2015 Global Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark

Transcription

1 2015 Global Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark by Peter Wannemacher and Aurélie L Hostis Why Read This Report Over the past five years, mobile banking has gone from little more than an extension of online banking to what one digital banking executive calls the most important part of my job. ebusiness and channel strategy professionals at banks are under pressure to differentiate by offering mobile features that meet or exceed customers needs and expectations. To help digital banking executives better understand this market, we used our Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology to evaluate the retail mobile banking services of 41 large retail banks around the world. Our benchmark reveals important differences in the banks mobile services and identifies areas for improvement at every bank: For example, the average score in our service features category is a disappointing 35 out of 100. This report helps digital leaders around the world benchmark their own mobile banking capabilities, identify best practices, and plan improvements to their mobile banking services. Key Takeaways Forrester Evaluated The Mobile Banking Services Of 41 Large Retail Banks Our evaluation criteria fall into seven categories: range of touchpoints, enrollment and login, account information, transactional functionality, service features, cross-channel guidance, and marketing and sales. We use these criteria to assess the retail mobile banking services of 41 large retail banks across four continents. A Cluster Of Banks Worldwide Have Pulled Ahead Of Their Peers Spain s CaixaBank -- which achieved the highest overall score -- and a cluster of seven other banks -- Bank Zachodni WBK and mbank in Poland, Lloyds Bank in the UK, CIBC and Scotiabank in Canada, and Commonwealth Bank and Westpac in Australia -- are at the forefront of mobile banking, delivering outstanding services to their customers. Many Banks Are Strong On Transactional Features But Weak On Services And Sales Digital teams at banks have spent the past few years ramping up transactional features such as P2P money transfers and mobile bill pay. But too few banks provide valuable service tools like fraud reporting and app-wide search or help mobile users shop for additional products and services. forrester.com

2 For ebusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals by Peter Wannemacher and Aurélie L Hostis with Benjamin Ensor, Rachel Roizen, Katyayan Gupta, Zhi Ying Ng, Alexander Causey, Alyson Clarke, Oliwia Berdak, Tim Sheedy, Audrey Blumstein, and Anjali Bhatia Dhupar Table Of Contents Notes & Resources Forrester s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Methodology The Benchmark: A Cluster Of Banks Lead By Continuously Iterating Mobile Banking Best Practices Of Banks Around The World Forrester used its Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology to review the mobile banking services of 41 large retail banks in 13 different countries. We conducted these reviews in March and April Related Research Documents Recommendations Embrace The IDEA Cycle To Take Mobile Banking To The Next Level How Forrester Can Help Identify Your Mobile Banking Strengths And Weaknesses 2015 Australian Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark 2015 Canadian Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark 2015 European Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark 37 Supplemental Material 2015 UK Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark 2015 US Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA USA Fax: forrester.com 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester, Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.

3 Forrester s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Methodology To help ebusiness and channel strategy professionals at banks benchmark their mobile capabilities, we used our Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology to evaluate the retail mobile services of 41 large retail banks around the world. This year s benchmark included banks from 13 different countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the US (see Figure 1). 1 Our methodology has four steps: Define a customer scenario. We used Forrester s Consumer Technographics survey data to develop a customer persona based on the profile of a typical retail mobile banking user (see Figure 2). 2 To test the mobile functionality, we identified three common banking goals that we attempted to execute on each bank s main iphone app or Android app. 3 The goals reflect the range of activities that customers have come to expect from mobile banking, including finding a recent transaction, sending money to a family member, and paying a bill. 4 Update the benchmark to align with customers changing behaviors and expectations. Our Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark along with all of our other digital banking benchmarks is a moving target. 5 This is because the customers that digital banking executives are striving to serve are themselves a moving target: Consumers needs, expectations, and attitudes are ever-shifting. 6 We review and update our benchmark criteria every year. Banks that don t update their mobile services will, therefore, typically score slightly less well than they did a year earlier. Score the banks mobile banking services across a variety of categories and criteria. We added a couple of new criteria for a total of 41 individual criteria in our Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology. Each criterion has a potential score ranging from -2 to +2. These scores measure how well each feature meets customers needs and helps customers achieve their goals. 7 The criteria are divided into seven categories: range of touchpoints, enrollment and login, account information, transactional functionality, service features, crosschannel guidance, and marketing and sales. Rank the firms. We weight each criterion to ensure that in general the mobile features that are most important to customers have the most impact on a bank s overall score. 8 We amended the weightings of specific criteria this year but did not amend the weightings across categories. 9 As some features are more important in some countries than others, our weighting is, inevitably, a compromise. The combination of weightings and scores for the criteria generates a score for each category and for each bank s mobile services as a whole. The final scores are based on a 100-point scale. 2

4 FIGURE 1 Forrester Reviewed The Retail Mobile Banking Services Of 41 Banks Around The World Australia Poland ANZ Bank Bank Zachodni WBK Commonwealth Bank of Australia mbank National Australia Bank Singapore Westpac DBS Bank Canada OCBC Bank BMO Standard Chartered Bank CIBC United Overseas Bank Royal Bank of Canada Spain Scotiabank BBVA TD Canada Trust CaixaBank France Turkey BNP Paribas Akbank Société Générale Garanti Germany İşbank Postbank UK India Barclays Axis Bank HSBC Citibank Lloyds Bank HDFC Bank Nationwide ICICI Bank NatWest State Bank of India US Italy Bank of America Intesa Sanpaolo Chase UniCredit Citi Netherlands U.S. Bank ING Bank Wells Fargo Source: Forrester s 2015 Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark 3

