Direct Banks Are Winning Mobile-Centric Consumers

"Just a few years ago, mobile banking apps were a key differentiator for banks and credit unions. Nowadays, mobile banking apps are table stakes. Over 90% of the institutions listed on FindABetterBank have mobile banking apps, and 44% also offer mobile remote deposit capture. As more consumers adopt mobile banking, more will insist that any institution they switch to also provide this service.

In Q1 2011, under 12% of shoppers on FindABetterBank indicated they “must have” mobile banking. Today, that number is 23%. Direct banks like Ally Bank and Capital One 360 are winning the battle for these mobile-centric shoppers. In Q3 2013, direct banks were 38% more likely to be selected when a shopper indicated mobile banking was a must-have feature than when a shopper indicated they “don’t care” about mobile banking." Continue Reading

Ally Launches Mobile Payments Upgrades

"Direct bank Ally Bank announced it has expanded its mobile payments offerings, integrating Popmoney into its mob app and also adding a new mobile money transfer function. The banks said its customers can now send and receive money via Popmoney through Ally's mobile banking app, including with people who do not have an Ally Account.

Popmoney, a Fiserv product, is an electronic person-to-person payments service. In addition to being able to conduct regular Popmoney transactions, Ally's mobile banking users will now be able to view scheduled payments and payment history as well as set up and manage Popmoney contacts in Ally mobile banking." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Updates - June 30

Consumers More Willing to Pay for Mobile Banking: Study
"Over the past year, consumers have become more willing to pay for mobile banking services, according to a new report by ath Power Consulting. 'Mobile is a unique channel in so many different ways,' says Michael McEvoy, managing director of the consultancy and author of the report. 'There's an opportunity to charge.'"

Wells Fargo Makes Text Receipts Available at ATMs
"Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) announced today that in addition to its popular email or e-receipt option, it is introducing text receipts at its more than 12,000 ATMs across the country. This new service is available to all Wells Fargo Online or Mobile Banking customers who provide their mobile phone number. As the first bank to offer e-receipts to its customers at its ATMs in June 2010, Wells Fargo also is the first to introduce a text receipt option."

Mobile to overtake web at online bank
"ING DIRECT has launched a new mobile app designed to meet the demand of its growing mobile customer base, in response to the staggering 280% increase in mobile interactions in 2012. 'The consistent trend in web visits has been around 15% year on year, but this spike in mobile interactions is proof of ever-growing consumer demand and comfort to be able to ‘do’ while on the go,' said Executive Director Distribution at ING DIRECT, Lisa Claes."

Most Wanted Mobile Banking Feature: RDC
"Remote Deposit Capture, is the most wanted feature by mobile banking customers, according to a new mobile banking study conducted by ath Power Consulting. Users also ranked Voice Authentication and Mobile Photo Bill Pay high in the 2013 ath Power Mobile Banking Study, released just this March. The study was the second mobile banking study ath conducted since last year. One in 3 mobile banking users are more likely to pay for mobile banking now than they were just a year ago, when 1 in 5 stated they would pay for the service. As part of the research, ath studied 3,201 mobile banking customers from 380 banks and credit unions, while 223 current mobile banking users from 35 institutions were asked to login and perform specific tasks."

Bay Banks in Va. to Add Mobile Banking, Close Branch
"Bay Banks of Virginia (BAYK) in Kilmarnock plans to close a branch and begin offering mobile banking. The $327 million-asset company will consolidate three branches in Northumberland County into two, it announced Wednesday. It plans to close its branch in Heathsville on Sept. 30, while retaining its Burgess and Callao locations, it said."

Ally Bank Wins Customer Experience Award for Ally Mobile Banking App Design
"Ally Bank recently received three recognitions underscoring its customer-centric philosophy and commitment to offering consumers straightforward products and services. The Bank was awarded Forrester's 2013 "Outside In" Award in the Customer Experience Design category for its innovative and customer-friendly design of Ally Mobile Banking, the app that allows customers to conduct a wide range of banking tasks via their Android™ or iPhone® smartphones."

Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 6

Wells Fargo, Ally Bank See the Camera as Key to Mobile Banking
"A revolutionary as mobile banking has been, it's the camera that resides within smartphones that's lighting the fire underneath adoption drives at banks such as Wells Fargo (WFC) and Ally Bank. 'The camera is critical. If you look at the kinds of growth in mobile banking over the first couple of years, it was about the basics of mobile banking. But what's really exciting me and my team for the next couple of years is figuring out how to take advantage of the ability of the mobile device,' says Brian Pearce, senior vice president and head of the retail mobile channel in the digital channels group at Wells Fargo."

Bill Pay Coming to Mobile Banking!
"You will soon be able to access your MidWestOne Personal Online Bill Pay account through Mobile Banking. If you are enrolled in Personal Online Bill Pay and use either the downloadable application or mobile browser version of Mobile Banking, you will be able to pay bills from your mobile device! You will also be able to access Popmoney, our Person-to-Person payment service."

