FNB uses innovation to make savings accessible to the man on the street
There are many reasons why South Africans do not save: some of them cultural and others due to real barriers around access to banking. FNB continues to innovate in order to stimulate a savings culture in South Africa, which has one of the lowest savings rates in the world.
“In order to inspire the local household to save we have come up with innovative, unique, simpler and more affordable wealth creation vehicles that can be accessed by everyone,” says Robert Keip, Head of Investments at FNB.
“We reduced the minimum amounts on our savings/investments accounts, and introduced low entry products to make it easy for the man on the street to invest in cash and shares to enable them to build up wealth over the long-term.”
FNB offers a range of R100 entry level products that offer an investor short, medium and long term cash investments with attractive returns. For example the Flexi Fixed deposit is a 12 month fixed deposit linked to prime offering 4.25% on R100 and 6.25% on R10 000 and above as of the 16th July 2009. One attractive feature with this investment is that you can add to it at any time and withdraw two amounts of up to 15% of the available balance should you need cash.
FNB has also created accessible products that allow investments into the stock market. By investing in the FNB Growth Fund, investors can access a managed portfolio of shares from as little as R40 a month or a R500 lump sum.
The new Share Builder product targets the man on the street and enables the small investor to buy direct holdings of pre-selected shares and exchange traded funds listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
Share Builder reduces the apprehension and risk when selecting shares by offering a simplified choice of shares, thus helping the new investor to get started. In addition, detailed educational information is offered on the FNB website to assist beginners.
Share Builder is the most cost-effective online share trading platform in the market. It requires a minimum opening deposit of R100, with a monthly fee of R17 incl VAT and there’s no minimum investment amount required. All Share Builder orders are traded at the end of every day, hence saving on transaction fees for customers.
Share Builder's transaction fee per trade is 2% of the trade value, with a minimum of R50 per trade excluding VAT. No other costs apply.
