FNB ramps up Black Friday security

Ahead of the Black Friday retail frenzy, FNB is rolling out an Online Secure authentication service to all merchants and individual customers to provide an additional layer of security for digital transactions.

Online Secure, widely known as 3D Secure, is the process of authenticating a cardholder during an ecommerce transaction. In line with industry requirements, FNB has upgraded all merchants and card holders to Online Secure authentication to ensure enhanced user experience, security and flexibility.

Effectively, FNB customers will now have to authenticate themselves when making online purchases.

Customers previously received a One Time Pin (OTP) via SMS or email when they performed an online purchase. From 10 November, all customers now receive a push notification on their phone on the verified FNB App to authenticate the purchase.

If the customer does not have the FNB App or does not respond to the FNB App push message to approve their online purchase, they will receive the OTP via SMS, App messaging and by logging onto Online Banking messaging. Receiving OTP via email is being discontinuedin line with the bank’s strategy to discontinue communication via this format for safety measures.

“The enhanced security features will go a long way in protecting our customers from potential fraud, more so now that we’ve seen a big migration from our customers to digital channels,” says Chris Labuschagne, CEO of FNB Card. “The impact of Covid-19 and the lockdown restrictions have encouraged customers to consider convenient and safer ways to manage their lives. In line with our commitment to customer-centricity, we want to ensure that our customers can rely on our trusted platform when making purchases.”

Where FNB is satisfied that the online purchase is secure, customers will not be required to approve their purchase. This will result in fast secure authentication, especially during busy periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

In addition, the bank now allows customers to update their Online Secure contact details via the FNB App. Updating of Online Secure via Online Banking and Call Centre will also be discontinued.

“We encourage customers to opt for convenient and safer ways to shop during Black Friday in line with Covid-19 safety guidelines,” says Labuschagne. “More importantly, many local retailers have begun offering Black Friday specials much earlier than usual to improve the shopping experience for consumers. We also encourage customers to use trusted platforms when shopping online and remind everyone to always keep information such as PINs and passwords safe and to only authenticate transactions they have initiated. We remind customers that FNB will never request their private information such as a One Time PIN or their card PIN for any reason.”

These updates will further enable customers to complete transactions when shopping online through new payment methods such as digital wallets, QR code and mobile payments from Apps. FNB provided this information:

Scan to Pay

1. The cardholder will open up the FNB App
2. The cardholder will navigate to FNB Pay and select ‘Scan to Pay’
3. The phone camera will open for the cardholder to scan the QR code on the web page. The cardholder will select which account they want to make the payment from
4. Cardholder confirms payment

Payment request

1. The cardholder will receive a push notification on their phone from the FNB App
2. The cardholder will log into the FNB App
3. Cardholder selects ‘Pay now’. The cardholder will select which account they want to make the payment from
4. Cardholder confirms payment