CEO: eWallet solutions at First National Bank

Yolande van Wyk is a self-confessed technophile and geek — excellent credentials for heading up First National Bank’s eWallet solutions.

“I’m always coming up with new stuff,” says Van Wyk, who is at the forefront of innovative mobile solutions. “I look at things and think: there has to be a better way.”

She joined FNB’s original cellphone banking team in 2004, helping the product to become the first to go mainstream in South Africa.

In 2008 Van Wyk took over eWallet solutions and set about getting non- banked customers to use the service. She succeeded. The service requires no registration and users don’t even need to hold a bank account to use it. To date, over one million people have received money on their cellphones with transactions worth R1.7-billion.

Van Wyk remains astounded by the rapid pace the world is changing but says it only takes a simple device, like a cellphone, to stay plugged in.

— Lisa Steyn

Twitter: @yvanwyk