With the Launch of Foursquare-powered Social Currency, American Express Now Has 7 iPhone Apps

In the spring, we predicted that 10 to 15 years from now there would be tens of thousands of iPhone apps from financial institutions alone (note 1). Our reasoning: Many (most?) larger FIs would have more than one app, perhaps dozens. At that time, nine financial institutions (note 2) were tied for most-prolific app deployers, each with two iPhone apps.

imageToday, I found out that American Express has blown that record away. With the release this week of a youth-oriented Foursqure-powered app, Social Currency (app link), the card issuer now has seven apps available for the iPhone alone (but still none for the iPad).

AmEx iPhone lineup
Two are from American Express Publishing (making the comparison to other financial institutions a little unfair):

  • Best New Chefs
  • Eat and Drink

Two are published by other companies:

And finally, three more from core card-issuers:

  • American Express used to access most AmEx cards
  • OPEN Forum for small business clients
  • mobileXtend that can only be used by employees of corporate clients who have licensed this service option 

American Express has seven apps available for the iPhone
Note: Shown here in search via iPad (22 Sep 2010)

American Express has seven apps available for the iPhone

Notes:
1. See Online Banking Report: The Case for Mobile Banking (published March 2010)
2. See Online Banking Report: Mobile Banking and Finance Apps (published April 2010)

Mobile Phones Just Keep Getting Smarter: Now Used as an Electronic Key Card at Holiday Inns

imageI love September. When I was a kid it was the excitement of going back to school, a new football season, wonderful Midwest weather, plus my birthday to boot.

Nowadays the birthday isn’t so much fun, but the weather is still fine and it’s like Christmas for new tech products. I can’t prove it, but I bet there are more major product announcements in Sep/Oct/Nov than the rest of the year combined. 

This month already, 70 new tech products launched at DEMO last week, and several dozen will debut at TechCrunch Disrupt next week. Then, of course, we have 56 new financial launches at Finovate, Oct 4/5 (which unfortunately is sold out).

Today alone, there were at least six new things I would have liked to blog about. Maybe I can get some of them into my Twitter feed at least. I have chosen the one that was the biggest “aha” moment of the day. The seemingly off topic, but oh-so-cool service, that can turn any mobile phone, yes even those low-end freebies, into an electronic hotel room key. And without any additional hardware/case/SIM/SD card or anything. It’s like magic. Watch.

They use sound to engage the lock. Aha! Would I trust the thing? Probably not, but I’d use it anyway. The key benefit (pun intended) is that you get to bypass the endless lobby check-in queue when you arrive at the hotel and simply proceed directly to your room. For that, I’d take the risk that it didn’t work. Besides, four times in my life I’ve been given a key card at the front desk that opened up on a room already occupied (see note 1), so this system can’t be any worse.

The system, called MobileKey, is being piloted for the next three months at a Holiday Inn in Chicago and Houston. It’s powered by OpenWays. When using the service, the hotel sends the guest a text message with a link that plays a unique sound that opens the door. Brilliant! 

Relevance: When your phone becomes your Starbucks card, then your airline boarding pass, and now your hotel room key, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a mobile wallet, not only controlling your bank accounts, but also used at the point of sale for purchases. 

Notes:
1. Does this happen to everyone or am I just cursed? At least three times the door was not deadbolted from inside, so I actually went partway in to the room. Once I was politely told to go away, once I was screamed at by a fellow whom I’d awakened after midnight, once the occupant was in the shower so I quickly backed out, and the fourth time there were dishes out front so I called the front desk first. Anyway, I always knock before going into my room the first time.  
2. HT ReadWriteWeb

Complexity in Financial Services: Can We Really Bank Simple?

Financial confusion Despite the best intentions of governments worldwide, does anyone really believe that consumer financial services will become simpler anytime soon?

Yet, I’ve been intrigued by Bank Simple and apparently, so have many others. Evidently, Twitter/Square founder Jack Dorsey and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington talked about Bank Simple on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference this week.

While most articles are hopeful, first-mover skeptics have already posted counterpoints to the startup’s “motherhood and apple pie” messaging (make sure you read the comments on Ron Shevlin’s post).

