FNB has announced that its retail customers have saved over R5.5 billion in the last three years by saving small amounts ranging from R2 to R50 through the Bank Your Change feature linked to their FNB Savings Account.
In a statement on Monday, the bank said over R2 billion in savings were accumulated in the last year from customers who have activated Bank Your Change, and customers earn up to 3.8 percent per annum based on their savings balance.
Bank Your Change is a free feature that allows all FNB customers who have a transactional bank account to save a portion of their change each time they use their FNB debit card to buy goods or services.
"Customers who activate Bank Your Change automatically save their 'change' when they swipe their FNB debit card. The functionality rounds up each debit card purchase to the nearest Rand value chosen at activation and sweeps the difference into their linked FNB Savings Account, helping customers save for an emergency," the financial services said.
FNB Retail chief executive Raj Makanjee said: "This innovative feature has been instrumental in helping our customers save effortlessly and get access to cash reserves in case of emergencies or unforeseen expenses. We’re particularly excited to see that this savings instrument is popular across our entire Retail customer base, with percentages of users ranging between 30 percent and nearly 70 percent, depending on the income segment. In addition, we encourage all our customers to use our free tools like nav>> Money on the FNB App to help them in their money management journey".
FNB Retail Cash investment chief executive Himal Parbhoo said FNB had been steadily expanding solutions to help customers save.
"South Africa has consistently had a lower-than-average savings rate, which is largely due to our culture of consumption and limited use of formal savings instruments. We've made significant investments to change this by allowing customers to use our platform to save and track their short- and long-term savings goals," he said.
"The most difficult challenge for many people is starting, and a solution like Bank Your Change makes it simple for many to begin a savings journey. We've also enabled group or collective savings through digital solutions that cater to stokvels, which are some of our country's most well-known formations. As customers improve their ability to save, we can assist them with solutions for more complex needs, such as getting exposure to long-term investments through equity investments starting at just R10," Parbhoo said.
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