Banks Must Go Mobile Or Go Out
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Study assesses the current state of mobile banking.
While consumers seem to be flocking to the convenience and flexibility of mobile apps to meet their needs, it seems financial institutions have not yet universally embraced mobile app access as a critical business requirement for today’s consumer. An Apteligent white paper collected information from regional and national banks worldwide assessing their thoughts, concerns, practices, and the current state of mobile banking, and concluded that for today’s financial institutions, the lesson is “Go Mobile or Go Out.”
The white paper, Inside the Vault: The Future of Mobile Banking, found financial institutions that have not yet adopted mobile — a large percentage of the industry — are cutting themselves off from a key user demographic and revenue potential. The report suggests, “Financial institutions are faced with two choices: bury their heads in the sand and lose business to mobile-first entrants or embrace the opportunity that is mobile and proactively build top quality apps. Mobile pioneers have a rare opportunity to differentiate themselves from their laggard competitors — giving today’s on-the-go consumers exactly what they want, quite literally, in their hands.”
This is good news for MSPs and VARs. A huge opportunity exists to help financial institutions qualitatively and quantitatively understand the complete customer experience and help them overcome usability issues, security concerns, and app latency issues.
The study found that, although many financial institutions do not yet offer a robust mobile experience, they are aware that it will become a priority very soon. Not quite half (47 percent) of the surveyed banks reported mobile accounts for less than 25 percent of their revenue, while 14.7 percent said it accounts for over half of their institution’s banking revenue. Yet when asked what proportion of total revenue they expect mobile to account for by 2018, 44.1 percent anticipated it would be over half.
Stephen Bird, Chief Executive Officer of Global Consumer Banking, Citigroup, said mobile banking is a “pivotal point” in the industry and it’s “a big opportunity for us if we can move fast enough. It’s both an opportunity and a threat.”
An earlier Apteligent study found 38.7 percent of consumers “might” change banks if they found one that offered a mobile app or a better mobile app, while 8.9 percent said they would definitely switch banks. And if financial institutions have a mobile app offering, customers use it enthusiastically with 26.9 percent reporting daily use and 50 percent reporting weekly use.
Ultimately, the white paper concludes, “Given that smartphones and tablets are already displacing PCs for routine banking interactions, it’s clear that the future lies in mobile. Depending on the approach you take, this can be a threat or an opportunity. The choice is clear. Blaze ahead with your mobile capabilities and you can bank on success.”
For MSPs and VARs, this means providing the products and support that financial institutions need to have in place to implement a success mobile banking application.