FNB has been at the forefront of fighting the spread of the COVID-19 virus since it hit our shores in South Africa during the first quarter of last year. One of the measures that FNB strongly adhered to and implemented was the roll-out of the COVID-19 safety protocols and risk measures at their branch network and ATMs to ensure the safety of their customers and staff in accordance with government lockdown legislation.
Government has issued a regulatory update requesting that all banks, or financial services that have ATM services, must ensure that there are hand sanitisers available and that social distancing protocols be adhered to.
Lee-Anne van Zyl, CEO of FNB Points of Presence says, “As an essential service, FNB has been closely monitoring the situation to ensure that all our branches and ATMs are equipped with the relevant control measures to ensure the safety of all our customers and staff. In addition, FNB aims to constantly stay abreast and review new regulations and technology equipped for the COVID-19 pandemic that supports our Point of Presence network.”
FNB’s ATM footprint includes devices at our branches and at many outside conveniently placed locations such as petroleum stations as well as in retail stores.
The bank currently has 2135 branch ATMs that are fully compliant with the updated regulations and have put key control measures in place. The measures include regularly sanitising devices situated at our branches, as they are very high-volume transactional devices. These sites are equipped with sanitising pedal dispensers as well as the required social distancing practices. In addition, our offsite devices are sanitised by our custodians and our retail devices are sanitised by our retail stores as part of the protocol.
“ATMs that are based offsite are serviced and sanitised once or twice a week by our respective FNB custodians (i.e. shopping centres, stand-alone ATM’s etc.) after every visit with a solution that lasts for 7 days. In addition, our devices are sanitised and deep cleaned on a quarterly basis to ensure hygienic safety and risk measures are adhered to by an external contracted company.
FNB will continue to work closely with government and various stakeholders to ensure that all our banking sites remain fully compliant in line with the updated safety regulations and that our staff and customers adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols for ensured safety.
While they endeavour to ensure that they are compliant with the health and safety requirements of COVID-19, they also advise their customers to always use sanitisers or to wash their hands post using any devices as an additional safety precaution as their customers and staff safety is of utmost importance,” concludes van Zyl.
