Will mobile banking security concerns really hinder adoption?

One of the most newsworthy items surrounding mobile banking is security concerns. But do customers really care? Are security concerns actually making people not use mobile banking?

Let's find out.

Mobile banking is now reaching mainstream in most countries with developing countries seeing some of the best innovations being developed. 

Sales for smartphones also continue to rise creating new mobile banking users in the developing world. We come to expect banks to offer mobile banking services around the globe, and if you don't, you run the risk of turning away customers.

With the rise of mobile banking users, concerns around security are heightening according to a survey by Federal Reserve Board. A list of some of their key security findings are noted below.

• Customers rated security of SMS for mobile banking at 38% in 2011 but this has dropped to 34% in 2012.
• Customers also rated mobile browser security at 42% where a year earlier they rated it at 38%.
• Number of customers rating mobile apps as safe also declined from 40% to 35%.
• More customers are unsure as to whether SMS for mobile banking, mobile browsers and apps are safe or not.
• Mobile phone users who use their mobile for banking are more likely to consider mobile banking safe and are likely to know whether they consider it secure or not.
• Overall mobile banking safety (keeping personal information safe) has not witnessed much change.

These findings indicate that as customers use mobile banking more, security concerns are rising and there is a gap in terms of the knowledge of mobile banking security with many stating they ‘don’t know’ if it is safe or not.

Another survey by Jumio Inc "The 2013 Consumer Insights study" found some very revealing insights into whether customers will actually not use mobile banking due to security concerns.

They found many had been subject to online or mobile fraud (a quarter) and although 83% were concerned with identify theft, they would choose the convenience of mobile banking over security. Customers would continue to use their mobile for carrying out banking activities and expect to use them even more in the future.

However, although security concerns appear to not be hindering mobile banking adoption at the moment, it is important that banks address concerns and educate customers as to how they can protect their details and accounts. This will ensure that mobile banking continues to grow and security concerns do not hinder adoption in the future.

To learn ways you as a customer can enhance mobile banking security, or banks looking at ways to improve safeguards in place for mobile banking, please read Mobile banking - is it a stick up?

Alternatively, please contact us for more information.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Develop an award winning mobile banking experience

As consumers become more and more comfortable with mobile banking, which banks are winning the mobile banking race when it comes to delivering a top customer experience whilst other struggle? What do you need to do in order to compete successfully?

A recent study by Forrester found that US banks are at the top when it comes to mobile banking. They examined the mobile banking activities of 15 of the biggest banks in North America, Western Europe, and Australia.

As expected, the UK lags behind as the US and Europe take the lead largely due to the UK being slow to embark on mobile banking services. Chase bank has taken top spot with La Caixa in Europe taking 2nd place. Other US and Canadian banks scoring highly were Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and RBC. Canadian bank ING Direct were also recognised recently for their mobile banking experience on Blackberry as they won the BlackBerry Achievement Award in the 'Putting Customers First' category.

So what are the gold plated mobile banking features?

1. Access mobile banking across a wide range of devices
2. Multiple ways to carry out mobile banking 
3. Proactive banking alerts 
4. Allowing customers to manage payments 
5. Person to person payments 
6. Advanced functionality 
7. Tailor customers' mobile banking experience

You will find that all of these banks will offer customers the ability to sign up for mobile banking from a range of devices such as the popular smartphone, android, iPad and Blackberry. This is important as you do not want to exclude any of your customers and not everyone uses a smartphone. You need to consider your audience - who are they, where are they - and think about what devices they will most likely use to access mobile banking.

The majority of banks above are also offering customers the opportunity to carry out mobile banking across text, mobile sites and various apps. This allows customers to choose a platform which suits them, giving a more tailored service.

Proactive banking alerts are also being offered by some banks where SMS alerts are sent when account balances reach a certain threshold for example. A study by Varolii found almost 2 in 3 people in the US felt their bank was responsible for notifying them instantly when funds were low or there was not enough in the account to cover a bill. Proactive alerts can be a strong tool for raising the customer service and developing deeper relationships with customers.

