Half-billion in cardless cash

Absa has said the total value of customer transactions for its cardless ATM offering, CashSend, has exceeded half a billion rand.
Absa has announced that the total value of customer transactions for its innovative cardless ATM offering, CashSend, has exceeded half a billion rand.

Introduced in late 2008, CashSend enables Absa individual customers – who do not have bank accounts – to send money from our Cellphone Banking platform, any of our 8 963 ATMs and from our Internet Banking channels to anyone in South Africa, both banked and unbanked.

The receiver only needs to enter a PIN (which the bank SMSes to the customer’s cellphone), along with a secret code to withdraw cash at an Absa ATM. All this is done without an ATM Card or a bank account, but by simply pressing the “CashSend” button on any Absa ATM screen.
Absa says CashSend transactions have surged to approximately 100 000 CashSend transactions each month.

Though the service was initially aimed at entry-level banking customers, CashSend is evolving into a holistic payment solution catering for ever more sophisticated needs. In this regard, Absa has now also introduced CashSend Plus which is aimed at the business sector.

“We have enhanced CashSend for uptake in the Business market,” says Absa Retail Bank Chief Executive Gavin Opperman. “Cash Send Plus will enable small businesses and corporate clients to make bulk payments to many recipients, such as payments to casual or temporary workers.”

Opperman believes there are clear benefits for both the business and the customer using CashSend™ Plus. The employer does not need to keep large sums of cash on business premises and beneficiaries can withdraw the cash when it is required.

“We are proud to demonstrate our market leadership with our CashSend™ innovation,” says Opperman, adding that over the past two and a half years the service has been hugely popular for urban-to-rural money transfers.

Another interesting finding is that some of the most-used ATMs for withdrawing CashSend™ funds are located at universities and technikons. This indicates parent-to-student transfers are also very popular. “We are delighted that students have taken up CashSend as an easy solution for receiving money,” Opperman comments.

He notes that about 42% of CashSend money is sent via ATMs, 23% from Internet Banking and 36% using Cellphone Banking. Importantly, money can be sent and received at any time of the day and night – so transactions are not limited to a bank branch’s opening hours.

Opperman says creating a successful banking model in the South African context includes taking banking to the people. Realising the need for a local money transfer solution in South Africa, Absa designed CashSend™ – a world first – with the help of ACI Worldwide. The product has recently beenselected as a winner of the 2011 ACI Excellence Awards. The awards recognise particular achievements in product innovation.

“Financial inclusion and banking the unbanked remains an important focus area for Absa. With CashSend, we have been able to bring banking to the people and now with CashSend Plus we will also provide convenience to our business banking customers. We will continue to innovate and find solutions for an everchanging banking market in which customer preferences dictate the rules,” Opperman concludes.

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