Bremer Bank to Expand into Mobile Banking and Payments with Mobiliti from Fiserv
"Fiserv, Inc. (FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that Bremer Bank, an $8.1 billion bank headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., has selected Mobiliti™ as its mobile banking, payments and alerting engine. With Mobiliti from Fiserv, Bremer Bank customers will be able to securely access their financial information via their choice of SMS (text messaging), mobile browser and downloadable applications for Android™ and iPhone®."

Capital One boasts mobile banking through Web video initiative
"Capital One has rolled out an online video series that spotlights how fast and easy the company’s mobile banking options are. The primary goal behind the video campaign is to educate consumers on how to use the Capital One mobile banking application. Four videos are involved in the series with a fifth one planned for later this year."

Mobile Banking Updates - Nov 26

2012 Mobile Banking Market Assessment
"In new research, 2012 Mobile Banking Market Assessment, Mercator Advisory Group explores how retail financial institutions can increase interaction with customers and members to include 24x7, anytime anywhere service, and also expand their reach beyond simple demand deposit account transactions."

IALING FOR DOLLARS: Mobile banking becomes the norm
"As consumers demand more convenient access to financial accounts on the go, banks have adjusted by offering mobile banking and even creating apps for ease of use on smart phones. Mobile banking is dramatically changing the way consumers bank, with features such as person-to-person payments to help friends split the check at dinner and remote deposit capture, so customers can deposit checks without going to a branch."

Ally Bank Launches Next Phase of Mobile Banking
"Ally Bank's suite of customer-centric products and features expands this month to include the second generation of Ally Mobile Banking apps—featuring customers' most-requested capabilities—including Ally eCheck DepositSM, Bill Pay, and fund transfers to and from external banking institutions."

Banking on mobile: security threats, realities and fictions
"For businesses within the financial services sector not all-consumed by RDR and auto-enrolment issues, attention may again be turning to the threats, risks and uncertainties associated with mobile banking and other trends and developments in financial services technology. While the Australian bank Westpac has suggested that "the take-up of mobile banking is much faster than any previous technological innovation in banking," and indicated, according to reports, that it "processes three times more transactions made digitally, compared to transactions made in person," security providers in other parts of the world are stressing the heightened level of intrusion into mobile environments that have occurred during the third quarter of 2012."

BBVA Compass Expands Its Mobile Banking Apps To Include Kindle Fire™ And Windows Phone™
"BBVA Compass today expanded its growing stable of mobile banking apps with the launch of native applications for the Windows Phone platform and Kindle Fire tablet. The bank remains committed to providing native applications for the most popular mobile platforms, allowing users to enjoy a mobile banking experience that is consistent with their chosen devices. BBVA Compass currently provides mobile banking apps for iPhone® and iPad® mobile digital devices, BlackBerry® devices and the Android™ mobile digital platform."

Dickinson Financial Corporation Launches Robust, Multi-Brand Mobile Banking with Mobiliti from Fiserv
"Fiserv, Inc. (NAS: FISV) , a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced today that Dickinson Financial Corporation ("Dickinson"), a $2.1 billion bank holding company based in Kansas City, Mo., has launched mobile banking and bill payment capabilities using Mobiliti™ from Fiserv. Dickinson is utilizing multi-tenancy deployment, supporting six distinct retail banking brands with a single underlying mobile platform. This approach is enabling the company to deliver robust capabilities while realizing operational and product management efficiencies."

Mobile Banking Updates - May 28

Who Will Win the Battle for the Mobile War
"Over the next five years paying with your phone will become as commonplace as paying with cash, which is why every man, his bank and his phone company are in the battle to win the mobile wallet space. So who's going to win?"

Ally Mobile Banking
"Ally Mobile Banking has arrived for iPhone® and Android™ users! Now you can check your balance, view recent transactions, transfer money between your Ally Bank accounts and find ATMs and cash-back locations near you."

iPad and Kindle Fire: Banking on Tablets
"A young, prosperous generation is becoming increasingly mobile, and its gadget of choice on which to perform day-to-day financial business is the tablet. A handful of banks, led by Bank of America (NYS: BAC) , are frontrunners in this brave new world of banking and will most likely reap the rewards while their counterparts dawdle."

Mitek enables $10B in mobile banking deposits
"Mitek Systems' imaging technology has now enabled $10 billion in mobile banking deposits, with transaction volumes increasing more than 143 percent since the end of 2011, the firm reports. Mitek's Mobile Deposit technology allows consumers and businesses to make financial deposits by snapping photos of checks via smartphone or tablet camera."

