South Africa already has one of the world's highest mobile banking user rates, and this is set to accelerate, thanks to a 100% mobile phone penetration rate and an innovative banking sector that is pushing hard to reach a large, still unbanked segment of the country's population.

In an interview with local paper Business Day this week, the CEO of First National Bank's (FNB's) Cellphone Banking Solutions, Ravesh Ramlakan, said the mobile phone was the future of retail banking in South Africa.

Ramlakan told Business Day that the increasing convergence between cellphone and banking technology for communication, shopping and banking meant the days of customers using their branch for their banking needs were numbered.