FNB

MTHULISI SIBANDA
JOHANNESBURG– FIRST National Bank (FNB) said it had re-energised its strategy on modernism with the appointment new Head of Innovation, Yolande Steyn.

She has previously led FNB’s mobile money solution, eWallet, to become one of the largest bank-led mobile money solutions on the continent.

“Creating game-changing innovations at FNB has been the norm for years and we have a history of rewarding our staff for being radical,” said Steyn.

“Looking forward, the programme will expand to be much more than just an internal staff competition. FNB’s customers are at the heart of why we innovate, and our future innovation strategy will be focused on customer-focused products and services,” she explained.

She said the bank needed to be responsive to the shifting economy and create innovation best practices that will disrupt and influence the market.

“The current environment is jam-packed with mobile technologies, complex processes and incremental innovations.”

Steyn said concepts like big data and artificial intelligence, new business models like Uber, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other exponential technologies had fallen under the radical innovation radar and might just be the most disruptive technologies to date.

FNB has partnered with a number of innovation properties that incubate and accelerate innovation and organisations.

Properties like the FNB Business Innovation Awards, SiMODiSA, wethinkcode, FNB codeFest, FNB Business Accelerator are some of the programmes aimed at up-skilling innovators and entrepreneurs in South Africa.

Steyn concluded the current competitive environment was encouraging innovation that disrupts and changes incremental thinking.

FinTech not only has the ability to change the social economic circumstances of both business and people, but it is also creating platforms that will see more radical innovations comes to surface.”