FNB's inContact service immediately alerts customers of any transactions on their bank accounts via a text message to their mobile phones. This allows customers to monitor and detect any fraudulent activity on their accounts, confirm transactions and keep up-to-date with their account balances.

The immediate and reliable delivery of text messages is essential for the success of the alert service. FNB chose the Clickatell gateway for its redundant routes into Namibia as well as its real-time delivery capabilities and 24 x 7 support.

"Guaranteed, real-time delivery is critical for transaction-based messages," says Len Pienaar, CEO FNB Mobile and Transact Solutions. "You can't have messages evaporate, even if it is one in a thousand. The Clickatell gateway and its real-time reporting mean I can be sure our customers will receive their text alerts every time."

Clickatell's multiple routes into Namibia ensure that even if the main telecoms lines between South Africa and the neighbouring country fail, Clickatell will be able to deliver FNB's messages from its service centre in Johannesburg to its customers across Namibia. In addition, Clickatell offered FNB significant cost saving as a benefit of aggregating over 550 networks around the world.

"Prior to using Clickatell, we were paying international rates for text messages from South Africa to Namibia, so in addition to increased redundancy, we are now also realising a massively reduced cost per SMS," says Pienaar.

"Clickatell's network resilience has allowed FNB to maintain the same service levels to customers in Namibia as in its home country. Clickatell has multiple trunks available for SMS routing into Africa and can so ensure uninterrupted service across the continent," says Anton Lan, Head of SA/Africa at Clickatell.

inContact was launched four years ago, offering FNB customers notification of account transactions via text message. Since launching the service, the bank has seen improved fraud detection as well as receiving extremely positive customer feedback. With the launch of inContact in 2002, FNB was South Africa's first major retail bank to launch a comprehensive SMS-based banking alert service.