Africa’s FirstRand selects Fiserv to drive digital transformation

By Gloria Methri

FirstRand Group, one of the largest banks in Africa, is set to commission Finxact, the ­cloud-native, real-time banking solution from Fiserv that offers enhanced access to data to power its digital transformation. The move supports the broader innovation initiative and growth objectives of the bank’s customer franchises, FNB (Retail and commercial banking) and RMB (Corporate and investment banking).

As financial institutions and companies across all industries around the world embrace new, fast-growing digital technology for embedded commerce, finance and payments, Finxact will provide enhanced capability to create modern, flexible and highly personalised digital banking experiences.

FNB’s customers have 30 million active accounts and products with the bank. Over time, FNB, along with RMB, will transition from its current provider, allowing maximum flexibility in offering new and innovative products to a broader market quickly. It will leverage the mobile app and Internet banking investment, supporting its growth and customer-centricity strategy. Finxact is a modern system of record and a transaction processing engine that supports all asset classes, currencies and time zones.

“As customer expectations evolve, Finxact provides a modern, flexible system that enables greater innovation and the ability to deliver personalised solutions at speed. After evaluating multiple options, we found that Finxact stood out as the preferred platform to deliver this level of agility and support the evolving needs of the business,” said Kevin Mitchell, Chief Digital Officer of FirstRand Limited.

“We are thrilled that FirstRand is the first financial institution outside of the U.S. to move to Finxact, a trusted partner for a major modernisation,” said Katia Karpova, EVP, Head of EMEA, Fiserv. “We see big opportunities for Finxact in the EMEA region, as banks aim to enhance their digital transformation.”