First National Bank of South Africa mobile and transaction solutions CEO, Len Pienaar, says that the response from users of the bank?s cell phone banking service has far exceeded its expectations.

This is in stark contrast to what research house BMI-T said at its recent African Banking Forum, where research conducted in the first half of this year indicated that mobile banking uptake was relatively slow.

?The report was correct,? says Pienaar, ?because users did have concerns over security and complexity. Up until March, cell phone banking was a dead dog. But (last week) we reached 90,000 cell phone banking customers in around four months, which paints a very different picture of the future.?

While there have been a number of cell phone-based banking solutions on the market for as long as five years already, FNB?s offering aims to reduce the complexity of transacting using a WAP or WIG interface, by using SMS -- functionality that any cell phone is capable of, the bank says.

?Over half our subscribers have registered via ATM, but we are still seeing a lag of around two weeks between users registering and actually using the service,? Pienaar continues, which indicates that consumers still need to get to grips with the technology.

This week, FNB will be going forward with the next step in its cell phone banking roll-out by introducing mobile payments, also using the ?31321? SMS number.

Users will be required to nominate beneficiaries for mobile payments, which will be PIN-protected, FNB says. The daily transaction limit has been set at R10,000 (US$1,524), but can be decreased at any branch.

Charges will range from R3 to R9, depending on the value of the transaction and type of banking product being used, FNB says.

?Our eventual aim,? says Pienaar, ?is to get people to treat their cell phone as an ATM card, both in use and security. Who knows, we may even surpass the usage of Internet banking,? he adds.

Currently, however, the bank is sitting with a problem on its hands. Either it adds functionality and richness (a menu system for example) to its cell phone offering, potentially increasing complexity, or it sticks to offering a simple set of essential applications.

?We are currently piloting a menu system similar to USSD,? comments Pienaar, ?which is turning out to be very compelling.?

FNB says that a large percentage of its cell phone banking registrations have come from its ?Smart account? holders, who use entry-level banking products, as opposed to the expected uptake in check account holders. ?The hype is not over,? Pienaar says. ?We are seeing on average 500 -- 700 registrations a day, with a peak of 2000.?