10 Tips To Drive More Online Banking Applications

“Many banks and credit unions allow consumers to open accounts and apply for loans online. Few are thrilled with their results. To increase the number of deposit accounts and loan applications generated by your online channel, you’ll need to re-evaluate your website.” <<READ MORE>>

Balance Forecasts Will Come to Digital Banking

“What would it take to make personal financial management apps more popular?

Cash flow predictions and deeper spending insights, say many observers in this market, from entrepreneurs to analysts to bankers.” 

<<READ MORE>>

Mobile banking demand drives app development innovation

“Barclays bank says its decision to use private cloud and Linux will help it cut development costs and compete in the mobile banking sector.

This year banks will invest in mobile banking platforms as the business case for these investments becomes easier to make in the light of increasing demand. Over a billion people will use mobile handsets to access banking services by the end of 2017, according to the results of a study by Juniper Research.” 

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Bank of America launches online and mobile cash back deals program

Bank of America is launching its online and mobile cash back deals program called “BankAmeriDeals” across the USA. The program will allow users to click a button or tap on the screen to choose deals they want through Bank of America’s Online Banking and Mobile Banking app. Additionally, cash back deals and other rewards can be paid into customers’ accounts. 

BankAmeriDeals offers cash back deals from a number of retail categories such as discount department stores, fast food chains and casual dining restaurants.

Nuance Interactive Natural Assistant (Nina)

Online army bank USAA is going to add a new speech-based virtual assistant developed by Nuance Communications to its mobile app.

Nuance Interactive Natural Assistant (Nina) is a Siri-like virtual tool, that offers speech recognition, text-to-speech, voice biometrics and natural language understanding for mobile customer service apps.

Developers can use an open SDK to add the virtual assistant technology to their apps, branding their own persona, including the visual appearance and optional custom Text-to-speech voices.

First to use it is online army bank USAA, which will initially pilot Nina within its mobile app before introducing it to all members early next year.

Watch Nina at work.

US Treasury asks Facebook and Google to judge mobile finance app competition

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, together with partners the D2D Fund and the Center for Financial Services Innovation, has launched the "MyMoneyAppUp Challenge" to solicit ideas from the public for mobile applications to help Americans shape their financial futures everyday—even while on the move.

The Treasury Department has brought in experts from Facebook, Google and Harvard to help judge a public competition it is running to find financial services-related mobile apps.

Designs must be submitted by 12 August when they will be judged by a panel including Katie Burke Mitic, director of platform marketing at Facebook, Sendhil Mullainathan, professor of economics at Harvard, and Jonathan Weiner, business development, payments at Google.

The winning entrant will receive $10,000, two runners up $5000 and two honourable mentions $2500. They can then move on to the complimentary theFinCapDev competition to build a prototype.

Augmented reality - UK's Halifax launches 'Home Finder' app

This new app by Halifax called 'Home Finder' uses augmented reality technology to allow users to view and pull up data on houses for sale as they pass them on the street.

Users can hold their phone up on any street and explore properties for sale nearby, overlaid with additional data such as local school rankings and transport links.

The app also offers additional information on selected properties, with photos and floor plans available, as well as information on monthly remortgaging repayments.

Your face is your ID

Dutch online and mobile transactions specialist Adyen has unveiled an application that lets people make payments using only their faces.

Tapping smartphone and tablet cameras, the Face-ID app requires customers to show their faces and then uses recognition technology to make a match. To confirm they have been correctly identified, the customers just give a thumbs up sign.

The app unveils today. Find out if your face is already in the system at http://www.adyen.com/FaceID/

Apps – A quick look at what is hot and what is not in the US this week

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Mobile banking apps could be vulnerable

Banking apps for mobile devices are increasing in popularity. Estimates by the financial-services firm TowerGroup suggest there will be 53 million people using mobile-banking apps by 2013.

There are however many security advocates who have concerns about the whole question of apps. Spencer Ante of the Wall Street Journal raises a warning in: “Banks Rush to Fix Security Flaws in Wireless Apps.” Here is the lead paragraph:

“A number of top financial companies and banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and USAA are rushing out updates to fix security flaws in wireless-banking applications that could allow a computer criminal to obtain sensitive data like usernames, passwords, and financial information.”

The same article mentions viaForensics, a company specializing in securing mobile applications, as the firm discovering the vulnerabilities. The question is, why is this even happening? It is not complicated. Our banking credentials should be considered sacred, period.

On a good note, viaForensic’s web site mentions their researchers are working with the affected financial institutions: “Since Monday (1 November), we have been communicating and coordinating with the financial institutions to eliminate the flaws.“

The blog post goes on to say: “Since that time, several of the institutions have released new versions and we will post updated findings shortly”.

In the quote, viaForensics mentioned publishing new test results. That refers to their online service called appWatchdog.

Within days and to their credit, most of the banking firms pushed out updates to remove the vulnerabilities.

