Like every other bank in the world, we are looking at a mobile banking solution to provide to our customers. After sitting through two demos so far, I think the technology looks pretty slick. Side note – if anyone can explain how you can do mobile banking on a pager, as one demo suggested, I’d appreciate it. At first, I wasn’t convinced that we needed to rush into mobile banking. It was hard for me to imagine myself paying bills or doing transfers on a mobile phone. Sitting at a desktop or pulling out a laptop made more sense to me. I’d like to think that I had transferred the necessary funds before I was away from a computer.
The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that there was no need to rush into this. The iPhone didn’t help matters. Using this phone, a customer could just go to our website and logon to perform their transactions as if they were on a computer. From what I’ve read, the iPhone blows away every other phone with its browsing capabilities. It only makes sense that other cell phone companies will adopt similar features and functionality. I also found it amusing that mobile banking companies announced iPhone compatible solutions. The functionality available is almost the same as logging into a typical online banking site with an iPhone.
As far as mobile solution providers go, I’m still not convinced that we need one. However, I am convinced that mobile banking will be huge and that it will be necessary. Travelers would find mobile banking very useful. Personally, I stay on the road. I’m also very hesitant to use someone else’s computer for my online banking. At home, I know I have a firewall on my computer and run anti-virus/anti-spyware software. I can’t trust all of my family and friends to have this in place. If I used my phone however, I wouldn’t have the same fear. I could easily pay my bills if I were out of town on pay day. Also, almost 1 out of 2 people have a cell phone, so I think it’s safe to bet that 90% of online banking users have a cell phone. The key will be getting them to adopt mobile banking.
In conclusion, I think mobile banking will be just as important to banking as the ATM. I just hope that people don’t expect it to achieve a significant penetration in less than five years. In comparison, the ATM is forty years old and internet banking is almost thirty years old. Becoming a major banking tool within ten years would be quite an accomplishment.
