Can mobile banking drive revenue?

"For the first time since its inception, mobile banking outranked telephones and snail mail in popularity, according to an annual ABA survey. Of all the methods of banking, 8 percent of customers most frequently bank with mobile devices--a 30 percent increase from 2012--compared to 7 percent each using telephone and mail services." Continue Reading

Half of All Consumers Feel Undervalued by Their Bank

"Almost half of consumers in the US, Great Britain, Germany and France feel their bank does not value them as a customer, according to research from Ipsos MORI commissioned by GMC Software Technology. The research of 4,032 consumers across the four countries looked at what consumers really think about their banks’ customer experience and how they are valued." Continue Reading

Study Finds People are Frustrated With Digital Experiences, Walk Away With Negative Brand Perception

'Only 15 percent of people think technology -- including mobile devices, smartphones, tablets, etc. -- has made their life more complicated, according to a study conducted by Harris Interactive among more than 2,000 U.S. adults in October and commissioned by EffectiveUI.

But while technology and quick access to information is making life easier, people also say that the digital experience is becoming more frustrating. -- 93 percent of people have found themselves frustrated with the usability of a website, and, on average, are frustrated with websites 23 percent of the time." Continue Reading

Smarter Digital Banking Channels Drive Higher Customer Satisfaction and Revenue

"Digital banking channels — both online and mobile — offer big benefits to the customer and financial institutions. An intuitive digital banking environment gives the customer 24/7 access and insight into his or her financial status and the ability to initiate transactions, answer their own questions and sign up for new products and services at will, from anywhere in the world.

Banks of course are providing a unique set of services that improve customer satisfaction while reducing overall customer service costs. When done correctly, it can be a win-win for everyone involved and improves customer loyalty and the likelihood that customers will sign up for additional banking products and services from the financial institutions with the best digital banking experiences." Continue Reading

Slow Page Loads Kill The Online & Mobile Banking Experience

"Online and mobile banking users have zero patience for sluggish load times. They won’t even wait a couple seconds before giving up on you. In the 1990s, banking consumers had to drive down to their institution’s branch during business hours, fill out forms and stand in line to meet with a teller — a time consuming, tedious and often frustrating process.

Fast forward to today. Banking is increasingly branchless. Fueled by the ease and omnipresence of digital devices, more and more consumers are accessing online and mobile banking sites with greater frequency and confidence." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Updates - May 5

Wells Fargo puts mobile banking at center of new marketing campaign
"Wells Fargo has launched a multichannel marketing campaign that aims to educate consumers on the benefits of mobile banking. The Wells Fargo “Done” campaign includes television, online and mobile components and highlights multiple areas of the financial service’s mobile banking features, such as mobile deposit and transfers. The campaign is meant to show how mobile banking is a natural extension of what consumers already do on their mobile devices."

Mobile banking spurs growth at Michigan First Credit Union
"Michigan First Credit Union is looking for a few good employees, 14 right now to be exact. The Lathrup Village-based financial institution is looking for everything from tellers to human resources professionals to add to its staff of 225 people. However, technology pros are in especially high demand for the credit union. About a third of its new positions have some sort of tech angle, such as software developer or IT professional."

In 2017 one in four tablet users will be paying bills via their device
"With tablet adoption and user acceptance of ‘push’ mobile banking on the rise, it is thought that by 2017, one in four tablet users will be paying bills via their device, according to a new report from Juniper Research. The report suggests that these factors will drive users of transactional tablet banking services to almost 200 million in 2017; representing around 19 per cent of total mobile banking customers in 2017, as opposed to nine per cent in 2013. It is also noted in the report that the adoption of bill presentment and payment (MBPP) transactional banking by tablet users will be higher than mobile handset users, particularly in developed areas where there is a higher adoption rate of tablet devices."

Mobile Banking Plays Key Role in #1 Factor for Customer Loyalty, According to Yodlee Interactive Survey
"Banking convenience dominates all options amongst reasons to stay with banks, according to a new study conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Yodlee Interactive. With the convenience of online and mobile banking, more customers are utilizing these services, while banks are responding by reducing the number of physical branches. This survey was conducted among 2,219 Americans (ages 18+) between February 28 and March 4, 2013."

Bank of America to Offer New Mobile Banking Features
"Bank of America’s mobile banking user base of 12.5 million, rapidly growing at a pace of 55,000 new users per week, can expect several new features to come to the bank’s mobile banking applications. From May until the end of the year, Bank of America will roll out six new mobile banking features, which were first reported by American Banker."

BII REPORT: How Banking Is Going Mobile
"Over the years, retail banks have innovated to make personal banking more convenient and consumer-friendly. They've built sprawling branch networks, introduced credit cards, and developed automatic teller machines. In its latest evolution, banking is going mobile. With smartphones and tablets increasingly at the center of financial decisions — especially those of younger consumers — banks have to get their mobile strategies right. If they don't, they risk losing business to more mobile-savvy competitors, as well as tech companies like PayPal, that are developing their own payment and personal finance solutions."

Mobile banking expected to grow 18% annually through 2017
"The evolution of technology has brought on an onslaught of change to the banking industry, with banks becoming more convenient and consumer-friendly through mobile strategies, according to an article from Business Insider. The article says banks have become more competitive in order to stay ahead of other financial institutions. Currently, the mobile-banking user base is expected to grow 18% each year until reaching more than 1 billion users by 2017. By the end of this year, 590 million consumers will be using the technology."

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.'"

Mobile Banking Updates - Feb 8

Customer Satisfaction Grows for Financial Institutions and Banking Websites in 2011
"comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the 2011 edition of its annual State of Online and Mobile Banking report, which provides a comprehensive view of the key online and mobile banking trends in the U.S. in 2011. The report draws its analysis from a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users, supplemented by data from the comScore Mobile Financial Services Advisor report and the comScore opt-in behavioral panel of over 1 million U.S. Internet users."

City Bank Mobile Banking
"Surprisingly for a community bank, City Bank, a $1.9 billion institution in Lubbock, Tex., offers a few wrinkles in its recently updated mobile banking app that we haven't seen elsewhere. The app lets users turn their debit card "off" if they think their card has been lost or stolen. 'If you wake up in the morning and don't know where your debit card is, or if you've misplaced it, you can log onto the mobile app and turn your debit card off,' says Jim Simpson, vice president of IT. 'Then if you find the card later in the day, you can log back into the mobile app and turn the card back on. You're able to avoid calling an 800 number and going through all sorts of manual steps to do the same thing.'"

Why corporate mobile banking is scary
"In its December report on the emergence of corporate mobile banking, Celent wrote that “a slew of new devices, cheaper data plans, and faster networks are upon us. Business mobile users have the opportunity to take advantage of rich and powerful mobile banking services, provided their bank has an offering,” Sound pretty good. But the report, “Corporate Mobile Banking: Revolutionizing Cash Management,” authored by Jacob Jegher, also raises red flags about security."

PNC Strikes to Head Off Mobile Banking Patent Suit
"On January 25, Finnegan client PNC Financial Services Group Inc. filed a declaratory action against Maxim Integrated Products Inc. in the Western District of Pennsylvania seeking to avoid becoming Maxim’s latest target of patent litigation over mobile payment and banking applications. The suit claims that not only do PNC’s iPhone app and other mobile banking apps not infringe Maxim’s patents, but that the patents in question are invalid."