New apps added to JPMorgan Chase mobile banking platform

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has added two new features to its application for the iPhone that allow users to deposit checks and conduct person-to-person payments.

The bank hopes that clients who use their phones to deposit cheques would also want to use the devices to transfer funds on a person-to-person basis. “The more people start using their phone and seeing their phone as a payment…or a banking device, you’re going to get adoption of a broader array of services,” said Jack Stephenson, director of mobile, e-commerce and payments for JPMorgan Chase.

Early results indicate both payment services have “very high adoption” rates, but Stephenson said it would take time to figure out if the uses would overlap. “Our strategy is around convenience,” he said. “You want to allow customers to do business in the channel of their choice.”

JPMorgan Chase developed the apps for the iPhone and iPad initially because of the higher user rates those devices have. The company has plans to enlarge its mobile services to other phones and devices, although Stephenson declined to name which ones or how soon those apps would be launched.

The US’ best mobile banking apps

Not every bank has jumped into the mobile banking market at full steam. This is also true of the US where even some of the coutries most popular banks don’t yet offer iPhone apps or mobile-ready websites.

A recent web based survey, looking for the most convenient “on-the-go” banking experiences found the following mobile banking offerings from four of the US’ most popular banks.

Chase

Chase offers applications for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry as well as access to accounts via standard text messaging.

Chase iPhone App

• Cost: Free. Client must be enrolled in Chase Mobile to make transactions with app.
• Standard functions: Text banking allows client to see account balances, review transaction history and check credit card due dates. The mobile app is much more helpful: Client can pay bills and schedule payments through Chase Online Bill Pay, transfer money between Chase accounts, wire money to outside accounts, and check balances and history.
• Extras: The Chase Mobile app includes a helpful “Find ATM/Branch” feature that uses the phone’s geo-location capabilities to find the nearest Chase branches. The app also provides the hours, contact information and number of ATMs at each branch. If the client needs help managing his/her accounts, the “Contact Us” tab includes one touch dialing to Chase’s help lines.
• Aesthetic appeal: The Chase Mobile app runs quickly on the iPhone and features easy-to-read white text on Chase’s familiar blue background.

Bank of America

Bank of America has a standard text messaging banking system as well as apps that work on the BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Bank of America iPhone App

• Cost: Free. Clent must be enrolled in the Bank of America “Online Banking” service to use certain features of the app.
• Standard functions: Bank of America’s text banking lets client check account balances, view credit card account details and see transaction history. The BofA app allows the client to access account details and balances, transfer funds to other Bank of America accounts and pay bills.
• Extras: The BofA app helps the cleint find nearby locations based on the phone’s geo-location abilities. One can also input a zip code or address in order to plan ahead.
• Aesthetic appeal: The BofA app uses smaller fonts and weaker colors than the Chase platform does. It also takes a bit longer to load pages.

Citibank

Citibank boasts three separate mobile apps. One works on the iPhone and iPad, the second on the iPod Touch, BlackBerry and Palm smartphones, and the third on many kinds of basic cell phones.

Citibank iPhone

• Cost: Free. User must be a Citibank client to make any transfers or view account information.
• Standard Functions: All three of Citbank’s apps allow the user to view balances, wire money to others and transfer money between your Citibank accounts. The iPhone and iPad versions also allows the client to track their Citibank credit card accounts.
• Extras: If the user wants to be reminded often of the status of her accounts, the cleint can sign up for a very comprehensive text alert system. The cleint can choose to be alerted when your balance dips below a certain level, when deposits are made, when bills are due or when CD accounts are about to mature, for example. The iPhone and smartphone apps provide lists of the bank branches closest to the phone’s current location. The user can also search by zip code or address.
• Aesthetic appeal: Citigroup’s app suffers from the same ailment as many other iPhone and smartphone platforms: Some of the fonts are too small for comfortable reading.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo users have access to apps for Blackberry, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, as well as the ability to get account info via text message.

Wells Fargo iPhone

• Cost: Free. To access account information or make transactions you must be a Wells Fargo Mobile customer.
• Standard Functions: The iPhone app allows the cleint to check available balances, monitor credit card activity, transfer funds and pay bills. The bank’s text service provides balance and account activity information.
• Extras: The Wells Fargo application includes bank-finding functionality and the ability to filter search results depending on what services each particular branch offers. If the user does not have any room for additional apps on his iPhone, he can visit wf.com, which has a fast and easy-to-use site that fits the iPhone perfectly.
• Aesthetic appeal: Wells Fargo’s mobile properties have a very standard look (not nearly as slick as Chase’s offering). But the apps load screens quickly and the app’s toggle menus make searching for branches easy.

The mobile banking apps offered by these popular banks are more alike than they are different. Considering the fact that all the apps come free of charge and all offer similar benefits, a clear leader in the mobile banking market has not emerged.