Mobile Banking – Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

Only A People’s Bank Will Tame The Savage Beast: With Robbie Barwick

Robbie Barwick and I parse the latest from the Regional Banking Inquiry. The Senators are on the scent now, and Bankwest got a right pasting…

Here’s the press release this is from:

https://citizensparty.org.au/media-releases/bankwest-betrayal-west-aussies-test-government

Here’s the details. What you can do: Call and email WA Labor MPs to demand they stand up to BankWest and CBA and tell their boss Anthony Albanese to re-establish a People’s Bank:

Member for Tangney Sam Lim Ph: (08) 9354 9633 Email: Sam.Lim.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Hasluck Tania Lawrence Ph: (08) 6245 3340 Email: Tania.Lawrence.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Pearce Tracey Roberts Ph: (08) 6500 6499 Email: Tracey.Roberts.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Swan Zaneta Mascarenhas Ph: (08) 9355 0099 Email: Zaneta.Mascarenhas.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Cowan Dr Anne Aly Ph: (08) 9409 4517 Email: Anne.Aly.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Burt Matt Keogh Ph: (08) 9390 0180 Email: Matt.Keogh.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Perth Patrick Gorman Ph: (08) 9272 3411 Email: Patrick.Gorman.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Brand Madeleine King Ph: (08) 9527 9377 Email: Madeleine.King.MP@aph.gov.au
Member for Fremantle Josh Wilson Ph: (08) 9335 8555 Email: Josh.Wilson.MP@aph.gov.au

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

Only A People’s Bank Will Tame The Savage Beast: With Robbie Barwick

00:00 / 00:34:24

Mobile-First Digital Banking Strategy Takes Hold In The Midwest

From S&P Global.

Banks across the U.S. are adopting a mobile-first strategy for their digital offerings, and the Midwest is no exception.

U.S. consumers value their mobile bank apps more than ever, and expectations for these products are growing increasingly sophisticated. Once-novel mobile features such as photo check deposit and bill pay are now table stakes, and banks seeking to offer a competitive digital experience have to evaluate an ever-evolving range of services.

S&P Global Market Intelligence’s 2017 U.S. Mobile Banking Landscape includes regional insights from our 2017 mobile banking survey and details on the features available in the apps of dozens of U.S. financial institutions, including more than two dozen large banks and 45 companies with less than $50 billion in assets. The latter group consists of five smaller regional and community banks from each of the nine U.S. census divisions. This article focuses on the Midwest, which includes the East North Central and West North Central census divisions.

Our survey found that Midwestern mobile banking customers are most interested in seeing credit score information added to their apps. Consumers’ preoccupation with their credit files is only likely to intensify in the wake of the Equifax data breach. Few of the regional bank apps from around the country that we recently reviewed provide access to this information, although First National Bank of Omaha makes it available to consumer credit card customers.

Another highly valued feature for bank app users is fingerprint login, which many Midwestern banks offer. But with the rollout of Apple’s new iPhone X and other evolutions in mobile technology, banks across the country are increasingly having to pay attention to alternative forms of biometric authentication, including face ID. Banks are responding to their customers’ desire for even more convenient access to account information by allowing them to view their balances without logging in to the app.

Customers also want access to certain card controls via their bank apps, including the ability to temporarily switch cards on or off, and to report them lost or stolen. Jefferson City, Mo.-based Central Banco. Inc. and Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Great Western Bancorp Inc. are among the institutions planning to roll out such features in the near future, while Saint Paul, Minn.-based Bremer Financial Corp. makes certain card controls and account alert management available through a separate, third-party app.

The availability of certain features is just one way to assess the quality of a mobile offering. Customers who provide app store reviews clearly value speed, reliability, and an intuitive layout, and they seem to prefer having all features available on one platform.

Central Bank is redesigning its whole app for release next year, with the goal of providing a more user-friendly experience by streamlining navigation and better surfacing popular features such as person-to-person payments. The bank is taking the mobile-first approach seriously, as mobile logins have overtaken desktop logins, and about 65% of the company’s digital traffic is coming through phones.

Great Western Bank, whose deposits are primarily spread across Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and Colorado, also hears from customers that they want improved core functionality, for example, faster transaction alerts. Great Western uses a niche digital vendor for its mobile channel and believes this is more advantageous than using a standard package from core systems providers.

The Midwest is home to some of the nation’s few mobile-ready ATMs. Chicago-area Wintrust Financial Corp. is a relatively early adopter of Cardless Cash, which lets the customer scan a QR code with their smartphone instead of using a debit card to withdraw money. In a competitive banking environment, and especially in heavily banked areas, financial institutions are keeping an eye on customer attrition and looking for an edge. This sometimes means making investments in new ATM hardware or services like mobile P2P payments that do not necessarily add revenue but that have become part of what customers expect from their banks.

