Banking in a new way?

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The future is something no-one can truly predict or fore-see, this is a fact on almost all aspects of life. However the same sentiment cannot be shared for cellphone banking which is full of predictions which may come true. For example using your cellphone to pay for your bill or your grocery purchases isn't some distant, dreamy idea.

This idea would truly be something extraordinary in the market we live in which is confined by the plastic cards called debit and credit cards. Jonathan Houston the digital marketing lead executive in the Deliotte consulting technology division said, "It is obviously far fetched to think that the use of debit and credit cards will be completely eliminated, but a time will come when you open a bank account, you will be asked to choose between having a card or a phone (as a means) to pay". This raises the question just how far will technolgy grow(in terms of banking) in the 21st century? Houston answers this by saying "The rapid convergence of mobile and banking technology which started  with such simple functions as money transfer was increasingly making the cellphone a virtual bank itself".

Bankers say that South African's high mobile penetration rate made it the perfect maket to launch banking technology and products using cellphones to reach an under-banked and unbanked population estimated at more than 11 million. An initiative which particularly caught my eye in terms of banking which took place in May was by FNB which launched a person-to-person payment option called "Geo Payments", using its banking app which allows users within close range of each other to make payments to one another without using their bank account details. This shows great promise for our local market.