5 FIGURE 2 Mobile Banking Customer Description And Goals Customer description Michael is a 36-year-old married man with two children. He recently started a new job at a biotech company and earns a good salary. Michael and his wife just purchased an older home that needs some repairs. He generally works long days, and the recent move and house repairs have created a lot of stress and disorganization in his life. He has been banking online for more than six years and has recently been using his iphone more and more for banking activities so that he can stay on top of his finances. Customer goals Find and view a recent transaction. Michael realizes that he should have received his first paycheck for his new job last week. He remembers that he set up direct deposit and goes to check on his iphone if the paycheck has been deposited in his account yet. Send $20 to his niece for her birthday without her account number. Michael is fairly disorganized after the move, but he remembers that it s his niece s birthday today while at the supermarket. He wants to send her $20 using her phone number or address because he does not have her bank account number on hand. Pay a bill. Michael is having dinner with his family when he realizes that he hasn t yet paid for his new cable and Internet connections. He wants to pay his first cable bill. Source: Forrester s 2015 Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark The Benchmark: A Cluster Of Banks Lead By Continuously Iterating Forrester conducted the in March and April of The 41 banks we reviewed achieved an average overall score of 61 out of 100 (see Figure 3). We have published separate reports that provide more detail on our findings for the Australian, Canadian, continental European, Indian, Singaporean, UK, and US banks. 10 Overall, we found that: CaixaBank leads by excelling at providing both basic and next-generation features. Spain s CaixaBank, which operates under the brand la Caixa in Spain, received the highest overall score in our review, earning a whopping 86 out of a possible 100. CaixaBank supports customers across a wide range of mobile touchpoints and devices, and it offers some next-generation mobile features that few other banks currently provide. CaixaBank earned the highest score in three of the seven categories in our benchmark: range of touchpoints, account and money management, and service features. For example, CaixaBank is one of the very few banks to provide mobile banking users with predictive tools such as likely future spending based on their spending history and past behavior rather than payments they have manually set up (see Figure 4). 4

6 A cluster of leading banks have pulled ahead of their peers. Seven other banks also stood out from the pack with impressive mobile banking capabilities: Westpac in Australia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Scotiabank in Canada, Bank Zachodni WBK in Poland, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank), mbank in Poland, and Lloyds Bank in the UK. Like CaixaBank, these banks have all introduced substantial improvements over the past year, offering a wider range of transactional features and functionality, providing better guidance across touchpoints, doing a better job at mobile cross-selling, and promoting additional services in context. The most successful banks share a common, iterative approach to mobile. Digital teams at leading banks share some common practices in their mobile banking strategy and execution: They have adopted an iterative, test and learn process. Here is just one example: Scotiabank s digital team was in the process of developing and rolling out the bank s new mobile cross-selling initiative when the team recognized that using native code to build mobile-friendly product applications for different smartphone operating systems did not support a long-term strategy for mobile success. 11 So the team changed tack and replaced those applications using responsive web design. This agile approach of experimenting, measuring, and quickly adjusting has helped drive success at leading banks. Most banks are focusing on the most important mobile moments. Most large banks offer a sturdy foundation for mobile banking that meets customers basic mobile needs and expectations. Digital teams have focused on initiatives that help customers achieve their goals in a convenient way. For example, viewing account balances is the most common mobile banking activity, so firms have found ways to help customers accomplish this simple task more easily. Citi in the US, BNP Paribas and Société Générale in France, ING in the Netherlands, mbank and Bank Zachodni WBK in Poland, Nationwide in the UK, TD Canada Trust and Scotiabank in Canada, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia all let customers access account information without the need to enter a password (see Figure 5). 12 Many banks still have room for improvement, starting with service and sales. Too many banks still lack essential mobile features, such as the option to add a payee that has not been registered online first or the option to pay a bill to a previously unrecognized biller. Many banks are falling short in two categories: service features, and marketing and sales. For instance, 38 out of the 41 banks we reviewed offer no app-wide search whatsoever on their smartphone apps. Similarly, the majority of the banks we reviewed offer little to no cross-selling or product research tools to mobile banking users interested in additional products or services. 5

7 FIGURE 3 CaixaBank (ES) Westpac (AU) Bank Zachodni WBK (PL) CIBC (CA) Scotiabank (CA) Commonwealth Bank of Australia (AU) mbank (PL) Lloyds Bank (UK) Akbank (TR) BMO (CA) İşbank (TR) TD Canada Trust (CA) Bank of America (US) Chase (US) National Australia Bank (AU) U.S. Bank (US) Citi (US) Wells Fargo (US) Garanti (TR) RBC Royal Bank (CA) BBVA (ES) DBS Bank (SG) Barclays (UK) BNP Paribas (FR) Intesa Sanpaolo (IT) Postbank (DE) Société Générale (FR) UniCredit (IT) OCBC Bank (SG) Axis Bank (IN) NatWest (UK) HDFC Bank (IN) ANZ Bank (AU) HSBC (UK) ING Bank (NL) Standard Chartered Bank (SG) Citibank (IN) ICICI Bank (IN) United Overseas Bank (SG) Nationwide (UK) State Bank of India (IN) Global average Note: When multiple banks receive the same score, they are placed in alphabetical order. Several banks, including ICICI Bank, have updated their apps since we completed our reviews. Source: Forrester s 2015 Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark

8 FIGURE 4 CaixaBank Shows Customers Predicted Future Transactions Based On Their Past Actions This receipt was generated automatically by the system based on the receipts from the last 12 months to help you anticipate potential future charges. Source: CaixaBank mobile app 7

9 FIGURE 5 Multiple Banks Now Offer Pre-Login Account Information For Customers Who Want It Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Nationwide, and TD Canada Trust mobile apps Mobile Banking Best Practices Of Banks Around The World Our research is intended to provide a benchmark for the current state of retail mobile banking around the globe and uncover good practices from the banks we assessed. We found best-in-class examples from many of the firms we reviewed. These range from relatively simple features, like enabling customers to set up alerts from within the mobile app and making it easy to research additional products and services, to more advanced capabilities, such as enabling customers to make a contactless payment with their smartphone and offering them video banking service through the mobile banking app. Most Banks Support A Wide Range Of Mobile Touchpoints To serve customers in their mobile moments, banks have to develop services and design experiences for many different touchpoints, operating systems, and device types, not to mention mobile browsers. This fractured landscape is driving many firms to explore approaches like responsive design, as BMO in Canada has done. 13 CaixaBank earned a perfect score here, and Bank Zachodni WBK, mbank, Isbank in Turkey, and HDFC Bank and Citibank in India also received high scores. Successful digital banking teams lead in this area by helping their customers: 8

