Mobile Banking Updates - May 2

U.S. Bank Testing Mobile App Voice Commands
"U.S. Bancorp has developed voice recognition software that will let customers handle banking tasks by speaking commands into their mobile device. 'I could ask, 'What is my balance?'' and listen to the answer, says Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer for retail payments solutions at U.S. Bank. U.S. Bank developed the new voice app with Nuance, which sells mobile voice recognition software called "Nina." U.S. Bank's app understands spoken requests for information on annual percentage rates, cash back on purchases, and fees. Users speak to a microphone icon that appears in a corner of the bank's mobile app."

Boulder Valley Credit Union Introduces Tyfone Mobile Banking Financial Services
"Boulder Valley Credit Union (BVCU, https://www.bvcu.org), serving more than 21,000 members and over $300 million in assets across Colorado, today announced the availability of Tyfone's (www.tyfone.com) mobile financial services to enable next-generation mobile banking services for its member customers. The partnership stems from the appreciation of Tyfone's mobile banking, security vision and the strategic value that Tyfone provides BVCU members. Moreover, with an integrated path to enhanced strong ID authentication mobile security and NFC contactless payments, BVCU can now offer its members a convenient, secure and integrated mobile banking solution."

Consumer Satisfaction With Banks Improves Significantly For First Time In Years
"Big banks make significant improvements in J.D. Power and Associates’ annual consumer satisfaction study. Regional and midsize banks still outperform their bigger brethren, but the gap is closing. Overall customer satisfaction with retail banks improved significantly from 2012, largely a result of improvements made by big banks, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2013 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study."

Over 50 Percent of Customers at Risk of Leaving Their Bank Finds Capgemini's World Retail Banking Report 2013
"Within the next six months, ten percent of retail banking customers surveyed globally will likely leave their bank and an additional 41 percent of customers say they are unsure if they will stay or go finds the tenth annual World Retail Banking Report 2013 (WRBR 2013) released today by Capgemini and Efma. To re-build the customer-bank relationship, opportunity exists for banks to become more customer-centric by leveraging vast amounts of customer data and by further developing mobile capabilities to create more personal interactions. The cornerstone of the WRBR 2013 is its extensive customer survey and Customer Experience Index (CEI)(1) which measures perceptions of 18,000 customers in 35 markets about the factors that matter most to them across channels, transactions and products."

Nationwide online and mobile banking services knocked out
"A technical glitch at Nationwide Building Society has left customers unable to use online and mobile banking services for several hours today. All Net and mobile banking has been down since this morning, while incoming and outgoing Faster Payments are experiencing delays. In a statement on its Web site, Nationwide says 'We are making every effort to restore service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause you.' Meanwhile, customers taking to Twitter to complain about the outage are being told to use ATMs or visit branches if they want to check their balances or carry out transactions but no timescale has been given for possible fix."

ACI Releases Mobile Banking System
"ACI Worldwide (ACIW) has released a mobile-banking program for the iPhone and Android smartphones. ACI Architect Mobile Banking lets banks manage their customers' desktop, mobile and tablet banking with a single set of administrative tools, ACI said Tuesday. It provides users secure browsing, downloadable applications and text banking. The system can also be customized for individual users for more targeted messaging, ACI said."

Mobile Tools, High Fees Quash Demand For Overdraft Protection
"A combination of mobile banking and high fees and conspired to lower consumer demand for overdraft protection services. In 2010 and 2011, banks saw a decline in revenue from overdraft fees because the Federal Reserve changed the rules about how banks can charge for “overdraft protection.” However, in 2012 banks turned the corner and reported higher fee revenue from overdraft protection. Why the increase? Slowly, banks have been raising overdraft-related fees like insufficient funds fees and overdraft protection transfer fees. But they may be hitting a ceiling for three consumer-driven reasons:"

Refundo Chief Executive Officer to Present at FinovateSpring 2013
"Refundo, a national provider of financial services to the underserved, announced today that it has been selected to present and demo its mobile banking technology live at FinovateSpring 2013. FinovateSpring is a demo-based conference for innovative startups and established companies in the fields of banking and financial technology, and will be held May 14-15, 2013 at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. 'We're honored to have been invited to debut our mobile app at FinovateSpring 2013,' said Refundo CEO, Roger Chinchilla. 'We can't think of a better event to create awareness that technology is the gateway to accessing the financially underserved. Each year, the people who can least afford it pay billions of dollars in junk fees because their needs aren't being met by traditional banks.'"