FriMi is a neobank from Sri Lanka’s Nations Trust Bank, which is aiming to bring in countless digital banking facilities to the customers:
FriMi is Sri Lanka’s neobank, set up by the country’s Nations Trust Bank. Its offerings are optimized to have a branchless, digital and an overall convenient lifestyle and banking experience, ‘whenever – wherever’.
Nations Trust Bank, among the top 15 business establishments in Sri Lanka, wanted to ‘help people and businesses by providing financial services and information to achieve their goals and aspirations in a sustainable way’ and FriMi is the outcome of this vision. FriMi is one of its endeavors in this direction.
ROUND UP SAVINGS
Among the notable services offered by FriMi is Round Up Savings, which is described as a new way to save. Customers can save money every time they use FriMi to pay for their purchases. With Round Up Savings, every FriMi payment will be rounded up to the nearest Lankan Rs 50, 100 or 500 and the difference will be credited to a separate account within FriMi. Users can then maintain this account to collect their savings every time they spend, and choose to withdraw this at any time, or simply keep growing their savings with interest. FriMi users can choose how much their payments should be rounded up to.
FriMi accounts earn interest at rates of up to 3.75% per annum. Deposits can be made through Nations Trust Bank branches, cash deposit machines and FriMi agents or electronically via linked cards and accounts or direct digital fund transfers from any bank or foreign remittances. Customers can also request and receive money from other FriMi users.
MANY UNIQUE FEATURES
FriMi was developed and deployed by Nations Trust Bank in collaboration with Epic Technology Group, a pioneer in digital innovation in Sri Lanka. The combination could bring about features in FriMi such as tokenized transactions. The system that was developed had the unique feature that it required no storage of card/account information in the mobile device, yet allowed any enrolled payment instrument to make merchant payments via NFC, mobile number key-in (non-NFC devices), payment tokens and dynamic or static QR codes. This really made FriMi a real-time digital bank and mobile wallet and payment system.
Available on both Android and iOS phones, FriMi has unique interactive features like allowing customers to configure payment instruments of other banks and transact on-the-go as well. Merchant payments are enabled by using FriMi ID, mobile number, NFC, QR or tokens. Customers can share a bill with their friends, while there are functionalities like group payments and bill presentment. The top-up feature allows customers to top up their FriMi virtual card by bank transfer.
A customer can upload documents required by the bank for KYC process via the FriMi mobile app, the bank staff would then perform due diligence to make sure the required compliance procedures have been adhered.
An account holder can also avail a physical debit card to facilitate access to cash from any LankaPay ATM in the country. And people with no bank account or smart phone can also avail FriMi service by using its cash tokens and sending money to a person’s mobile number. Cash can then be withdrawn at any Nations Trust Bank ATMs by entering a code and OTP sent via SMS.
FRIMI BUCKET LIST
In June 2021, FriMi came out with its latest innovative feature – FriMi Bucket List – that allows users to save towards a specific goal so that they can easily tick things off their bucket lists, utilizing the app. Customers can simply create a bucket list account through the app by adding a goal along with the target amount, target date and the initial deposit amount. The main FriMi account will then automatically transfer the monthly instalment to each goal on the selected instalment date, making sure a specific amount is continuously saved towards the goal. Customers can also add any of their other bank accounts as the source account from which the instalments will be added towards the goal.
FriMi is playing a lead role in the recent nation-wide rollout of QR based solutions initiated by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and jointly being carried out by Nations Trust Bank and the Road Development Authority of Sri Lanka. Now, the contactless LANKAQR payments at the manual toll collection gates of expressway are made possible by FriMi along with the central bank and LankaPay. The partnership will allow the general public to make cashless payments when traveling on the expressway, while ensuring an efficient and secure payments and settlement system.
Nations Trust Bank strongly believes FriMi is not just for banking transactions, but it is a digital integrated financial ecosystem that is open to all. By integrating with third parties, it is now possible for the bank to deliver a slew of services right within the app. In fact, it is digital banking 2.0 services. The bank aims to make use of FriMi to enable its users to enhance their lifestyles and make their financial lives simpler.