10 Interact with the bank via SMS. Most banks report falling use of SMS text messaging relative to other mobile banking touchpoints. Yet some consumers especially those who do not have a smartphone continue to use text banking. Many banks we reviewed offer neither actionable SMS alerts nor the option to use text messaging to initiate banking transactions. The differences are national. All of the Indian banks we reviewed offer some level of text banking, as do most of the banks in the US and in the UK. There are also unique offerings from banks like Wells Fargo in the US, which lets customers request balances, find transactions, and even receive advice via SMS, and TD Canada Trust, which lets customers ask questions and receive customer service via SMS. 14 Easily complete banking tasks via a mobile website. Many customers use the browser on their mobile device to access their bank account information, pay bills on the run, or make other mobile transactions and today they expect to perform these tasks without the hassle of pinching and zooming their way through a mobile-unfriendly web experience. Globally, banks are in solid, if not spectacular, shape in this area: 33 of the 41 banks we reviewed offer effective mobile-optimized websites. Many banks have recently redesigned or enhanced their mobile sites (see Figure 6). Mobile websites should also act as both cross-selling and cross-channel platforms. HDFC Bank in India offers product information on its mobile site, as well as the option for customers to request a phone call from a customer service representative (see Figure 7). Download apps for a range of smartphone operating systems. Downloadable smartphone apps let digital banking teams use device-specific features to create a smoother and more intuitive experience for mobile banking customers. Although some operating systems are more important in some countries than others, we looked at whether banks support customers across four operating systems: Android, BlackBerry OS, ios, and Windows Phone. Since many banks have concentrated their mobile efforts on downloadable apps over the past years, almost all the banks we reviewed do well here. Every single bank offers downloadable apps for multiple operating systems, and most now offer downloadable apps for three or more operating systems. Use apps designed specifically for use on tablets. Most large retail banks have rolled out tablet apps in the past few years: 37 of the 41 banks we reviewed offer a downloadable app for at least one type of tablet device. In fact, most banks now offer tablet banking for multiple platforms. Many digital banking teams have developed valuable or unique features that are well suited to the larger tablet screen. For example, BMO s tablet app includes embedded money management tools and visualizations to help customers understand their finances and take action. Société Générale s tablet app includes interactive, graphical money management displays to help customers visualize their current spending and plan for the future. 9

11 FIGURE 6 Many Banks Have Enhanced Their Mobile Websites Source: CIBC, NAB, and Wells Fargo mobile websites 10

12 FIGURE 7 HDFC Bank s Mobile Site Provides Product Information And The Option To Request A Call Source: HDFC Bank mobile website Banks Have Made Enrollment And Login Easy, But Many Have Further To Go As a growing number of customers worldwide are becoming mobile-first or even mobile-only, leading banks now make it easy for customers to enroll in mobile banking and log in. Westpac earned a perfect score in this category, with CaixaBank, CIBC, mbank, Scotiabank, and TD Canada Trust also standing out. Successful digital banking teams lead in this area by helping their customers: Enroll in mobile banking directly from their smartphone. As younger generations start opening their first bank accounts, the proportion of customers who are mobile-first and mobile-only will rise. Digital banking teams need to enable customers to register for digital banking directly from their mobile devices rather than forcing them to sign up for online banking first. Leading banks like ANZ, National Australia Bank (NAB), and Westpac in Australia; CIBC and Scotiabank in Canada; Akbank, Barclays, BBVA, Garanti, Isbank, and mbank in Europe; Axis Bank and ICICI Bank in India; OCBC in Singapore; and Bank of America and Citi in the US all let customers register for mobile banking directly from their mobile devices without having to sign up for online banking first. Understand how to use mobile banking. As content and functionality become more extensive, with leading banks offering regular mobile updates, it s important that digital banking teams communicate these improvements and guide new users through how to use mobile banking. Many banks, such as Citi in the US, offer tutorials prior to login to help customers understand and use 11

13 the features available on the app. Bank Zachodni WBK, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, and UniCredit go further and offer customers a preview of the app with a demo account. Westpac provides a range of how-to videos to help new customers understand key mobile banking functionality. Westpac also helps customers use new features with visual guides contextually embedded in the app. Easily access security and privacy content. Many customers who are just starting to use mobile banking worry about privacy and security, while others might want to be reassured in specific situations. This area remains a weak spot for many retail banks: Two-thirds of the banks in our benchmark performed poorly on the security and privacy content. Some banks, however, have designed their mobile apps to make guidance to security content prominent, clear, and present whenever a customer enters sensitive information or might have security or privacy concerns. Canada s CIBC, for example, places links to security content in the main menu and provides content that customers can easily scan and understand (see Figure 8). Other firms like Chase in the US place content alongside form fields where they ask customers to enter sensitive information like passwords. Get valuable content and account information pre-login. Digital banking teams have recognized that customers don t need to be logged in for every banking task and that many like the convenience of accessing simple information without needing to enter a password. France s BNP Paribas lets customers quickly view their balances by double-tapping a customizable image of themselves on the mobile app landing screen before login (see Figure 9). Bank Zachodni WBK gives customers two options: They can view their current balances either as an amount or as a percentage of a customizable, preset amount. And it is not just balance information that can help customers before they log in: Singapore s DBS Bank provides security tips, real-time currency conversion tools, and bite-sized financial insights, among other features (see Figure 10). Log in easily. Banks must make the mobile banking login process as painless as possible, without compromising security. Leading banks do this by using multifactor authentication the first time customers use the app, then letting them use a simplified login subsequently. Many banks offer convenient features, such as a remember this device option and the ability to save user names, and they let users opt into an abbreviated login process using a simple PIN code rather than entering a full alphanumeric password. CommBank and Westpac in Australia, Postbank in Germany, Isbank in Turkey, NatWest in the UK, and many banks in the US and Canada have started offering fingerprint authentication on their mobile banking apps, using Apple s Touch ID for ios apps. 12