I can’t remember any financial entity, other than those with celebrity founders (Square, Revolution Money, Virgin Money) receiving this much attention before it even launched (note 1).

imageI still don’t know exactly what Bank Simple will offer. Certainly, they have a great name and a positioning that’s right for the times. But can they live up to it? Basic banking really is pretty simple. You deposit some cash, earn some interest, then take it out and give it someone else. Rinse. Repeat.

Innovation often creates complexity
Banking got complicated only when new features were introduced. People got tired of going to the bank, pulling cash out of the vault, and hauling it around to pay people. So checks were invented. Payment became much easier, and personal security greatly enhanced. And as a nice by-product, the returned check was the first PFM tool, serving as a handy authenticated record of who was paid for what, when.

That worked great for a couple generations, but then too many people wrote too many bad checks and it started to become a slow and cumbersome process to identify yourself at the point of sale. So debit cards came along to speed the purchasing process, fight fraud, and return some fee income to the issuing banks (note 2). And the electronic records of merchant name and SIC code made record keeping even easier, originally on paper statements and now online.

Those two innovations, checks and debit cards, really helped consumers save time and hassle. But did they make finances simpler? Not really. Those payment services led to NSF/overdraft fees, PIN vs. signature decisions, card authorizations, check-hold times, float, authorization holds, chargebacks, annual fees, check-printing fees, positive pay, reverse positive pay, remote deposit capture, mobile remote deposit capture, Quicken, My Spending Report, Mint, interchange regulation. The list goes on and on.

It may not be simple, but no one (except visitors to this UAE hotel) is going back to carrying gold nuggets to the general store to buy crackers out of a barrel.

Technology MIGHT be the answer
Technology advances often bring wonderful, sometimes life-altering, benefits (think electricity or water purification), but often at a cost of increased complexity. As much as I love, love, love the Internet, it’s not known for its overall ease of use.

But there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon, and you are carrying it in your purse, pocket, or briefcase.

The smartphone.

I’m still amazed at my iPhone after more than 2.5 years of continual use (note 3). It’s the one and only device I’ve owned that makes life better AND simpler, albeit at a hefty monthly fee.

And I believe mobile apps will ultimately make banking better AND simpler. Why?

  • The phone knows who you are and where you are, vastly simplifying authentication at the point of sale and reducing fraud significantly.
  • The phone (via real-time links to the bank and retailer) knows exactly how much money you have and what you are buying, virtually eliminating overdrafts and unknowingly overspending.
  • The phone can provide an instant, secure way to pay any person or any business, with immediate settlement.
  • The phone has built-in scanning capabilities for depositing checks, capturing receipts, documenting insurance claims, etc.
  • The phone has access to every database on the planet to assist in shopping, evaluating, financing, insuring and closing any deal for any thing.
  • And if you have a question about any of the above, just speak into the device and you’ll get an answer in moments via voice recognition self-service.

So yes, there is hope for banking/financial simplification, and I think it will almost exclusively come through mobile apps with the occasional visit to an online mission control (note 4). So if you want to compete with Bank Simple, or Bank of America for that matter, get cracking on your mobile strategy (note 5).

Notes:
1. Now that Twitter’s Alex Payne has been added as a co-founder, Bank Simple could probably be classified as a celebrity-founded company.
2. I’m still using my first-gen phone bought in Oct. 2007. The battery is still very strong, the touch-screen virtually unmarked, system performance seems unchanged, and it only crashes a couple times every year despite being carried, set down, and tucked away day in and day out.
3. This is a vast oversimplification of the move to debit cards, but the point is they disrupted checks at the point of sale.
4. If you are still unconvinced that mobile will overtake online for banking tasks, here’s a thought:  Consider how often you go online now to check the local weather. A waste of time — right? — when all you have to do is press a button on your smartphone. The same near-instant response will happen for basic banking info.
5. In our Online Banking Report, we’ve published several reports on mobile banking strategies.

Mobile Firsts: PayPal Launches Bump to Pay

imageThis month we’ve explored several new features that promise to propel mobile banking into the mainstream market. Unlike developing nations, where mobile is the ONLY way to conveniently bank, in the U.S. and other online-centric countries, mobile has to compete with online for awareness and usage.

