South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) has said location-based services (LBS) have allowed the bank to offer its customers a range of new features, including GeoPayments, the company’s near-field, person-to-person payment technology.
GeoPayments allows users to locate other FNB customers within close proximity and send cashless payments to them without having to enter any bank details apart from the sender’s app PIN.
“LBS is central to the simplification that apps offer users. Before apps and LBS existed, people would have had to scroll through endless online store directories in order to locate the closest bank branch whilst dealing with the frustration of working on a platform that would often not be scaled according to the device due to the browser used,” said Sahil Mungar from FNB Mobile and Connect.
“It is this combination of native apps and the functionality of LBS that have allowed the bank to bring customers innovative payment solutions in addition to quick location of branches and ATMs.”
According to market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres, 46 per cent of mobile users make use of LBS for navigation purposes, while 26 per cent make use of it to find restaurants and stores.
The bank said services like these have pushed location-based services beyond “checking in” on social networks.
“These services are fundamentally intuitive and the month-on-month increase in volumes since the launch of GeoPayments as well as other location based services shows that there is strong appetite amongst customers for ways in which to not only make quick, hassle-free payments but also to use the technology to simplify their banking and everyday needs,” said Mungar.
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