garmin, and customers can also link their FNB Virtual Cards to a digital wallet.

The virtual card has a dynamic CVV number that changes on a regular basis to reduce the risk of fraud. Customers can use their virtual cards to pay for online purchases, streaming services, subscriptions, and at the majority of QR code providers via the FNB app's Scan to Pay feature. Furthermore, customers who make purchases with their FNB Virtual Card get free Purchase Protect cover for the first 30 days post purchase, up to R15 000.

In its recent interim results, FNB revealed that its digitally active customers increased to 6.21 million for the six months ending December 2021. FNB customers' digital logins totalled 804 million, with the FNB App contributing nearly 500 million logins in six months.