FNB data reveals SA’s middle class is banking smarter — and saving more

New customer data released by First National Bank (FNB) as it marks 25 years of FNB Premier paints a data-driven portrait of South Africa’s aspirational middle-income earners: an income band increasingly fluent in digital banking, steadily building savings and investments, and extracting real value from rewards and credit products designed to reduce cost and stretch household budgets.

The bank’s analysis focuses on professionals with annual incomes between R300,000 and R750,000, a cohort FNB says has shifted from cash-led habits to habitually digital financial management while still prioritising value and long-term wellbeing. FNB’s Personal Core Banking Product Head, Garth Keshwar, describes the cohort as “aspirational, responsibility driven, and seeking financial confidence in a volatile economy.”

Key figures from 25 years of FNB Premier

FNB’s customer data — summarised by the bank to mark the Premier anniversary — lists the programme’s most material metrics:

• R5 billion in eBucks earned by Premier customers since the programme’s inception.

• More than 90% of Premier customers now bank digitally.

• 8 million monthly FNB App logins (an average of 40 logins per customer).

• 81% of Premier customers transact primarily via the FNB App; 53% customise their App home screens.

• 50%+ actively save or invest using in-app tools such as Smart Budget, Nav» Money, Nav» Car and Nav» Home.

• In the last 12 months Premier customers redeemed R35 million in travel discounts, made 117,000 SLOW Lounge visits and booked 50,000 flights using eBucks.

Digital as the default

FNB’s data shows digital channels are now the primary relationship hub for Premier customers: the FNB App acts not only as a transaction channel but as a centralised financial dashboard. The bank reports heavy engagement with personalised insights (“Just for You” content) and real-time security alerts — features that, it says, support customers’ demand for visibility, control and security.

Savings, advice and measured outcomes

FNB attributes improved savings and credit outcomes to the adoption of in-app tools and advice. According to the bank, customers who regularly use Nav» Money and related tools demonstrate lower default risk and stronger long-term wealth growth — a statistical relationship the bank highlights to argue that digital engagement is linked with measurable improvement in financial resilience. Over half of Premier customers reportedly now save or invest via these tools.

Rewards behaviour: earn where you need it, spend how you want it

Across 25 years, the behaviour captured by the eBucks programme shows a consistent pattern: customers predominantly earn rewards on essentials (Fuel 41% and Groceries 35% are the top earning categories), while spending rewards on lifestyle (travel and partner stores such as Takealot and other eBucks partners). FNB reports that Premier customers have earned R5 billion and spent R4.5 billion in eBucks since 2000, underlining the programme’s role in offsetting household costs while enabling discretionary spending on travel and lifestyle.

Credit designed to build resilience

FNB highlights design features of its Premier credit products — up to 55 days interest-free credit, flexible repayment options, Automatic Debt Protection, Purchase Protect, complimentary travel insurance and secure virtual card transactions — as tools that enable responsible credit usage. FNB’s credit team quantifies an empirical benefit: since launching the present Premier credit offering in 2017, the bank estimates customers have saved roughly R4 million in interest through the product design and customer usage patterns the bank has tracked. FNB

A portrait of progress — and restraint

Taken together, the bank’s figures sketch a middle-income cohort that is digitally fluent, increasingly disciplined with savings and investments, and selective in credit use — behaviour the bank frames as resilience amid a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. FNB says its role is to partner with these clients to make long-term financial progress accessible, measurable and sustainable