Mobile banking payments is an area where much development is being undertaken. Many banks are allowing customers to manage payments from a mobile device but not all will allow you to set up the payee, amend and cancel payments and set up future payments. Giving customers this type of freedom greatly enhances their banking experience and allows the bank to cut transaction costs considerably.

Person to person payments using just a mobile number or the individual's email address is very novel and exciting. This is very important as using a mobile to carry out banking activities does create some difficulties as screens and keys are considerably smaller. Trying to find and type in a person's account number and other details required is a more time consuming process which can often be frustrating as you may type in the wrong details due to buttons being smaller (as I do)! Simply needing an email address or phone number makes the whole process easier and more enjoyable, creating a happy banking customer.

Advanced functionality can help you differentiate your bank from others and give a clear motivator for customers to choose your bank. One of the hottest topics at the moment is mobile cheque deposits as banks begin to launch this service to their customers. This service allows customers to use their mobile to deposit a cheque into their account - cutting out the need to visit a branch and wait in a queue - they can now deposit a cheque at the touch of a button. For everyday consumers, this may not be an exciting feature but for businesses where cheques are a more common form of payments, this is a real time saver and can enhance their loyalty to the bank.

La Caixa has tailored the mobile banking experience for customers by allowing them to modify the landing screen on their iPhone app. This can help customers feel special and appreciated, creating a stronger bond between customers and the bank. Are there opportunities for you to tailor mobile banking services for customers?

If you have any other features or services which you believe are crucial in delivering an enjoyable mobile banking experience, please get in touch and let us know. Alternatively, please visit our Solution Planner to discover other innovative mobile banking uses.

For further information regarding HSL, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Mobile banking for loyal customers

Mobile banking has been as busy as ever with more banks introducing mobile services and extending their offerings as customers become more and more comfortable using these services. Ever thought though, is it worth all this effort?

Well it is. Harris Interactive carried out research for Yodlee Interactive and found that the sheer convenience of banking is the number one reason for staying loyal to a bank in the US. Online and mobile banking are unarguably very convenient as you can carry out many banking activities from anywhere, at any time and customers are quickly recognising these benefits.

The popularity of online and mobile banking is rising and this is leading some banks to rethink their branch strategy and in some cases, reduce the number of branches as more customers rely on online and mobile banking. This does put further pressure on the online and mobile banking experience itself as it becomes a more used channel (and in some cases, the only real channel customers use). With a significant number of mobile banking users in this study highlighting the mobile banking experience as a reason why they stay with their banks, it becomes clear that banks have to deliver an enjoyable and effective mobile banking experience in order to deepen the relationship with customers and ultimately retain them.

Mobile banking is being used for a variety of tasks such as checking balances, setting up fraud alerts and paying bills. American Savings Bank recently launched a new banking service - mobile cheque deposit - where customers take a picture of the cheque to deposit it into their account. This service is gaining popularity in many markets and proved to be much more popular than the bank was ever expecting as it blew their one year target in just one month. This is yet another indicator that customers are becoming much more comfortable with depositing money using a mobile device for its ease of use and convenience. The benefits simply outweigh the concerns.

From a bank's point of view, as well as being a useful way to retain and attract customers, they are also able to cut transaction costs with company Mitek estimating savings to be over a $100 million.

Back in the UK, it is a similar picture with Intelligent Environments finding that more than half of the people in the UK state online banking services as a key motivator in bank loyalty. However, many also noted that they experienced frustrations with online and mobile banking. These reasons range from difficult to use devices to access accounts such as PIN generators to lack of consistency between offline and online services. Considering that studies are showing the importance of online and mobile banking not only in retaining customers but attracting customers, banks need to rectify this ASAP.

Like any business, banks need to focus on the customer and what they want. And banking customers in the UK and around the world are shouting for convenience. Mobile banking delivers this in abundance as customers are given more access and control over the everyday management of their finances which they can access quickly from anywhere at any time. You can connect to your online account at home, at work, in a shop, or on the bus (just to name a few).

To learn more about the different ways mobile can be used in banking, please visit our Solution Planner or simply get in touch. 

For further information regarding HSL, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

UK banks STILL trailing when it comes to mobile banking?

