Mixed Ratings for Mobile Banking
A report card on the user-friendliness of the mobile banking efforts of 29 institutions conducted by ABI Research found a mixed bag of results, reports Computerworld.
Some regional banks scored highly, while some national institutions were given less-than-stellar marks. This press release on Reuters includes the ratings.
The report looked at things such as whether mobile banking is provided on multiple devices, or only one, such as the iPhone. Does it allow checking balances only or can users also transfer money between accounts and pay bills? What about security?
ABI analyst Mark Beccue said it’s a new area for banks and many are just “dipping their toes” into it. As with mobile payments, which I wrote about earlier, it’s an area in which the Financial Services Technology Consortium is urging banks to become involved. As Beccue put it:
I would point out that while an F is bad, at least [they] tried.
As Kent McNeil points out on this Mobile-Financial.com piece, it’s another way for banks to provide service that’s less expensive than call centers. But to do it well, he says, mobile banking requires its own strategy.