“FNB was selected for their excellent work in mobile banking, in demonstrating how Cell phone Banking can be deployed and broadly adopted to prevent fraud, reduce operational costs, increase customer acquisition, loyalty and value," said Jacob Jegher, Senior Analyst in Celent’s Banking Group, and author of the ‘Model Bank Report’.

The Model Bank of the Year Award was launched in early 2008. The nomination process aimed at answering the question: What would it look like for a bank to do everything right with today's technology? The Award aim to acknowledge leading banks deploying best practices which other financial services providers should follow.

“Celent is pleased to present FNB with this award and are very interested in following their excellent use of mobility which serves as a first-rate example of how cell phones are rapidly changing the banking industry,” said Jegher. “US, European and other global banks can learn a lot from FNB in their execution of Cell phone Banking,” he added.

Clickatell, the worldwide provider of mobile messaging solutions for banks and financial institutions has been cited for its role in provisioning effective and innovative SMS technology and text messaging.

FNB’s SMS-based alert service - inContact - has proven to significantly decrease fraud by engaging customers in the process of real-time monitoring of account activity through text message and other mobile services. FNB reports that since the cell phone alert service was launched, overall customer acquisition and retention rates have grown significantly.

Further, the bank reports that significant cost savings have also been achieved as demand for more expensive call center customer support activities via voice calls with live agents have been addressed by use of more effective, less expensive cell phone banking. Through innovative technology provided by Clickatell, FNB has grown its service offering into Africa to meet the specific needs of its clients.

“The Clickatell connection service helped us to create early consumer confidence in cell phone banking across countries such as Namibia,” stated Len Pienaar, CEO of Mobile Transact Solutions for FNB.

“We are pleased to be honored with this prestigious award from Celent and look forward to continuing to provide innovative mobile banking solutions to our customers,” Pienaar stressed.