14 FIGURE 8 CIBC Prominently Displays Its Privacy And Security Information Source: CIBC mobile app 13

15 FIGURE 9 BNP Paribas Lets Mobile Banking Users Tap On A Customizable Avatar To Peek At Their Balances Source: BNP Paribas mobile app 14

16 FIGURE 10 DBS Bank Provides Security Tips, Currency Tools, And Financial Insights Pre-Login Source: DBS Bank mobile app Apps Make It Easy To View Account Information But Lack Money Management Tools Customers expect their banking needs viewing, understanding, and managing their finances to be met on any remote touchpoint. One of the most visited areas of the average bank s mobile app is the transaction history screen. It is important that digital banking teams make it easy for customers to use the transaction history functionality if their aim is to meet or exceed customers expectations. The account and money management category of our benchmark assesses how easily and effectively mobile banking users can achieve these objectives. CaixaBank earned the highest score in this category, with Westpac, the Turkish banks Garanti and Akbank, and BBVA in Spain also standing out. Successful digital banking teams lead in this area by helping their customers: Quickly work out how to achieve their mobile banking goals. The mobile screen customers land on immediately after logging in is a crucial part of their mobile banking experience. Digital banking teams must design screens that make it easy for customers to complete the tasks they logged into mobile banking to do. Most leading banks display prominent one-click links to the most common tasks directly on the home screen. Isbank makes it easy for customers to quickly complete their most common tasks, thanks to a shortcuts tab displayed on the home screen that they can customize by adding more functionality buttons. CIBC also lets customers customize the home screen by moving widgets of content with a simple touch-and-drag gesture. 15

17 Quickly and conveniently find transactions. Most large retail banks 35 of the 41 banks we reviewed now offer transaction histories going back at least 90 days. Different customers will search their transaction history with different search tools, according to personal preferences: Many banks are expanding the transaction history tools available via mobile: NatWest in the UK now lets customers use natural language keyword search as well as various filters to quickly find transactions (see Figure 11). See an accurate forecast for their spending. A growing number of banks provide customers with a future view of their upcoming payments and transfers. And some are even using predictive tools to include transactions the customer hasn t yet set up. In Europe, CaixaBank, Garanti, and mbank all let users see predictive transactions likely future spending that is based on the customers spending history rather than any future payments they have set up. Better understand their financial lives with embedded money management tools. Digital money management will ultimately be embedded at the heart of digital banking. 15 Not all money management features make sense for mobile touchpoints, but digital teams should offer simple, integrated, and contextual tools that help customers quickly and easily get the information they want or take the action they need. One-third of the banks we reviewed offer some mobile money management tools. BNP Paribas provides customers with a wealth of mobile money management tools as well as best-in-class categorization of transactions (see Figure 12). 16 Postbank in Germany provides a budgeting tool to help customers control their spending and sends alerts to customers who exceed their budget (see Figure 13). 16

18 FIGURE 11 NatWest Lets Customers Search For Past Transactions By Keywords And Date Ranges Source: NatWest mobile app 17

19 FIGURE 12 BNP Paribas Offers Extensive Money Management Tools And Categorizes Spending Source: BNP Paribas mobile app 18

20 FIGURE 13 Postbank Offers A Budgeting Tool To Help Customers Control Their Spending Withdrawals Calculate based on transactions Define yourself Source: Postbank mobile app Banks Offer Solid Money Movement And Other Transactional Features As mobile banking users grow more comfortable using their smartphones for banking transactions, they will do it more. At the same time, new adopters will start using mobile banking more frequently and gain confidence conducting transactions like transferring funds or adding a new bill payee. 17 CommBank achieved a near-perfect score here, with Bank Zachodni WBK, CaixaBank, Chase, Garanti, RBC Royal Bank and U.S. Bank also earning high scores. Successful digital banking teams lead in this area by helping their customers: Move money without hassles. Overall, the firms we reviewed offer strong mobile money movement functionality such as account-to-account and P2P money transfers. And most of the banks we reviewed have expanded their mobile money movement capabilities (see Figure 14). Some digital banking teams have been more effective than others at designing convenient task flows with key elements such as progress indicators, predicted and pre-filled form fields, and simple steps free of unnecessary barriers. Banks such as Bank Zachodni WBK, CaixaBank, Chase, CommBank, and Garanti are leading the way. CommBank, for example, uses a single screen to let customers scroll through different options for the from and to accounts they want to use (see Figure 15). 19

21 Add a new biller and pay a bill without tedious manual data entry. In the early days of mobile banking, it was acceptable for a bank to offer a limited range of bill payment options via mobile. But with customers expectations rising and the number of mobile-only customers growing, limited functionality no longer suffices. As a result, digital banking teams are trying to help customers add a new bill payee directly on the mobile banking app without the hassle of manually entering lengthy biller IDs. 18 Some banks, like Singapore s OCBC, let customers set up payments by scanning a paper bill (see Figure 16). Others, like UniCredit in Italy, let customers pay a bill by scanning a QR code. U.S. Bank lets customers add a payee and pay a bill instantly by taking a picture of a paper bill or statement. Turkish banks simplify the process by letting customers select a payee from a list of preselected billers in the app. Send money to other people without sensitive personal details. Most of the banks we evaluated offer mobile person-to-person (P2P) payment functionality. Unless it s a family member or a close friend, most people looking to send money to another person don t want to bother with bank account details like lengthy account numbers, or they might feel uncomfortable asking for such sensitive information from someone they are not well acquainted with. Three-quarters of the banks we reviewed now let customers initiate a P2P money transfer with just a mobile phone number. Even more impressive: Some banks now let customers import those contact numbers directly from their phone s address book. Buy items in stores without plastic. Forrester believes that digital wallets integrating offers, coupons, point-of-sale (POS) payments, and loyalty rewards are poised to transform the way consumers shop and make payments. Today, just nine of the banks in our benchmark offer an integrated mobile wallet that enables in-store point-of-sale payments. 19 The banks that have launched mobile wallets are paving the way: Akbank, Bank Zachodni WBK, and Garanti all offer merchant-funded offers within the app. CaixaBank provides customers with contactless payment tools embedded in and integrated with its mobile wallet feature (see Figure 17). 20 Mobile wallets encompass services beyond POS payments: mbank s mobile wallet displays third-party offers in its app and makes these offers contextual by linking them to customers past spending patterns and current location. 20