Consumers Prefer Online Banking to Traditional Branch Banking
"More than half of consumers prefer to do their banking online and nearly half would do all of their banking online if they could. This was a key finding of the national consumer survey on retail banking trends conducted by Rosetta, an independent brand in the Publicis Groupe of global agencies and one of the nation's largest digital and direct interactive agencies."

Mobile Banking Reaches the Regionals
"Mobile banking websites and apps have become increasingly important to smartphone users over the last several years. Nearly all major national banks now offer their customers a variety of ways to perform their banking on the go, and with demand as high as it is, regional banks can’t afford to sit on the sidelines either. One interesting case is Dollar Bank, located from southwestern Pennsylvania to northeastern Ohio, which has been riding the mobile wave long before many larger firms. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Dollar Bank is once again beating many larger firms to the punch."

Mobile Banking Updates - May 24

3 Keys to Mobile Security
"Mobile banking is being adopted by consumers at an increasing rate, but it's just one piece of the overall mobile financial services puzzle. As the mobility trend grows, banking institutions are still figuring out how far ahead they should look, and what strategies make the most sense. But Paul Smocer, president of BITS, the technology policy division of the Financial Services Roundtable, says most institutions are doing much more than some observers give them credit for doing. Banking/security leaders are very concerned about mobile, and they're doing what they can to anticipate risks."

TMG on the Future of Mobile Payments
"The Members Group, in a wide-ranging webinar, offered up a provocative view of a banking future that in lots of ways challenges every idea credit union executives hold. 'Financial institutions do not have a God-given right to control payments,' said TMG executive Brian Day, who led the webinar on Thursday. 'Alternative payment providers want this market.' He pointed to Google, possibly Apple, certainly PayPal as aggressively on the hunt for thickening slices of the payments pie. To compete in a complex payments marketplace, said Day, 'credit unions need to look at creating new value for members and merchants.'”

SAP® Mobile Apps Connect Businesses and Consumers - from the Boardroom to the Shopping Center
"Extending its commitment to drive mobile innovation from the enterprise to consumers, SAP AG SAP -2.22% today announced a new wave of mobile apps designed to help people be more efficient whether at work, at home or pursing leisure activities. With the help of a thriving partner ecosystem, the new SAP® mobile apps lay the foundation for growth by providing real-time mobile access to human resources (HR), sustainability, finance, sales and mobile commerce functions. This includes updated versions of existing SAP mobile apps available on more mobile platforms, including Android and RIM BlackBerry. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 14-16, 2012."

Simple: Online And Mobile Banking With Style
"New services providing financial management usually evoke doubtful feelings within us, as we tend to rely on big, long-time running companies with a good reputation rather than small competitors new to the game. More or less exactly two years ago, in May 2010, Alex Payne joined and co-founded a company called BankSimple with the imagination of a bank without fees, caring for support and responsible money treatment — plus a love for good design and usability concerning its user-end products. It already sounded like an ambitious goal the day he published his announcement post."

Mobile banking app launched
"The app called Apprivo is being sold directly to banks and building societies with National Counties being the first mutual to take up the app. Customers will be able to access their accounts, access up to date product information, transfer money from one account to another and send outstanding information and documents including photos of wage slips and P60s. Advisers will also be able to use the app to submit information on behalf of clients in the same way."

To gain a competitive advantage with mobile, CIO readiness is all
"Ask Angelo Valletta, CIO at Sun National Bank, about IT's role in the company's sure-handed launch of its mobile banking platform back in early 2010, and he talks about team effort. Gaining a competitive advantage by being one of the first banks of its size to offer mobile banking was the result of a 'team going in the same direction,' says Valletta, who also heads bank operations at Sun National, a subsidiary of Sun Bancorp Inc., both headquartered in Vineland, N.J. 'IT is not the tail wagging the dog here.'"

Ally Expands Into Mobile Banking
"The latest TV commercial from Ally Bank, “Grocery,” (above) touts the brand’s "people sense" which translates into customer-centricity as good business sense, specifically, Ally’s Raise Your Rate CD, one of their most popular products. Ally Bank, a direct bank in the U.S., is a subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc., and offers a full suite of financial services including 24/7 live customer care, online savings, interest checking, money market accounts, IRA Plans and products, CD’s, reimbursement of ATM fees nationwide, an Ally Perks debit card reward program, and is a member FDIC."

Simple Releases First Mobile Banking App, Hits #13 in Finance Category of iPhone App Store
"The much-anticipated launch of the first truly virtual consumer bank is fast approaching. How do we know? From its tweets, of course (see inset). Customers who joined the wait list in 2010 are being told publically that they will receive invites "before spring is over." Others are being told "early summer," "mid-to-late summer," "early fall" and "fall." Based on those responses, it looks the company plans to work through its entire 100,000 wait list within the next 6 months."

