Finovate Blog

Last year, one of my personal new year’s resolutions was published in the New York Times Bucks blog. That provided extra motivation to make it happen, though ultimately I still fell short in my goal to cancel one unused recurring service each month.

But I like the motivational benefits of making goals public, so in that vein I’m publishing my first annual list of new year’s resolutions for the online/mobile banking industry (roughly in priority order):

1. Make online/mobile banking a profit center: Cross subsidies work in many industries, e.g., giving away the razor to sell the blade. But with Congress determined to regulate the price of blades, it’s time to start pricing the razor for the value it delivers. Online/mobile banking provides enormous benefits for consumers and even more for businesses. It’s time to charge for it, at least for premium services.

2. Mobilize: Retail banks did a great job going mobile in 2010. And online-balance queries and transaction lookup are the all-important table stakes going forward. But that’s not the end of the project. Mobile is more important to your future than online, so work hard on your version 2.0 mobile service launching this year or next. 

3. Make it family friendly: Kids these days have grown up online and will do all their financial work via online/mobile services. Financial services companies should take a page from the telecom industry and start providing youth banking services via family bundles controlled by the parents.

4. Socialize: I’m in the camp that there is no such thing as a bad financial institution blog, Facebook page, or tweet. Boring? Yes. Lame? Sure. But, any reasonable effort is better than none. In 1996, there were a lot of bad Web pages. But was it better to get a page posted and learn from it or spend years developing a great “Web strategy” before doing anything? Early adopters are usually willing to cut you some slack on your first “beta version.” Just the fact that you are willing to get your feet wet automatically puts you above the competition.

5. Make it into a game: Over the holidays, I read a great article in Fast Company about how everything we do can, and probably will, be made into a game. And banking has a head start on other businesses looking to make a game out of everyday commerce. Frequent flyer points for credit card purchases started this movement more than 20 years ago. Now, everything a customer does financially can be rewarded with loyalty points all tracked through pervasive online/mobile connectivity.

I could go on, but then it would be harder to achieve my new year’s resolution of publishing an Online Banking Report on each of these topics.