It’s been a decade since the Apple iPhone’s App Store came online, bringing with it an entirely new engagement channel for businesses, and changing how consumers everywhere interact, play, and shop.
The intervening time has seen cycle after cycle of explosive mobile fragmentation[1], followed by consolidation[2]. Standalone apps launched for every possible task only to be displaced a year or so later by a feature of a more comprehensive offering (see: Facebook x 1,000 examples).
Now, a perfect storm of lowered IT costs and changing consumer tastes are putting banks in the position to play the Facebook role, for once. With the right strategy, banking providers of all sizes can now claw mobile users and engagement away from non-bank financial apps and capture more customers and revenue in the process.
Shifting consumer trust
When FIS first began its Performance Against Customer Expectations (PACE) study in 2014, US consumers were deeply concerned about security and generally suspicious of their banking providers.
Just four short years later, in 2018, PACE finds consumers are practically giddy about their banks’ security and privacy measures, with better than 94% of respondents saying their banks “ensure my transactions are safe and secure,” and “protects the privacy of my personal information.” And why wouldn’t they be, considering all the recent news about applications (Facebook, Uber, etc.) abusing user data and privacy?
When asked specifically, 48% of consumers said they trust their banks more than technology companies compared to just 3% who favored tech companies (25% trust both equally; 24% didn’t know).
The tipping point for mobile banking
Until recently, it has been primarily millennials who have been the most