22 FIGURE 14 Leading Banks Offer A Range Of Mobile Money Movement Options Source: Chase, Commonwealth Bank Of Australia, and U.S. Bank mobile apps 21

23 FIGURE 15 CommBank Lets Customers Easily Select Which Accounts They Wish To Make A Transfer To Mobile bankers scroll to their choices without needing to leave the screen. Source: Commonwealth Bank Of Australia mobile app 22

24 FIGURE 16 OCBC Lets Customers Scan Paper Bills To Enable Payment Source: OCBC mobile app 23

25 FIGURE 17 CaixaBank Enables Customers To Make Mobile Contactless Payments Source: CaixaBank mobile app Many Mobile Banking Apps Still Lack Valuable Service Features As mobile banking becomes the primary way mobile banking users manage their money, customers expect to be able to initiate a range of customer service tasks from within mobile banking. Although many banks around the globe offer a wide range of alerts, many only offer a limited range of other service features. CaixaBank earned the highest score in this category, just ahead of Isbank. The US banks as a group were among the best here, notably Chase and Citi. Successful digital banking teams lead in this area by helping their customers: Solve account issues within the mobile app. Self-service features let a customer initiate or complete a request without having to interact with a bank employee. Functionality that lets a customer dispute a card transaction, report fraud, or order a new debit card is not widely available on banks mobile banking apps. Eight of the banks we reviewed Akbank, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, CommBank, Isbank, U.S. Bank, and Westpac offer multiple self-service tools to mobile banking customers. To help spot unusual account activity and prevent customers cards from being blocked mistakenly when they re traveling abroad, Bank of America, BMO, Lloyds Bank, and Westpac let customers set up a travel notification in just a few seconds (see Figure 18). 24

26 Get help where and when they need it. As the complexity of mobile banking increases and as customers who are less digitally savvy than the early adopters start to enroll digital teams will need to help customers understand how to use mobile features, ideally with context-sensitive help. Scotiabank, for instance, recently rolled out a mobile help tool powered by IntelliResponse, a self-service, virtual agent, and knowledge management vendor solution. 21 This new help feature is present throughout Scotiabank s downloadable smartphone apps and offers task-specific content as well as the option to search for other information or move to another touchpoint if needed (see Figure 19). Find features and content using natural language search. As banks continue to add more features and functionality to mobile banking, the small screen size and the digital experiences customers have become accustomed to will drive an increasing need for universal, app-wide search. So digital banking teams need to make it easy for customers to search the entire mobile app or site for content and functionality that will help them achieve their objectives. Three banks DBS Bank, Isbank, and Westpac offer app-wide search engines. Isbank, for example, provides search within its main menu, making it easier for customers to find product information and functionality (see Figure 20). Receive, view, store, and upload important documents. As customers begin to expect more information whenever and wherever they are what Forrester terms the mobile mind shift the availability of financial statements, bills, and other documents through mobile devices will become more important. 22 Scotiabank is heading down this path by building a multipurpose Mobile Communications Centre that connects mobile banking users to epost as well as providing other messaging services. 23 Meanwhile, the UK s Barclays offers a digital cloud vault where customers can view statements, upload bills and other financial documents by taking a picture, tag documents, and set up reminders. 24 BNP Paribas not only lets customers store and view a range of documents all in one place within its mobile app, but it also lets customers search and filter to find a particular document. Set up, receive, and manage alerts. Alerts continue to offer great value to customers. Just a few years ago, customers were content to set up and manage alerts via the bank s secure website and receive the alerts via SMS or . But behavior is changing with the mobile mind shift, and an increasing number of banks are differentiating themselves by offering alerts delivery and management within the mobile banking app. Most of the banks we assessed offer a solid mix of balance, transaction, and security alerts. Eight banks Bank of America, CaixaBank, Chase, Citi in the US, Garanti, mbank, Société Générale, and Wells Fargo stand out by supporting a range of valuable alerts and letting customers receive and manage these alerts within their apps. 25

27 FIGURE 18 Bank Of America Lets Customers Set Up Travel Notifications Via Mobile Source: Bank of America mobile app 26

28 FIGURE 19 Scotiabank Enhanced Its App With Contextual And Searchable Help Mobile bankers can search for the answer see page-specific FAQs and answers or receive crosschannel guidance Source: Scotiabank mobile app 27

29 FIGURE 20 Isbank Makes It Easy For Customers To Search For Product Information And Functionality Source: İşbank mobile app Banks Are Doing A Decent Job Of Guiding Mobile Banking Users Across Touchpoints Although the share of customers who use mobile as their primary banking channel is growing, most mobile banking users still use other touchpoints. Customers are often looking for guidance from mobile to another touchpoint. We looked at how well each bank s mobile app helps customers reach human help and how well it helps customers move from the app to another touchpoint. Bank Zachodni WBK, BMO, and CommBank earned the highest scores in this category. Successful digital banking teams lead in this area by helping their customers: Reach human help easily. Banks should aim to make channel transitions as easy and convenient as possible for customers. Almost all of the banks we assessed make phone numbers easy to find within their downloadable smartphone apps. Most banks provide a Contact Us screen with a clean layout and prominent guidance to both phone and options for customers. But some banks are making it even easier to reach human help: CaixaBank, for example, offers customers its innovative My Advisor feature within its mobile banking app, letting customers write on their advisor s wall and get answers via mobile chat (see Figure 21). Bank Zachodni WBK, meanwhile, stands out by offering a video banking service through its mobile app (see Figure 22). 28