There doesn’t seem to be a single killer app for mobile. But a growing list of things that mobile does better than online will eventually tip the scales in favor of the new channel. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

  • Location-based ATM/branch finders (here)
  • Remote check depositing (here)
  • Simple login with 4-digit pin (here)
  • Insurance discounts after graduating from iPhone-based program (here)

The latest addition to the list:

  • PayPal’s Bump to Pay (see video below): Users of PayPal’s latest iPhone app can transfer funds to each other merely by entering the amount and moving their phones within close proximity of each other (see screenshots below).

As David Eads points out at Mobile Manifesto, bumping to pay has some drawbacks in the real world:  

…..most of the time I want to send money to someone, I’m not standing beside them. And if I am, most of the time I would feel awkward actually touching the person. Imaging bumping someone for admission to a high school football game. Imagine bumping a street vendor for a newspaper or flowers. Imagine bumping a scalper for tickets outside the game.

My take: I agree with David that physically placing iPhones next to each other seems awkward today. But then again, so was writing paper checks back in the day when everything was paid for in cash/coins.

If so-called bump pay is super-convenient, fairly priced, and the perceived security issues are overcome, there’s no reason why it couldn’t become the predominant method of person-to-person payments. While it’s way too early to make any kind of prediction, I’m just saying, don’t dismiss it yet.

David’s closing remark is spot on:

The key for P2P is getting people comfortable with the idea of transacting electronically between individuals. Bumping and Zooming makes it more fun.

Bumping is now an integral part of PayPal’s iPhone app

image   image   image

—————————–

Off-topic addendum: As much as we like new bells and whistles, bump pay pales in comparison to the really big news at PayPal this week: the announcement that it’s teaming with China UnionPay and Singapore’s DBS Bank to offer payment services. The 2-year DBS deal will put PayPal in the hands of the bank’s four million customers, 1.3 million of whom are currently banking online.

How big are these deals? A good indicator is PayPal’s plan to double its staff in the region to 2,000 employees. Wow, has any financial company anywhere in the world added 1,000 to its staff in the past two years?

——————————-

Note: For more coverage of mobile banking and payments, see the most recent issue from Online Banking Report.

Sneak Peek at Mercantile Bank’s Powered-by-PayPal Mobile P2P Payments

image

Mercantile Bank of Michigan is riding the wave of free publicity from being first to market (probably) with iPhone-based P2P payments powered by PayPal. That’s a triple play in both imagealliteration and PR value. See the teaser ad on the bank’s website below (first screenshot).

The new service, a joint effort from PayPal and S1, is expected to go live in early 2010. It will allow customers to send money directly from their iPhone to any other individual on the worldwide PayPal network. All the sender must know is the recipient’s mobile phone number or email address. According to the five-question FAQ on the landing page (see second screenshot), the service will be available to all MercMobile customers and will be free of charge.

Mercantile Bank has become one of the most innovative banks we follow. Congratulations to CIO John Schulte and his team for leading the industry on several fronts and providing great material for Netbanker (previous posts here; note 1).

————

For more on the P2P payments market, see our latest Online Banking Report, published earlier this week, Making the Case for Person-to-Person Payments

Mercantile Bank’s powered-by-PayPal mobile P2P app (7 Dec. 2009):

image   image   image

Mercantile Bank of Michigan homepage (8 Dec. 2009):
Note: MercMobile P2P Payment teaser in lower left and home-based remote-deposit capture on the top banner.

image

P2P payments landing page (link)

 image

Note:
1. Mercantile even earns its very own category at Netbanker: <netbanker.com/mercantile_bank_of_mi>. 

