Increased Competition Driving Upgraded Mobile Banking Offerings; New Tools Emerge to Meet Digital-First Consumer Expectations
Keynova Group, the leading competitive intelligence source for digital financial services, announced the results of its semi-annual Mobile Banker Scorecard. The Q3 2021 Scorecard evaluates the mobile banking capabilities of the largest 17 U.S. banks with a focus on customer experience elements. Chase and U.S. Bank tied for first place, with both institutions delivering market-leading personalized mobile experiences for consumers via their respective banking apps.
The Q3 Mobile Banker Scorecard reveals key industry trends, including banks taking a more proactive approach to overdraft protection, savings, budgeting, spending analysis and security.
“Banks are reimagining and redesigning their offerings to meet continuously evolving consumer expectations,” said Susan Foulds, managing director, Keynova Group. “We’re seeing more banks shifting toward mobile designs that create a seamless, simplified user journey—without sacrificing a wide selection of digital banking service. This highlights the vast capabilities many of the largest banks offer compared to challengers, despite the viewpoint of some that traditional banks’ apps are falling behind.”
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Key findings:
Increased Competition with Challenger Banks Leads to Advancements in Personalized Mobile Offerings
Facing growing competition, banks are upgrading their digital offerings and empowering consumers to efficiently transact and manage their finances using a variety of modalities. Leading banking apps are delivering personalized financial guidance to address highly diverse financial circumstances based on account activity and spending patterns. This includes providing more proactive service to help customers manage finances with real-time balance and overdraft alerts to avoid fees. For example, PNC provides both notification of negative balances and flexible options to transfer funds or cancel payments when balances are insufficient to cover pending transactions. Savings and cash flow tools are also becoming more intelligent for personalized banking such as directing funds toward savings goals when extra cash is detected in addition to providing user-managed settings for automatic transfers.
Emerging High Touch Mobile Customer Support
Mobile banking is making major strides in customer support as sophisticated customer servicing capabilities help broad consumer audiences attain their individual financial goals. Omnichannel servicing options include mobile banking capabilities ranging from digital self-service requests, such as the ability to dispute a transaction or renew or close a CD account, to high-touch assistance with scheduling in person or video meetings with bankers—the latter recently released by Citi and U.S. Bank. Two-way messaging in near real-time for user support within banking apps is also trending.
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Banks Continue to Set a High Bar for Digital Privacy and Security
With heightened public awareness of cybersecurity issues worldwide, consumers often rely on their trusted financial institutions’ visible user-facing elements to help them safeguard their privacy and security. Respecting customers’ privacy choices, the mobile apps from Chase, PNC, USAA and Wells Fargo provide options for users to indicate preferences for sharing information and promotional communications. Fraud prevention measures include user controls to block specific types of card transactions, such as international and online purchases, and mobile ID verification to scan a driver’s license to open accounts—now supported by six banks.
Syndicated for more than two decades, Keynova Group’s semi-annual Mobile Banker Scorecard objectively evaluates the top 17 U.S. banks’ competitive mobile banking offerings to identify evolving trends and actionable insights that drive digital strategy. Scorecard assessments are based on compiled research, proven best practices, and expert observations with overall scores based on nearly 275 objective criteria.
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