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FNB & Debt Counsellors Meet Online

The FNB debt review team met with Debt Counsellors from DCASA.

This online meeting followed an earlier meeting in March with a smaller DCASA team. The meeting was very well supported with lots of Debt Counsellors attending.

Mohau Mokoena (who has been temporarily heading up the team since the departure of Denise Hartley) chaired the meeting along with Vanessa Johst of DCASA.

The first big announcement of the day was that the role of head of department has now passed to Tiffany Singh who has a legal background and has worked in home loans for a long time. She is looking forward to officially starting her role as of 1 June 2025.

Next, there was a detailed discussion about FNBs decision to only utilise a single email entry point. Their system is able to auto redirect emails to the right department. They prefer this process since it reduces the risk of hacks, data breaches and is better for PoPI Compliance.

When the automatic email sorting system does not know what to do with the email then humans will do the sorting. Each day the department receives between 8000 up to 15 000 emails. On some days, up to 70% was having to be sorted by humans. That’s a lot of work. So, they really want Debt Counsellors to use their preferred phrasing in the email heading. They also said they will engage with the various PDAs and their software solutions.

See examples below:

The bank are working on solutions and IT improvements to address this issue so that items get sorted out and replied to faster.

KYC

Another topic covered had to do with the banks Know Your Client (KYC) requirements.

The bank has legal obligations to have up to date accurate info about consumers (to make sure they are who they say they are).

They are hoping to work closely with Debt Counsellors over the next few weeks to talk to these consumers in order not delay payments being allocated to their accounts (or even being returned).

Here are some of the stats:

As you can see, they have a large number of people who they would like to assist and get the KYC side of things sorted.

Q&A

During the Q&A session there was a lot of discussion about turnaround times on correspondence or queries.

FNB assured Debt Counsellors that they are leveraging technology to make improvements (and may be looking at non email solutions – which sounds like a portal, as has been seen with other large credit providers).

They also discussed a recent scam that hit FNB in general, where scammers were pretending to be FNB and asking FNB clients to make payments towards arrears (primarily on home loans). The scam involved using real account info and a very convincing WhatsApp service to get people to divert payments. FNB are tracking down the scammers but there has even been talk of an “inside job”. They have asked Debt Counsellors to also let their clients know to be cautious.

Next up was balance differences between what is anticipated and the PDA statements. One Debt Counsellor reported about 90% of the accounts differ greatly. Mohau explained that those are computer generated and they will work with the Debt Counsellor to do additional research into the issue.

Positive Engagement

Meetings like this with credit providers are much appreciated by Debt Counsellors and provide excellent opportunities to work towards solutions together.

The FNB and DCASA meeting provided a chance for the credit provider to share information about FNB’s preferences and for Debt Counsellors to highlight concerns that some have regarding specific technical matters with the bank.

All in all, the meeting was a great success and was well supported. It once again shows how FNB are looking to engage more with Debt Counsellors this year. They may even put such meetings in place quarterly going forward.

It is always heartening to see such close cooperation and engagement.