P2P Payments: CashEdge’s POPmoney Spotted in the Wild at First Hawaiian Bank

clip_image002When CashEdge demo’d its new person-to-person (P2P) payment solution, POPmoney, at Finovate in September (video here), they said they expected four clients to be live by year-end. It looks like the first one is there, or almost there.

imageFirst Hawaiian Bank has a lengthy POPmoney FAQ posted on its website (see screenshot  below). Pertinent details on the new POPmoney service include (refer to full text below):

  • Cost is $1 per transaction
  • Users can send money via email address, mobile phone number, or directly into the recipient’s bank account (if known)
  • Online banking customers will find it in the Transfers section under a tab entitled Send Money
  • P2P payments are limited to $5,000 per month subject to a daily maximum of $1,000 via email/mobile or $2,000 transferred directly to another bank account
  • Payments can be scheduled up to one year in advance

For more on the P2P payments market, see our latest Online Banking Report, published 15 minutes ago: Making the Case for Person-to-Person Payments

First Hawaiian Bank’s POPmoney FAQ (link; 8 Dec. 2009)

image

FAQ text:

What is “POPmoney”?
“POPmoney” is a feature of the FHB Online® banking service that lets you send money to someone electronically via their email address, mobile phone number, or directly to their bank account. Payments to someone’s email address or mobile phone number are accompanied with a personalized message letting them know that the funds are available for electronic deposit to wherever they choose, while payments to someone’s bank account are deposited automatically.

How much does POPmoney cost?
Sending money via POPmoney costs only $1.00 per transaction.

How do I sign up for POPmoney?
POPmoney is available to customers through the FHB Online service and can be accessed via the “Send Money” tab within the “Transfers” section. If you are not currently enrolled for FHB Online, visit www.fhb.com and click on the Online Banking “Enroll” button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. If you are already enrolled for FHB Online, sign onto FHB Online, go to the Transfers section, and then click on the Send Money (Personal Only) link. Follow the three-step sign-up process:

  • Step 1 POPmoney Agreement – Accept the FHB Online POPmoney amendment.
  • Step 2 Contact Information – Your email address and mobile phone number are required as part of the sign-up process. You will need to verify the email address we have on file is correct. If it is incorrect, please close the window and click “Update Email Address” within the Customer Service tab to update your email address. After confirming your email address, return to the “Transfers – Send Money (Personal Only)” link and you will also be asked to provide a mobile phone number as part of the sign-up process.
  • Step 3 Email/Mobile Phone Validation – We will send verification codes to your email address and mobile phone. Please check your email and your mobile phone for these codes and enter them in the boxes shown on-screen to complete the sign-up process.

Once you’ve completed the steps above, you will receive a confirmation message indicating that you have successfully signed up for POPmoney. Click “Continue to POPmoney” to start using the service.

Who can I send money to?
You can send money to someone just by knowing their mobile phone number or email address. The person receiving the notification will be able to deposit the money to any personal checking, savings, money market checking, or money market savings account at FHB or nearly any other U.S. bank. You can also send money directly to someone else’s bank account if you have their bank routing and account number information.

How does the recipient receive and deposit funds?
If you are sending money to a mobile phone or email address, the recipient will receive a notification with a personalized message indicating that you have sent them a payment. The recipient has two ways of depositing the funds:

  • If the recipient is a First Hawaiian Bank customer, they can deposit the funds into their account via the FHB Online service. Upon enrolling, or if the recipient is already enrolled for FHB Online, they can click on the “Send Money (Personal Only)” to access the POPmoney feature. Any payments that have been sent to them will be listed under the “Incoming Payments & Alerts” tab. They can then select an account to which to deposit the funds. They can also designate whether future payments should be automatically deposited to this account.
  • If the recipient is a not a First Hawaiian Bank customer, or would like to deposit the funds into a non-FHB account, they can visit www.popmoney.com/FHB. They will be prompted to provide their mobile phone or email address along with their bank account information for the payment to be deposited.

Can I send money internationally?
No, you can only send money to individuals via their accounts within the U.S.

What is the maximum transaction amount I can make via POPmoney?
The maximum daily amount allowed for POPmoney transactions is the current available balance in the source account (plus any available credit in an associated Yes-CheckSM account if applicable) up to the daily limit mentioned below, whichever is less. This includes any single transaction or the total amount outstanding or “in process.” For additional information, see below:

Sending Money to Bank Account

Maximum Amount

Daily

$2,000.00

Monthly

$5,000.00

Sending Money to Mobile or Email

Maximum Amount

Dail
y

$1,000.00

Monthly

$5,000.00

Can I set up recurring or future-dated transactions?
Yes, POPmoney transactions may be scheduled up to 365 days in advance of the date the transaction is to be made. Automatic recurring transactions may also be scheduled for substantially regular intervals (e.g., monthly) in the same amount between the same two accounts. You can schedule recurring transactions to be made weekly, every other week, twice a month, monthly, every four weeks, every other month, quarterly, twice a year, and annually.

