Long before mobile banking, debit cards, Internet banking, and .net core systems produced miraculous results for banks. Certainly they drove massive change and generated great opportunities for bank technology companies. So what about mobile banking? Is it the miracle we envisioned years ago?
The media started pumping mobile banking in early 2006. As so often happens with new technologies, many of the early companies and products have vanished. But more important are recent studies that predict 1 billion people worldwide will bank via their mobile phones by 2017.
Does that mean that physical banks will eventually shrink into mobile apps? Perhaps. But if that’s the case, it’s pretty ironic that banks and credit unions continue to buy and build branches. It’s also ironic that Internet banking is actually gaining functionality, not shriveling in the face of mobile banking.
It’s time to take a snapshot of our mobile banking miracle, and to acknowledge its slow but steady progress toward the promised land. We are in year seven of the mobile banking phenomenon – hardly the pace of a blockbusting breakthrough.
This is not to say that mobile banking should be disregarded, but I would argue that the industry’s focus on mobile banking needs to be less on the channel and more on its purpose. Banks have to ask if their business is processing transactions or providing valuable financial services, counsel and execution. The answer to that question should simplify our discussions about mobile banking.
Providing a full range of high value financial services in today’s business environment requires information, flexibility, and access to expertise. It’s a comprehensive package that requires equally comprehensive capabilities and integration. Without everything working together, most banks have a hard time selling their financial planning, cash management, and hundreds of other financial services.
Many banks have acknowledged the critical role of financial counsel in the high value service model. They are beginning to spread the cost by installing video feeds throughout their branch networks. Video enables customers in bank branches to interact with their financial advisors located in the main office, call center or elsewhere. Better yet, the customers can interact with their advisor while reviewing their current financial situation on screen.
The Internet is well equipped to deliver simultaneous video connectivity and data modeling. We might soon see the day when multiple resources are available to bank customers via the Internet banking channel to consult on complex issues.
In order for mobile banking to support similar financial power conferences, we would need to have bandwidth, apps, and 360-degree views of the customer’s financial situation, plus the ability for each everyone on the call to model scenarios in real time. CRM and risk management will have to be built into these processes, as well as profitability, underwriting, and many more bank functions – all necessary for the successful delivery of financial services.
Mobile banking is an opportunity for banks to create a branch in the palm of their customers’ hands. Not the same old branch, but a conduit to terrific customer experiences that will redefine banking services to all customers via all channels. This brave new world goes far beyond Millennial fads and straight to banking’s future.
Wouldn’t that be a miracle?
Robert Bessel is the public relations director for Avon, Conn.-based COCC Inc.
