Technology brings banks closer to home, smartphones

COURTESY CITIZENS BANK
ON THE GO: Citizens Bank recently unveiled its new Android-advice app, bringing those customers mobile capabilities originally only available to iPhone users.
COURTESY CITIZENS BANK ON THE GO: Citizens Bank recently unveiled its new Android-advice app, bringing those customers mobile capabilities originally only available to iPhone users.

Recent advances in technology have transformed the banking industry, with mobile banking and a wide variety of Web-based services becoming standard offerings rather than anomalies.
But as the pace of change accelerates, who can tell what banking will look like in the future. For example, will your local branch even be necessary?
The most immediate technological change consumers are beginning to see is the expansion of mobile-banking services via the smartphone and tablet formats. “The bigger banks such as [Citibank] have offered this technology for the last two or three years, and although it’s used by only 20 percent of its customers, banks expect mobile banking to grow exponentially over the next five years,” said Bryan Yurcan, associate editor of Bank Systems & Technology, a subsidiary of UBMTechWeb. “This is the immediate future.”
Another service starting to gain popularity is mobile remote-deposit capture, in which customers can deposit checks electronically using a laptop, smartphone or tablet, for instant credit to their account. Paper checks are digitally scanned and an image of the check is electronically sent to the customer’s bank. “That’s the way ‘consumerization’ is going right now. Everyone wants to do what they want, right now. It will become widely adopted over the next few years,” Yurcan said. Large banks such as JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, USAA and U.S. Bank offer this service. Locally, the Rockland Trust Co. provides it.
And paperwork? That might become a thing of the past. “This technology can also be used internally to help reduce the massive amounts of paperwork such as a mortgage or a loan application,” he said. “That seems to be one of the next frontiers.” To do so, banks will have to invest in supercomputers not only to store data but to sort it for relevant information.
The fear that banks will have to consolidate and eliminate branches in order to survive looms, to some extent, in the background. “It has been an interesting point of debate,” Yurcan said. “Some think branches will be eliminated but others think the services of a branch will change. Umpqua Bank in Oregon has branches like Starbuck’s, with coffee and Wi-Fi. It’s a possibility.” Locally, changes are being felt as well. Webster Bank is presently upgrading 291 automated teller machines across its four-state footprint. According to Brenda F. Greene, vice president of public affairs, one of the improvements will be a voice guidance option or ‘talking ATM’ in both English and Spanish. Other improvements for patrons with disabilities include better Braille signage and headphone jacks. Most ATMs will boast an envelope-free scanning feature for deposits, complete with a scanned image showing exactly what checks and cash were deposited on the receipt.
The Rockland Trust Co. also has entered the mobile-banking arena, establishing a suite of mobile services, including traditional mobile banking (check balances, transfer funds, set alerts) as well as mDeposit, a remote deposit-capture feature.
The bank offers three ways to use mobile banking: text banking, mobile Web through a smartphone’s Web browser, and downloadable apps for iPhones, Blackberrys and Androids. Recognizing the growing popularity of such devices, the bank does not require a customer to be an online user to sign up and use the service.
“This past year, Citizens Financial Group developed a mobile-banking iPhone app, which has become popular with our customers who use it to pay bills, check balances, search for the nearest branch or ATM,” said Ashley Gingerella O’Shea, public affairs specialist. “We expect the same popularity for the launch of our Android app this year.
“We’re also breaking ground in business mobile banking. A year ago, we became the second bank in the United States to untie clients from their desks and computers, with the introduction of accessMOBILE,” she said. Through this branded product, customers can get balance information, check on transfer status, approve and release wire transfers and receive alerts, as well as find nearby ATMs. Customers used the bank’s online platform more than ever in 2011,with more than 200 million hits.
Last June, CFG launched a video-banking pilot program that allows customers at participating branches to have “face-to-face” interactions with bank specialists around the world.
Customers can conduct a full range of mortgage and wealth management services through one-on-one video banking conversations. The system allows potential customers to begin the process without having to wait for follow-up appointments and eligible applicants could be provided a preapproval letter. The changes are not local or even national; they’re global. “It is true that the technology among some of the European banks is more advanced, but I don’t think that’s true across the board,” said Sean K. Conway, a banking spokesman for Accenture, a global management consulting firm based in New York. The company regularly hosts seminars and conducts consumer research on the latest in banking technology and the industry. “Right now, people all over Japan are making payments over their smartphones, for example, and Spanish banks are extremely advanced when in comes to infrastructure technology and data sharing. But American banks are on the cutting edge when it comes to [customer service] technology.”
According to a February 2012 study by the business advisory firm of AlixPartners of Boston, mobile-banking services are expected to reach 50 percent of all customers by 2016 as opposed to only 15 percent presently. In addition, 39 percent of today’s consumers believe mobile offerings will play a significant role in choosing their bank. Among mobile users who switched banks, more chose mobile as a preferred attribute than chose any traditional, consumer-banking-selection criteria, including fee levels, branch convenience, customer service and deposit rates.
Their research discovered that 55 percent of mobile-banking users are between the ages of 18 and 34, and the average income for mobile banking users is $71,000, an attractive target audience. As mobile banking continues to expand, there will be more pressure on banks to differentiate themselves by inventing mobile apps that will attract and retain customers.
More telling is that the remote deposit-capture feature is the leading mobile driver for bank selection, with 65 percent of survey respondents saying the ability to deposit a check with their mobile device was the leading feature that would cause them to switch.
More and more, technology is providing real-time solutions to fit a customer’s banking needs. •

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