How far in advance can I schedule a transaction?
You can schedule a POPmoney transaction up to one year in advance.

When are POPmoney transactions processed?
Transactions will be processed on the date you specify up to a year in advance. Transactions will take approximately three business days to process. Transactions scheduled to process on a weekend or holiday will be processed the previous Business Day.

What is the cut-off time to submit a transaction?
The cut-off time for submitting transactions is 7:00 p.m. HT each Business Day. Transactions submitted after 7:00 p.m. HT or on weekends or holidays will be processed the next Business Day. A Business Day is every calendar day except for Saturdays, Sundays, and bank holidays.

What is the cut-off time to change or delete upcoming transactions?
The cut-off time to change or delete an upcoming transaction is 7:00 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time the previous Business Day prior to the send date.

When does the transaction get debited from my account?
The transaction debit request is initiated on the “send date” but will not post against your account for one to two days.

What happens if I set up a transaction but do not have sufficient funds in my account on the “send date?”
If, on the “send date,” there is insufficient balance in your account to make a transaction you authorized, we will delay the transaction and try again on the next Business Day. If there is still insufficient balance to make the transaction, we may either refuse to pay the item, or we may make the transaction and overdraw your account. In either event, you will be responsible for any non-sufficient funds (“NSF”) or overdraft charges that may result.

How many people can I add to my list of contacts?
You may add up to a total of 50 contacts.

I used to send money to third parties via the External Transfers function. What will happen to this information?
As part of introducing POPmoney, we have migrated your third-party information and activity from External Transfers to POPmoney. This includes contacts or accounts, as well as upcoming and previous transactions. Categories for previous transactions will not be migrated and will need to be re-defined.

How do I disable POPmoney?
You may disable POPmoney by calling us at 643-4343 (1-888-643-4343 from the Continental U.S., Guam, and CNMI). Please note that disabling POPmoney will also disable your access to External Transfers.

Citibank Ends its Three-Year Test with Obopay

imageIt appears that the Obopay/Citibank co-branded service is being shut down. From the sparse note on the webpage <citi.obopay.com> (see screenshot below), it doesn’t sound like a temporary hiatus: 

As of Dec. 22, 2009, “Citi Obopay” will no longer be available.
If you would like to use the Obopay service go to www.obopay.com.
The service available at www.obopay.com has no affiliation with Citibank.

The companies have been working together on Obopay-powered mobile payment for more than three years.

Citi Mobile SVP Marylou Dowd said on Thursday in American Banker that the Obopay tests were concluded this summer. Not coincidently, Citi’s mobile joint venture MMV announced last week that it was partnering with CPNI Inc. of Toronto to build a mobile P2P payments service.

Obopay’s website still shows Citi Obopay on its Financial Institutions page (see inset above). But Citigroup, which invested at least twice in Obopay in the July 2007 C-round and April 2008 D-round, is not listed on Obopay’s investors page.

The site was never publicized by Citibank. Traffic peaked at 7,000 unique visitors in Feb. before falling so low that Compete could not measure it after April 2009:

image

Source: Compete, 3 Dec 2009, link

For future reference, we’ve archived the website screenshots below.

Citi Obopay homepage (3 Dec 2009, 4 PM Pacific)
Note: The <citi.obopay.com> URL now redirects to the Obopay homepage.

image

How Citi Obopay Works page <citi.obopay.com>

image

Get Citi Obopay page <citi.obopay.com>

image

Citi Obopay Fees page <citi.obopay.com>

image

Note: For more info on mobile banking, see our Online Banking Report: Mobile Banking via iPhone (March 2009) as well as our earlier reports on Mobile Banking (Feb. 2007) and Mobile Payments (April 2007).

How Many iPhone Banking Apps Will There Be?

image Are you tired of hearing “there’s an app for that” yet? Well, get used to it, we are still at the beginning of the great app rollout

Even as recently as our iPhone Banking Report published in March, I assumed most financial institutions would have a single iPhone app. One bank. One app. It’s how the Web worked, for the most part.  

