It seems to be the natural evolution for banking, take the mass online audience and find ways to make their experiences easier. Not that online banking is challenging. In fact recently, the capabilities one has online from simple transfers to complete mortgage applications is quite robust. However with 153 Million cell users in the US, banks must be prepared to capitalize on the user base. As banks look to reduce costs moving consumers to the mobile channel might result in benefits for both sides.
So what is the potential? According to TowerGroup (on eMarketer), there is about to be a huge expansion in the number of US Mobile Banking Users. This means that first, the financial institutions have to provide enough functionality through the mobile channel, and second, the consumer audience has to be comfortable with the obvious security concerns of their cell phones.
The possibilities are tremendous. If the population gets as large as predicted, banks will have yet another way to entrench their relationships with consumers beyond the branch, ATM and browser. What will this mean to banks from a cost savings
perspective? The areas that banks should be looking at to reduce costs include wider access to electronic debt counselling, support for cashflow and money management websites and third-party tools, account consolidation, and the provision of cost-saving data.
Putting some of these capabilities on the mobile phone should even further reduce costs of doing business for the banks. However consumers won’t just flock to the new channel and self serve options. Banks need to step up their efforts to encourage customers to bank online and through mobile, whether that be by using incentives, reduced fees or the realization of better service.
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