As the rest of the world got involved with the mobile banking race early on and continues to focus on developing innovative solutions for customers, the UK were slow to adopt and have been criticised for not taking advantage of the opportunities mobile banking can deliver. 

As a result, they are having to race to catch up with offerings already in the market place.

Are UK banks still trailing behind?

Yes. Forrester carried out research just last month comparing 15 large retail banks from different countries and found the UK are still trailing behind when it comes to mobile banking. Those highlighted included Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and NatWest, with NatWest scoring a little above the average. Overall though, mobile services offered by UK banks were found to be noticeably less advanced than those offered by their counterparts in North America and Europe.

As mobile banking users are expected to reach a whopping 1 billion by 2017, banks cannot afford to continue at the current lackluster pace and must step it up a gear if they are to compete globally. As customers become more tech savvy, they are demanding more advanced functionality from mobile banking and banks are simply failing to meet customer expectations.

Most big UK banks have now, at least, introduced basic mobile banking services and you will find that you can access online banking from your phone. RBS have developed an app for withdrawing funds from a cash machine simply by using your mobile phone. However, mobile banking on the whole is pretty simplistic and the innovations happening elsewhere, such as mobile cheque deposit, are nowhere to be found in the UK. Even worse, the UK banking market is largely led by a small number of 'big banks' leaving a much larger number of smaller banks and building societies who seem to be saying a flat out "no" to mobile banking.

Good news. The Payments Council announced in January 2013 that they are signing up UK banks to enable banking customers to send and receive money by sharing just their phone number by 2014. This is a huge step forward in helping UK banks catch up with latest innovations in the market place. At the moment you have big banks such as Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Santander taking part but we are also seeing new start-up, Metro Bank, taking part as well as Danske Bank and Cumberland Building Society. Hopefully this will inject some healthy competition amongst the smaller banks and building societies and encourage them to shorten the gap between mobile banking offerings and customer expectations.

Mobile banking services help banks build enduring relationships with their customers and attract desirable new customers as well as reducing those all important overheads. So why not develop a mobile solution that will set you apart?

Mobile banking is here to stay. Learn more about how HSL Mobile can help you develop a winning mobile banking service and beat off the competition. Try out our Solution Planner or get in touch. 

For further information regarding HSL, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Mobile banking - is it a stick up?

As mobile banking popularity soars, we see more warnings about the security of mobile banking. However, who is responsible for keeping your details safe - you or your bank?

We think it's both of you. The bank must uphold the highest standard of security and implement the appropriate safeguards to protect customer details. 

Already we see banks implementing a number of safety steps and we have noted a few below.

1. Sending SMS when a new payment recipient has been added to the account.
2. Set up overseas transaction alerts to instantly alert a customer when their card has been used overseas. 
3. Using SMS and voice to verify changes to account. 
4. Set up SMS alerts for weekly balance alerts, credit limit alerts and high and low balance alerts. 

These types of alerts notify customers to whether there has been any unexpected transactions from their account as well as helping customers manage their finances.

There has been some controversy over how secure an SMS is. Like any technology, there are a few weaknesses. However, this is why it is strongly recommended that banks use a number of safeguards rather than relying on only one step to protect details. For example, if a customer is setting up a payment for a new recipient this typically requires UK banking customers to verify through telephone verification as well as sending an SMS to the customer advising that a new payment has been set up on their account.

Customers also need to be responsible when it comes to protecting their own personal details. This includes:

1. Always logging out of the site when you are using mobile banking 
2. Never saving your username 
3. Keeping your password safe 
4. Never sharing any personal or private information with others 
5. Setting up SMS alerts for fraud 
6. Letting the bank know when you are travelling abroad 
7. Always ensuring you are logging in from a secure network

Mobile banking benefits are far reaching for both customers and the bank. Customers are able to bank anywhere at any time allowing them to manage their finances in real time and banks are able to cut down on routine transaction costs as well as deliver improved customer care and service by enabling proactive and real time alerts. However it is important that banks continue to develop safeguards to protect customers’ personal detail and money and customers also understand how they can help protect their accounts.

To find out more about how our mobile banking solutions can help you, please explore our Solution Planner.

For further information regarding HSL, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com