But when Starbucks unveiled a dedicated app just for its stored-value card (separate from the main Starbucks brand app), I realized that I wasn’t thinking big enough.

For example, in August PNC Bank become the first U.S. financial institution to offer multiple apps when it released an app for its Gen-Y-focused Virtual Wallet. That was followed last week by Wells Fargo when it unveiled its cash-management app for larger businesses, CEO Mobile (screenshot below; press release).

image

image Now, I believe that each major bank will roll out dozens of apps, perhaps hundreds, to support their business lines, major products and large segments. There will be an app for each major affinity credit/debit card, one for students, one for small businesses, one for large business, one for senior checking, one for home equity lines, and so on.

And, if that’s not enough, there could be a dedicated app for each stock broker, loan officer and mortgage broker. There could be one app for every branch, neighborhood, or region. Right now the search-and-discovery tools at Apple would implode under the weight of all these apps. But they’ll figure that out. It’s worth billions to them. 

Today, more than 100,000 apps are available for the iPhone. But fewer than 20 are for U.S. financial institutions. It’s conceivable that in the banking vertical itself, well over 10,000 apps could be developed, possibly many tens of thousands (see notes 1, 2). 

Wells Fargo is first U.S. bank with a cash management iPhone app (12 Nov 2009)

image          image

Notes:
1. They won’t all be iPhone apps. The mobile market is too big to have it all consolidated at one player. 
2. It’s also conceivable that we’ll move away from the dedicated app framework, and users will be able to configure their phones with hundreds of info feeds without needing to install an app for each one. More like the iGoogle portal model.  It will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

Quotes: Mercantile Bank on Using PayPal for P2P Payments

image The biggest surprise of the year in the world of alt-payments is PayPal’s newfound reach into banking circles as evidenced by their agreements with S1, FIS, and FirstData announced at last week’s Retail Delivery conference.

But a huge question remains: Will banks play ball with PayPal or will they provide the same functions via home-grown solutions or non-PayPal alternatives such as CashEdge, Fiserv, or Visa/MasterCard?

I don’t think anyone has that answer yet. There are simply too many variables. But if you believe there’s no way a bank would use a “powered by PayPal” solution, read this quote by Mercantile Bank of Michigan’s CIO, who plans on launching the S1/PayPal person-to-person mobile service next year (note 1):

“(PayPal) is a network, it doesn’t scare me at all. They’re never going to steal significant deposits out of our bank and keep [them] in PayPal accounts. Visa and MasterCard probably look at PayPal as the enemy, and they probably should, but that’s their problem, not mine.”
   — John Schulte, CIO Mercantile Bank of Michigan in a
      
Nov. 10 article from Digital Transactions

Note:
1. You might remember Mercantile Bank from our May post lauding its fee-based consumer positive-pay service.

Why Mobile Banking/Payments will be Highly Profitable

imageMy credit card number was stolen again. It’s the third or fourth time since the Internet came along. It’s annoying, and a little disconcerting, but not a major problem, thanks to efficient card issuers who take the info, credit my account, and send me a new card. On a ten-point “hassle scale,” where 10 is having your hard drive crash, it’s only a 2 or 3.

And my previous stolen cards resulted in little financial loss to the issuer, other than the cost to process the chargeback and reissue the plastic. In those cases, either the issuer caught the fraud before anything was shipped, or the items purchased were digital (online subscriptions) and didn’t result in any lost inventory.

But this time was different. Someone used my card number to buy a PS3 gaming console and three games at a Best Buy in the Bronx. Assuming Best Buy follows proper procedures, Wells Fargo will be out more than $600 just for the merchandise. All told, with the cost of the investigation and processing, it’s probably an $800 to $900 loss to the bank and merchant.

Wells Fargo is generally very good about suspicious charges and usually calls us. I’ve had the card for almost two decades, and it’s been othe primary card for both my wife and me for much of that time. WF knows our purchasing habits better than we do.

