We all live in a digital age when everything you need is literary at your fingertips. Whether you want to order a cab, buy food, or book a room in a hotel, all you need is a smartphone. Users quickly got used to the pleasure of saving time and money with all the user-friendly apps available on the market. Who needs all that paper bills if you can reach all the necessary banking information and pay the bills from the comfort of your home with saving a tree as an additional bonus? If a user has a question, they don’t even need to call the banker anymore; it’s enough to type it in the chatbox to get an instant answer. Add the security alerts, and it’s no wonder that the ability to create a banking app is one of the deciding factors when choosing a bank.
Benefits of Mobile Banking for Banks
- Mobile banking reduces the bank’s expenses by saving on paper, bill delivery, several employees, and running branches.
- Mobile customers are considered to be more engaged. They stay with their bank longer, make more transactions, and use more bank products.
- Using mobile banking apps increases user experience by providing services 24 hours a day, whether monitoring their expenses, making instant payments, or getting some user support via chatbots powered by AI.
- Mobile apps are generally provided with an increased security level compared to reaching a bank account online using internet banking.
- Metrics based on user behavior in the app can be collected for personalization and service improvements.
- Expanding from regional to national – banks can expand their customer base without opening new branches, leading to high expenses.
Reasons to Use
According to Statista, these are the main reasons customers use banking apps.
- Balance verification
- Recent transactions verification
- Funds transfer
- Making deposits
- Bill payments
- Investment verification
- Contacting customer support
Core Functionality
Multi-factor authentification – secure sign-in is a must for every banking app. The highest level of security can be achieved by using one of the client’s biometrical parameters.
Client profile – this is the part of the app client sees after logging in. They can check the current balance, make transfers, set regular payments, or manage savings.
Customer support – is mostly represented via chatbots. However, clients can get some human help when needed without calling the bank’s call center, wasting time listening to music on hold.
Map – users should have an opportunity to find the nearest ATM or physical bank branch when needed and find out about their working hours.
Push-notifications – is both a cheap and convenient way to inform clients about their balance, the payment they have to make, or to give other reminders.
Scheduled payments are a handy feature for those who have regular monthly payments to make but keep forgetting to do them on time.
Security alarm – if a card is lost or stolen, clients should report it, and it will be blocked in a matter of seconds.
Additional functions – apart from these basic functions, banking apps may offer nonbanking services, give some personal offers, provide analytical reports, etc.
Online Banks
Transferring the banking services online turned out to be so popular that banks with no physical branches appeared on the market. Due to the reduced spendings on staff and office rent and maintenance, online banks offer higher deposit interest rates, lower or absent maintenance fees, meager transaction fares, and other benefits. Despite all the benefits, some users may be reluctant to trust a bank with no physical presence. Still, a successful online banking experience should definitely be applied to combine the best of both online and traditional banking.
The Bank of America Mobile Banking
Bank of America launched its first mobile banking app in 2007. In 10 years, the number of digital clients surpassed 25 million, as announced on the official site. The main criteria of the best mobile banking apps according to this research-based advisory firm are:
- Ease of use, user-friendliness
- High level of security
- Financial fitness
- Transfers and payments
- Customer support
- Ability to open an account in-app
Mobile Banking Trends 2019
Before building any mobile app, the first thing to consider is the target audience. According to Nielsen, the most common users of any banking apps are Millennials (aged 21-34), closely followed by Generation X (aged 35-49).
With the UI design standards rising every year, we expect banking apps to follow the trend of user-friendliness and clear design that can be applied to any app, actually.
When talking about security, according to Javelin, a slow and complex identification process was one of the reasons why customers stopped using their bank’s apps. To simplify it and yet keep it secure, biometrical verification should be enabled in the banking app.
Also, the function of account open should be provided in-app. Previously, customers had to go to the banks personally to do it before any operations were available in the mobile app. But what is the reason to use a banking app if you still have to visit its branches?
Artificial intelligence is on the rise, and nowadays the AI customer support is becoming a must for the banking app, both for the banks and for their consumers.
As we can see, the world of fintech will never be the same. Bank clients don’t have to waste their time visiting the bank branches and going through endless paper bills, while banks don’t have to spend fortunes maintaining a zillion of branches and staff anymore. Still, mobile banking will not replace the traditional banking system as we know it, at least not in the next decade. But providing clients with a user-friendly and secure mobile bank app is the goal for every bank worldwide, no matter how big or small it is.
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