First National Bank has debuted a new version of its transactional banking application that allows users to make payments simply by tapping their smartphones at a contactless point of sale.

The new functionality, known as FNB Pay, allows the bank’s customers to tap to pay at supported points of sale.

FNB Pay allows customers to make purchases of up to R200 in value (a limit set by the Payments Association of South Africa) without entering their card Pin. The maximum value will be increased to R500 in 2017. “Customers have options on how they can securely perform transactions through FNB Pay,” the bank said.

To use FNB Pay, users must have an Android-based phone that supports near-field communication technology.

Local merchants are gradually increasing contactless infrastructure, said Raj Makanjee, CEO of FNB Premium. “This is one of the reasons why 100% of the new or replacement cards we are now issuing are contactless cards, across our debit and credit portfolios,” he said.

“Not only does the functionality make it effortless for customers to pay for goods and services, it helps merchants to process transactions far quicker, thus assisting in reducing queues.”

The updated app, version 5.0, introduces a range of other new features, including fingerprint ID logon (on supported Android and iOS devices).

Another new feature is “Smart inContact”, which lets users approve transactions or report fraud on online transactions. This uses the app to notify customers of transactions as low as 1c. Smart inContact replaces SMS one-time Pins, too. Customers without version 5.0 of the app will continue to receive SMS notifications and one-time Pins until they update to it.

The bank has also introduced a Secure Chat feature, to allow FNB customers to chat securely to a team of bankers.

FNB has also introduced an FNB watch app (for Android-based watches and Apple Watch), offering accounts and transaction history details, along with payments from history or GeoPayments. Customers can also use the watch app to buy prepaid services from history, as well as vouchers and coupons and cardless cash withdrawals.