30 Find branches and ATMs. Most of the banks we evaluated make it easy for customers to find nearby branches and ATMs, including key information such as hours of operation and providing step-by-step directions. A few firms stand out here: BMO, for example, offers excellent branch appointment scheduling tools, which are available across mobile and other touchpoints. Westpac offers convenient guidance to ATMs and lets mobile banking customers withdraw cash at an ATM without the need of a card (see Figure 23). Likewise, Turkey s Akbank uses augmented reality to help customers find ATMs and beacons to let them withdraw cash without using a card (see Figure 24). FIGURE 21 CaixaBank s My Advisor Feature Offers A Range Of Ways To Connect With Human Advice Source: CaixaBank mobile app 29

31 FIGURE 22 Bank Zachodni WBK Offers A Video Banking Service Through Its Mobile App The connection has ended. Please fill out the survey. 1. How would you assess the Advisor Online functionality? Your advisor 2. How would you assess the amount of time you waited for your connection? 3. How would you assess the expertise and professionalism of Advisor Online? Source: Bank Zachodni WBK mobile app 30

32 FIGURE 23 Westpac Enables Cardless Cash Withdrawals Via Its Mobile App Source: Westpac mobile app 31

33 FIGURE 24 Akbank Lets Customers Withdraw Cash From An ATM With ibeacon Technology Augmented reality enables customers to easily find ATMs. Customers select an account and indicate the amount they wish to withdraw. Customers are asked to move their smartphone toward the ibeacon sticker at the ATM. Source: Akbank mobile app Some Banks Have Started Using Mobile Apps As A Cross-Selling Touchpoint While some banks including most of the Canadian banks have substantially improved mobile cross-selling in the past year, few banks offer marketing and sales features via mobile. In fact, the average score in this category is a dismal 38 out of 100. Our benchmark, however, reveals some bright spots and best practices. Lloyds Bank earned the highest score in this category, just ahead of CommBank, with CIBC and CaixaBank also receiving high marks and the UK s banks continuing to do well as a group. Successful digital banking teams lead in this area by helping their customers: See offers relevant to them. Mobile banking offers the opportunity to cross-sell to existing customers and promote additional services. Yet few banks use the context of a customer s current product portfolio, recent life events, location, past behavior, and other factors to offer personalized marketing in their mobile apps. 25 Leaders are starting to take advantage of contextual marketing: BMO, for example, uses in-line marketing on the mobile home screen to offer customers products they don t already own (see Figure 25). 26 Scotiabank uses in-app mobile messaging to offer targeted product offers. CommBank embeds personalized offers within account information, such as preapproved credit limit increases. CaixaBank presents personalized recommendations, such as suggesting a loan to a customer with a critically low balance. 27 mbank presents customers with an offer for you in the main menu of its mobile app. 32

34 Research products however they want to. While most customers remain more likely to research financial products on their PCs or tablets or in branches, many now start the shopping journey by looking for information while they are using mobile banking. Lloyds Bank lets customers read product information and compare different products and accounts within the mobile app (see Figure 26). CIBC offers a range of calculators and product selectors within mobile and uses these features to guide customers to new product applications. Westpac makes it easy to find information about products in-app, both before and after login; it even prompts users to rotate their phone to view a side-by-side comparison of products. Bank Zachodni WBK, meanwhile, lets customers shop for a range of items and services that go beyond financial products, offering quick access to discounts from third-party merchants. Easily apply for a new product, account, or service. Application abandonment has been an issue for digital sales teams at banks for years, and the physical limitations of mobile devices can amplify the problem. Someone trying to open a new account is more likely to give up if he or she needs to pinch and zoom through the task flow while also entering information into dozens of data entry fields. So cross-selling effectively means making buying as easy and quick as possible for a customer. For example, mbank has developed simplified product applications with two-step task flows and embedded them within mobile banking (see Figure 27). FIGURE 25 BMO Uses In-Line Marketing On The Home Screen To Cross-Sell Via Mobile Source: BMO mobile app 33

35 FIGURE 26 Lloyds Bank Lets Customers Compare Products Side By Side Via Mobile Customers can view product info compare different account options. Source: Lloyds Bank mobile app FIGURE 27 mbank Lets Customers Open A New Term Deposit With A Simplified Product Application Source: mbank mobile app 34

36 Recommendations Embrace The IDEA Cycle To Take Mobile Banking To The Next Level Over the past year, digital teams at most banks have largely kept up with customers rising expectations for mobile banking, and the leaders are probably ahead of most customers expectations. Consumers behavior will continue to evolve as mobile experiences with retailers, airlines, and disruptors raise their expectations about what mobile apps and sites should offer and how convenient they should be to use. So how can digital teams at banks continue to innovate to stay ahead of customers or at least catch up with them? Forrester recommends using the IDEA framework to plan and execute mobile banking strategy. 28 The iterative approach taken by the leading banks in our benchmark aligns with this framework. The IDEA cycle involves a four-step process: Identify mobile moments and context. In this step, digital banking teams map out the mobile moments in their customers journeys, cataloging opportunities to meet their needs in context. Start by analyzing who is reaching for a mobile device and why. What is their physical and historical context? How would they like to engage with you in that moment? Develop that understanding by walking in their shoes, observing their actions, and describing what you have observed. Custom research including journey mapping and analyzing site traffic can help here. Design the mobile engagement. This is the step where business leaders, designers, and developers get together to decide how to engage customers via mobile. Prioritize the mobile moments and opportunities that will be most valuable to both customers and the bank. The resulting engagement is constrained by a tiny screen and the huge expectations set by five-star consumer apps from other brands and startups. You must use design thinking, Agile development, and a continuous delivery process to rapidly launch, learn, and pivot to deliver value in the moment. Engineer processes, platforms, and people for mobile. In this step, teams take a hard look at what they need to change about their back-end systems and operations to ensure that customers can achieve their objectives via mobile. This involves estimating how feasible and easy to implement different mobile initiatives will be. In the long term, you will need to re-engineer your platforms, processes, and people to succeed. Analyze results to monitor performance and optimize outcomes. The mobile engagement is not complete if you re flying blind. Capture, track, analyze, and act on customer data to improve your mobile experience. Unless you instrument the app and the back-end systems of engagement with relevant metrics and analytics, you cannot improve your service or develop insight into what your customers want from you. Build data collection and analytics into each app release. 35

