Mobile Banking: Information is Power

Banks and Payment mobile apps are just beginning to go beyond basic account information.   Early wins in customer adoption of Account Disclosures and Branch /ATM locations to their mobile customers are leading to a few companies creating and curating branded financial information and education to enrich the customer utility and increase engagement. This blog looks at five informational capabilities financial companies will employ to compete for mobile dominance and describe key success factors that will define the winners.

*AmEx hosts most of its education on separate sites like the OPEN Forum
1. Disclosures are a win-win

All of the 10 companies reviewed provide basic account terms and disclosures.  This is because of the multiple benefits from a compliance and cost perspective. Recent US regulations make the ability to manage the presentment of account terms a key compliance requirement, with explicit restrictions on how often account terms can change and the ability for a customer to opt in or out.  Mobile customers are already comfortable with regular app updates and the mobile interface enables a company to get an explicit opt in/out.  Add to that the very real opportunity to avoid the $0.50+ per mailing cost for the thick and intimidating paper version and you can see why this was the first informational element to be adopted on the mobile browser and apps. 

2. Mobile Information Finds Value

Another great feature is the find a Branch /ATM location.  Relevant and timely information that leverages mobility to deliver incremental value to the customer.  But why stop there?  What about merchants that accept the card or payment device?  As flattering or cool as it is to use your Centurion card or your Dwolla tap, these only work if the merchant accepts it.  Break down in the sticks near a cash-only garage and you, the issuer, and the merchant are all s--- out of luck. 

3. News: The Early Edition

Financial News and Articles are more recent additions to the mobile experience, with Citibank an early leader in providing a fully integrated experience to the mobile and ipad app.  AmEx has some good links to the OPEN Forum and additional educational sites for consumers, but these have limited targeting beyond the entrepreneur and thus far can only be accessed through a link to the mobile browser, bringing the customer out of the app and away from their profile. More targeted information that the customer can curate themselves through Likes and dislikes would work better. 

4. Financial U

Citibank, Amex  and mint.com all provide some decent links and articles on financial responsibility, understanding APRs, and tips to encourage fiscal responsibility.  I’ve also heard some good things about the “Talk to Chuck App” from Charles Schwab but I had to draw the line somewhere in terms of how many personal accounts I set up for the purposes of this review. 

5. Know Thyself to Enrich Thyself

What I’m most excited about is the opportunity to inform and educate consumers on their actual account and spend information.  This has huge benefits for both consumers and the companies they transact with.  Heres how:

Consumers: Most of the apps reviewed enable the user to sort account information by categories like date, account, and spend category.   The dashboards available provide a solid tool for customers to understand their relationships with that one bank or payment provider. 

But who does all their activity with just one company?  Creditcards.com estimates that 80% of Americans hold a debit card and that the average card holder has 3.5 credit cards in their wallet.  For those of us with 5 or more active accounts in play, mint.com takes the prize for its ability to aggregate account information like balance, payment due dates, and your actual spend by category for every account you load.  Once you get past the initial shock of seeing how much you really spend in bars, restaurants, and coffee shops, you will find mint.com provides a simple and effective interface to gather and display your data to encourage better fiscal discipline and avoid unnecessary fees.  They have recently added an advice section that promises to proactively suggest ways to reduce account fees and optimize investments but so far the tool has limited ability and couldn’t offer one recommendations for me. 

Companies:

The company that can access the complete view of your financial profile and spend behavior has the best opportunity to provide hyper-relevant offers across a wide span of financial investment, loan, and insurance products. Not only do they know what you need, they know when you need it and are capable of providing instant and immediate access with real-time and geographic identification, eligibility, and pricing. 

We will dig deeper into the ability to make offers in the final section of this Mobil Banking Apps review on Loyalty.  In the third section on Payments coming next, look for the explosive power of linking information on spend and budget with actual payment controls.