Summary
Mobile Banking – much more than an iPhone App
The number of banks in the US and in Germany halved between 1990 and 2012. Traditional banking is under pressure by at least 4 mega trends in banking: Increase of regulation, legacy technology, consolidation and changing customer behaviour.
By 2016 the number of Internet capable mobile devices will reach more than 4 billion devices globally and smart phones are already used always and everywhere.
The future is always here – it’s just not evenly distributed yet. You can see this if you take a look at digital natives, the usage of phones in Africa, Google wallet and Square.
For banks it will become critical to position themselves in the world of customer experience much earlier.
The MyPrivateBanking Mobile Applications Report 2011 gives banks on average a score of 35 out of 100 points. Major critiques are “only simple basis services”, “mainly useless information”, “available only for iPhone” and “security issues”. A look at current mobile banking offerings does not disprove the report. They are mainly static, text based and lack of visual experience.
But you can think different about mobile banking. Actually you can build native apps for all platforms that are highly dynamic and provide an experience, e.g. by making use of augmented reality technology embedded in customers’ life. Banks may be able to win back the car loan business at the point of sale and embed mobile and tablet technologies in their sales processes.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s “Kaching” and moven are examples of what can be done.