37 Continuous improvement requires digital teams to repeatedly cycle through these steps. 29 We recommend organizing into cross-functional working groups we call IDEA teams, whose job it is to experiment with new ideas and initiatives, measure what works, and enhance or scrap what doesn t. At many banks, IDEA teams focus on specific initiatives. For example, a bank might have an IDEA team for mobile payments, another for product sales and marketing via mobile, another for mobile digital wallets, and another for money management. How Forrester Can Help Identify Your Mobile Banking Strengths And Weaknesses Each bank has different strengths and weaknesses and different priorities as a result. So how can digital banking teams gauge how their mobile banking services compare with others and decide which features are most vital and/or urgent to develop? Forrester s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark can help by: Providing a custom review of your mobile offerings. Forrester uses the methodology from this report to provide digital teams with custom reviews of their mobile banking services. We deliver a full accounting of your score on each criterion and category and of your mobile services overall plus a ranking showing how your mobile banking services stack up against those of your peers. Highlighting your strengths and weaknesses in mobile. By comparing your mobile banking against those of other banks on a category-by-category basis, Forrester helps digital teams pinpoint key strengths and areas of opportunities within mobile banking. We also expand on the best practices mentioned in this report and provide additional examples and best practices tailored to your areas of opportunity. Providing actionable recommendations based on gaps and opportunities. Forrester s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark can help you identify immediate next steps and long-term improvements for your mobile banking strategy. 36

38 Engage With An Analyst Gain greater confidence in your decisions by working with Forrester thought leaders to apply our research to your specific business and technology initiatives. Analyst Inquiry Ask a question related to our research; a Forrester analyst will help you put it into practice and take the next step. Schedule a 30-minute phone session with the analyst or opt for a response via . Learn more about inquiry, including tips for getting the most out of your discussion. Analyst Advisory Put research into practice with in-depth analysis of your specific business and technology challenges. Engagements include custom advisory calls, strategy days, workshops, speeches, and webinars. Learn about interactive advisory sessions and how we can support your initiatives. Supplemental Material Benchmark Methodology Forrester conducted its Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark evaluation of the 41 mobile banking apps from March 16 to April 2, Our methodology involves scoring the banks mobile offerings across 41 criteria. As far as possible, we used an iphone 5 for criteria focused on firms smartphone apps and mobile websites. We used a Samsung S5 Galaxy for Akbank, Bank Zachodni WBK, and mbank. If you re interested in taking part in Forrester s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark or in learning more about our ongoing mobile banking research, please contact your account manager or contact Forrester s inquiry team at [email protected]. 37

39 Companies Interviewed For This Report We would like to thank the many individuals from the following companies who generously gave their time during the research for this series of reports. Akbank ANZ Bank Axis Bank Bank of America Bank Zachodni WBK BBVA BMO BNP Paribas CaixaBank Chase CIBC Citibank (India) Citibank (US) Commonwealth Bank of Australia DBS Bank Deutsche Postbank Garanti Intesa Sanpaolo Isbank Lloyds Bank mbank National Australia Bank Nationwide Building Society OCBC Bank RBC Royal Bank Royal Bank of Scotland Scotiabank Société Générale TD Canada Trust UniCredit United Overseas Bank U.S. Bank Wells Fargo Westpac ICICI Bank 38

40 Endnotes 1 We chose these banks as representative of the leading retail banks in each country. To include a bank in the benchmark, we had to be able to access a real account or a fully functional test account. Please note that we do not claim that the banks we reviewed have the best mobile banking functionality in the world, but we believe that the group contains some of the leading mobile banking services globally and that the banks we chose provide a useful benchmark of mobile banking services worldwide. 2 The demographics of mobile banking users are similar in different countries. They are typically a little younger, more likely to be male, more likely to have a university degree, more likely to work full-time and more likely to earn a high income than adults as a whole. Their exact demographics obviously vary from country to country, just as the demographics of the overall adult populations do. 3 Our logic for only including each bank s main retail mobile banking app in the benchmark is that a customer should not need to download an additional app or log into a different interface to complete common retail banking tasks like checking his account balance or making a payment. Note that by choosing to base the review on each bank s main retail banking app, we put firms that offer multiple apps, such as separate mortgage, money management, or payment apps, at a potential disadvantage. We have not considered small business functionality that may also be available to retail customers. However, the overall objective of this research is to uncover good practices, not rank the banks. 4 We determine these goals using data from our Consumer Technographics surveys. 5 Forrester has developed a range of heuristic, analyst-led digital functionality benchmarks. These include annual online banking benchmarks and bank digital sales benchmarks, plus a range of other custom reviews and benchmarks. For example, the following Forrester report evaluates and ranks the secure websites of the five largest retail banks in the US across more than 50 criteria. See the 2014 US Online Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report. 6 Mobile has shifted consumers expectations. They expect instant access to information and services, simple task flows, and relevant experiences. They also expect mobile experiences to improve continuously, whether they are standalone apps or apps associated with connected products. See the The State Of Mobile App Development Forrester report. 7 We do not give credit for features intended for business customers or features that require customers to log into a different app or different interface. 8 We develop custom weightings using data from our Consumer Technographics surveys, combined with analyst insights and feedback from our digital banking clients. 9 We amended the weighting this year to give a slightly higher weight to criteria like advice and planning, and to add criteria like media options, digital vaults, and non-bank offers. The additional emphasis on certain elements has resulted in some banks overall scores falling this year despite improvements across many categories. 10 We have published seven separate reports that evaluate the retail mobile banking services of retail banks in Australia, Canada, continental Europe, India, Singapore, the UK, and the US. See the 2015 Australian Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report, see the 2015 Canadian Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report, see the 2015 Canadian Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report, see the 2015 Indian Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report, see the 2015 Singapore Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report, see the 2015 UK Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report, and see the 2015 US Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report. 11 This quote comes from a mobile executive at Scotiabank. Forrester details the process of Scotiabank developing and rolling out its new mobile cross-selling platform in the following report. See the Case Study: Scotiabank Boosts Sales With Targeted Mobile Cross-Selling Forrester report. 39