Yes, we get to NYC at least once a year, but our charges are usually travel- and tourist-related ones in Manhattan. And we probably visit Best Buy in Seattle a couple times a year (we have teenage boys), so the gaming system charge is understandable. But it’s highly unlikely we’d buy a system while visiting NYC, and we’ve never visited the Bronx, so the authorization request likely triggered flags.

But unless there was inside theft, the bank’s authorization system evidently decided the $10 in interchange was worth the risk. Bad call this time, but probably right 99%+ of the time; otherwise, they’d be out of the card business.

What’s mobile have to do with it?
But if Wells Fargo had a real-time connection to me via mobile phone, they could have texted me for an OK (similar to the screenshot above, which is a text-based activity request to Wells Fargo). If it really had been I who stood at Best Buy’s register, it would have taken a second to reply “yes,” and the transaction would have gone through.

Of course, in this case, I would have said ‘no, I’m in San Francisco right now.’ Or even better, in the not-so-distant-future, if I’d allowed the bank to track me via GPS, they would have known, without even contacting me, that I was 3,000 miles away from that store. Either way, the bank saves nearly a grand from that single text message. Multiply that by the millions of fraud purchases every year and you have serious money, billions by most estimates.

So yes, mobile banking (really mobile payments) does have a robust and tangible business case from fraud reduction and customer service savings. The technology is in the hands of the users now, and most know how to use it. So, let’s get moving.

Note: For more information see our Online Banking Report on iPhone Mobile Banking

Notes from the Mobile Commerce Summit (day 2)

image Day two of the Mobile Commerce Summit ran just for the morning (see Day 1 highlights), but anyone who overslept missed the highlight of the conference: the much-too-short panel discussion on revenue opportunities that started at 8:15 AM and ended at 9:00 (note 1). 

Panel: Mobile revenue opportunities 

  • Drew Sievers, founder & CEO, mFoundry
  • Joe Salesky, chairman & chief strategy officer, ClairMail
  • Cameron Franks, director, Mobile Commerce Americas, Sybase 365
  • Jayatsu Bhattacharya, SVP business development, Mobile Money Ventures (Citigroup & SK Telecom joint venture)
  • Mustafa Patni, former director of mobile banking, WaMu

Observations from the panel:

  • POS payment services: NFC at point of sale
  • Value-added services
  • Fees for mobile banking services: transaction, monthly, or annual
  • Premium accounts with a rich mobile feature set
  • Stock/investment trading (Citi Hong Kong is able to charge a premium for mobile trading)
  • Bill pay: expedited payments
  • Person-to-person (P2P) payments
  • Much of the revenues will be indirect, from deepening and improving customer relationship
  • Remote deposit capture for businesses
  • Merchant advertising: offers to customers as they shop
  • Loyalty programs: driving customers to certain merchants with alerts, offers, and discounts
  • Lots of cost-saving opportunities: self-service customer service, moving bill payments to on-us transactions, loyalty program management, security, fulfillment, marketing, call deflection

Panel: Smartphone impact on the customer experience 

Armin Ajami, VP retail Mobile channel, Wells Fargo

  • Almost half of smartphone users use the mobile Web daily (source: ABI research, Feb. 2009)
  • 18% of U.S. consumers have smartphones
  • 263,000 apps now available for smartphones, predicted to grow to about 700,000 by 2013
  • There are 27 different app stores today
  • Mobile-optimized website <wf.com> launched in July 2007, text banking launched Oct. 2007, native iPhone app launched May 2009
  • Funds transfer on mobile-optimized websites takes 2 minutes with 5 clicks, no zooming or scrolling vs. 10 minutes via iPhone mobile browser with 7 clicks, 5 zooms, 7 scrolls and 10 minutes

Alain DeSouza, sr. mgr., market development solutions marketing, Research in Motion

  • Globally, 12% to 14% of mobile phones sold now are smartphones; in North America, it’s now above 20% (22% to 26%)
  • Blackberry app store officially launched April 1, 2009
  • Not excited about putting NFC chips into handsets (adds cost); will do it when it makes business sense (last year it was a top-5 opportunity, this year more of a top-20)
  • P2P transfer is not a killer app, but could be important for adoption
  • Be careful not to waste bandwidth in your app development

Note:
1. Note to conference organizers: Never start a session at 8:15 AM after a Thursday night in Las Vegas.