Mobile Banking Updates - Mar 15

Mobile Commerce Market Set to Accelerate With NFC Facilitating $74bn Transactions by 2015
"A new study by Juniper Research forecasts that NFC (Near Fields Communications) will facilitate transactions valued at $74bn by 2015 as NFC is increasingly used for the payment of goods in-store and as transport tickets; this is over treble the estimated value of this market in 2011. The increasing use of mobile devices as an alternative to credit cards and paper tickets is one of the fastest growing segments of the mobile commerce market."

MWC2012: Mobile payment for non-banking customers
"UTIBA, one of the worlds largest mobile payment service providers, reviewing mobile banking future trends. $350 billion market expected to expand to $900 billion by 2014."

BBVA Compass First to Allow Mobile Enrollment from an iPhone
"One issue banks have struggled with as they develop mobile banking apps is: how to get new customers on board? Banks generally require customers to be online banking customers before they will allow them to use mobile banking."

Significant Gaps In Mobile Banking Identified By Keynote – Expanded 2012 Mobile Banking Scorecard Results Revealed
"Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote® Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), today announced the expanded 2012 Keynote Mobile Banking Scorecard, first launched in 2011, as a benchmarking standard for the financial and mobile banking industry. The latest Scorecard measures and ranks 15 large retail banks in the United States based on an expanded list of more than 100 criteria in four main categories, developed from consumer research and extensive interviews with practitioners."

Ally Aims to Release Mobile Banking App in April
"For Ally Bank customers, the wait for a mobile banking application is nearly over. The online bank aims to launch the first versions of its highly-anticipated mobile apps in April. 'Although April is later than we’d hoped to get Ally Mobile Banking out to our community, our primary concern is to make sure that our mobile solution handles your finances in a safe, secure manner,' Ally said in a blog post. In October, Ally Bank first announced that mobile apps were coming."

Update: Arvest Mobile Banking App for Android™
"Good news Android users—your Arvest Mobile Banking App is almost here! The new app for Android devices is in the final stages of development and will soon be available in the Android Market™. What should Android users do to be ready for the new app? In order to use the new Arvest Mobile Banking App for Android when it is released, you will need to be enrolled in Arvest Mobile Banking. If you haven’t enrolled yet, you can do so by clicking here and logging into Arvest Online Banking and clicking the Mobile Banking tab."

Many consumers not ready to adopt mobile banking, says survey
"Growth in mobile banking and payments is being driven by younger consumers, but most adults are more reluctant to adopt mobile banking, said a survey cited at cuna.org. In an online survey of 504 U.S. debit cardholders conducted in January, Auriemma Consulting found that younger consumers are more likely to download a mobile-banking app — 43 percent of respondents under 45 had downloaded a mobile app from their financial institution within the previous year, while only about 22 percent of those over 45 had done so."

Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 14

RBS and Natwest launch native Blackberry app for bank transfers
"The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Natwest have launched a mobile application to allow Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry device users to transfer funds between bank accounts. The new app also allows customers to check account balances, locate cash machines and top up pre-paid mobile accounts. Ben Green, head of mobile at RBS and Natwest, said the development of a native Blackberry app provides an alternative to accessing mobile banking services via a web browser."

BankAtlantic announces new web-based mobile banking platform
"BankAtlantic has announced the conversion to a new web-based mobile banking platform powered by Intuit Financial Services.
BankAtlantic's new and improved service is specifically designed for the most common mobile phone devices. This new service allows all BankAtlantic Retail Online Banking customers that have web-enabled mobile phone devices to access their personal financial information on the go from the palm of their hand."

Ally Bank: Mobile Banking Apps Coming Early 2012 for iPhone, Android
"Ally Bank says that next year will mark the debut of its mobile banking applications, with versions on the popular iPhone and Android smartphone devices to start. 'We’re excited to tell you that in 2012, we’ll release several mobile offerings, starting with apps for both the iPhone and Android as well as the ability to access your accounts through any phone that has web access,' Ally Bank wrote in a Straight Talk blog post."

America First Credit Union Launches Advanced Mobile Banking System
"The latest version of America First’s Mobile Banking - part of the credit union’s award-winning array of free electronic services - includes apps for Android and Apple operating systems. Other smart phone users will be able to access this benefit via mobile browsers. The new launch additionally includes a Text Banking option."

First Hawaiian Adds Mobile Banking
"First Hawaiian Bank has launched their mobile banking service called FHB Mobile Banking, according to the bank’s president and chief operating officer, Bob Harrison.

FHB Mobile Banking enables customers to use their mobile device to check their account balances, transfer funds between First Hawaiian Bank accounts, pay bills, and locate the nearest First Hawaiian branch or ATM. The new mobile banking service is available free to all First Hawaiian customers. Users can access their account using a mobile web browser or by downloading a free app for the iPhone, Android, or Blackberry platforms."