41 12 As we describe later in this report, banks around the world are taking different approaches to offering pre-login views of balances. For example, TD Canada Trust s Quick Access feature includes what the bank calls a peek option that lets customers glance at their balances and then snap the information back to hide it from any nosy passersby. For more information, see the 2015 Canadian Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report. 13 Responsive design takes center stage in many enterprise discussions about mobile but comes with hype and confusion in tow. ebusiness professionals need to understand responsive web design s complexity in order to decide when they should take advantage of it to meet their customers mobile needs. See the Solving The Quandary Of Responsive Design Forrester report. 14 TD Canada Trust recently launched a new service allowing customers to use text messaging to get help from a customer service representative. 15 We believe that some digital teams have misread what customers really want: not digital money management as a separate product or service, but for digital banking to be more like digital money management. See the The State Of Digital Money Management, 2014 Forrester report. 16 In fact, more than half of the European banks we reviewed eight out of 13 offer some level of mobile money management, compared with fewer than half of all banks in every other region in our benchmark. Still, many of these banking providers offer only limited money management capabilities that fall short of what some customers will come to expect as digital money management becomes the hub of their financial lives. 17 Bill payment patterns vary substantially from country to country, so this functionality is more important to customers in some countries and customer segments than others. 18 So far, only one-third of the banks in our benchmark offer this kind of service. The ones that do offer a glimpse of the future in that area. Forrester made that prediction more than two years ago, when we wrote about U.S. Bank innovating with mobile photo bill pay. Source: Peter Wannemacher, U.S. Bank Tackles Cross-Channel Banking With Innovative Mobile Photo Bill Pay, Peter Wannemacher s Blog, April 23, 2013 ( wannemacher/ us_bank_tackles_cross_channel_banking_with_innovative_mobile_photo_bill_pay). 19 For this criterion, we were looking at bank-branded mobile wallet capabilities that are integrated into the main mobile banking app and enable point-of-sale payments. But please note that our mobile banking benchmark strives to be technology-agnostic, so as long as a customer can accomplish the desired task in this case easily and conveniently paying for an item in a store our criteria doesn t care whether the mobile wallet uses NFC, RFID, or any other technology. To put it succinctly, as long as it works and it s easy to use, the bank gets credit. 20 CaixaBank also offers a loyalty program for its customers called Puntos Estrella, which enables customers to buy products from third-party merchants with the loyalty points that they have earned directly in the app Puntos Estrella rewards customers with points each time they buy products or services from the bank s products and services catalog. Source: CaixaBank ( 21 IntelliResponse (now acquired by [24]7) offers software that helps banks answer customer help queries among other things. The largest Canadian banks have implemented Intelliresponse across multiple digital touchpoints, including secure websites. For more information about how Intelliresponse has been used on banks websites, see the 2014 Canadian Online Banking Functionality Benchmark Forrester report. 22 Consumers expect to be able to engage with brands on their mobile devices to get anything they want in their immediate context and moments of need. Forrester calls this the mobile mind shift. As of mid-2014, almost one-fifth of US online adults had shifted, and another one-third was on the verge of shifting. The sense of urgency to serve customers in their mobile moments has never been more palpable. Forrester s Mobile ebusiness playbook examines the issues and opportunities that ebusiness professionals must consider, weigh, and measure in order to implement a cohesive mobile strategy that transforms their customer experiences. For more information, see the Engage Customers Through Mobile Forrester report. 40

42 23 epost is a digital bill presentment service provided by Canada Post. 24 Digital vaults are an extra incentive for customers to go paperless and a way to make it easier for customers to share important documents with their bank. 25 Mobile banking offers an opportunity to cross-sell to existing customers and promote additional services in context. It is hard to overstate the importance of presenting prospects and customers with mobile marketing that is contextual. The fact that Scotiabank took the step of prioritizing marketing offers that are specific to the audience was critical to its success. For more information about best practices in mobile sales of financial products, see the Best Practices In Mobile Financial Sales Forrester report. 26 As evident in the figure, BMO also offers pre-filled applications for those who want to open a new account. 27 NatWest also offers personalized recommendations to customers but lets customers opt out of mobile marketing in the app if they do not wish to see these offers. Consumers are leaving a growing digital footprint across channels and media, and they are mindful of the fact that marketers use this data for financial gain. Combined with growing concerns about data security and privacy, this means that individuals increasingly want to know when data about them is being collected, what is being stored and by whom, and how that data is being used. See the Personal Identity And Data Management Forrester report. 28 We go into more detail about the IDEA cycle in our book, The Mobile Mind Shift. Source: Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask, The Mobile Mind Shift, Groundswell Press, You can also learn more about the IDEA cycle in our published reports on the topic. See the Mobile Moments Transform Customer Experience Forrester report. 29 The first step in the IDEA cycle identifying mobile moments and opportunities for the bank should be repeated six to 10 times per year depending on the firm, followed by the other steps in the IDEA cycle process. See the Embed Innovation To Sustain Mobile Banking Excellence Forrester report. 41

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