It is difficult to quantify the value of a high-quality mobile banking experience, but our survey results give an idea of how important it is to consumers. Despite being generally fee-averse, more than 40% of survey respondents from the Midwest indicated that they would be willing to pay $1 per month to use their bank apps, while more than 20% said they would pay $3 per month. Respondents from the East North Central census division, which includes Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, were more willing to pay a fee. Although banks are unlikely to start charging for their digital services, satisfied mobile banking users could prove stickier deposit customers even as rates continue to rise and other institutions tempt them with promotional offerings.

When it comes to delivering products and services, banks of all sizes have a high bar to meet. Large, deep-pocketed institutions are constantly innovating with their digital channels, and it is not easy for their smaller peers to keep up. But many regional and community banks boast sophisticated mobile apps with desirable features that are not yet ubiquitous among the nation’s largest banks. In a banking landscape populated by fewer branches and with visits to those locations by tech-savvy customers on the decline, the combination of a strong local brand and robust digital experience could give smaller banks a competitive edge.

Methodology

The 2017 mobile banking survey was fielded online between January 26 and February 1 across a nationwide random sample of 4,000 U.S. mobile bank app users 18 years and older. Results have a margin of error of +/- 1.6% at the 95% confidence level based on the sample size of 4,000.

S&P Global Market Intelligence researched mobile apps in June 2017 for more than two dozen financial institutions, including the biggest retail banking franchises in the U.S. and various large regional and branchless banks. Between September 18 and November 10, S&P Global Market Intelligence researched mobile apps for 45 smaller regional players and large community banks. The latter analysis focused, for the most part, on the top five retail deposit market share leaders with under $50 billion in assets in each of the nine U.S. census divisions.

This research is based on product descriptions available on bank websites and in app stores, as well as company-provided information. Some companies may have subsequently updated their apps or may offer additional features and services. Our analysis does not necessarily reflect functionality or services available through text banking, mobile browsers or secure messaging.

New Mastercard Digital Platform Launched

Mastercard has announced a new platform (in the US initially) which issuers can offers to their customers called Assemble. The first product allows millennials to manage money through a digital prepaid account, a mobile app and a payment card (virtual or physical).

Its a great example of the emerging digital tools aimed to build loyalty, by assisting customers with additional money management features, delivered digitally, as predicted in our Banking Innovation Life Life Cycle.

Mastercard is currently developing additional use cases to support prepaid programs for additional segments such as underserved consumers and microbusinesses, and the gig economy. Mastercard Assemble for Millennials is available now in the United States with other markets being targeted within the next year.

In our fast-paced lives, each one of us is juggling a lot – careers, relationships, social events, families, the list is endless. So why should we stress about banking and trying to manage multiple apps? Why not have one centralized, secure account to cover all of our banking needs?

Mastercard has a new platform and product to do just that:

Assemble is a prepaid innovation hub that issuers and partners will offer to customers with holistic money management capabilities including checking balances, budgeting, setting savings goals and making near-real time payments to almost anyone in the U.S. with a valid debit card via a P2P service powered by Mastercard Send.

The first product available from Assemble is geared toward millennials and, along with the features above, offers consumers a simple, smart and safe way to manage money through a digital prepaid account, a mobile app and a payment card (virtual or physical).

“Prepaid is much more than just a way to safely store and use funds. It is a foundation to create new possibilities for consumers,” said Tom Cronin, senior vice president, Global Prepaid Product Development and Innovation, Mastercard. “This technology enables our partners to deliver best-in-class digital experiences today, as we work to address additional segments such as gig economy workers and underserved consumers and micro businesses.”

Mastercard Assemble not only bundles assets and services together but also enables these digital prepaid solutions to promote innovation, increase the speed to market, and provide customers with seamless and secure usage. Issuers and partners can choose to deploy a white-label version of the solution or to integrate specific functions into their current user interfaces through APIs.

While Mastercard Assemble for Millennials will be the first launch, the company is currently developing additional use cases to support prepaid programs for additional segments such as underserved consumers and microbusinesses, and the gig economy. Mastercard Assemble for Millennials is available now in the United States with other markets being targeted within the next year.

ANZ first Australian bank to roll out Voice ID for mobile banking

ANZ says it will today be the first Australian bank to roll out Voice ID technology on mobile banking enabling customers to complete higher value transactions conveniently and securely.

With Voice ID, ANZ customers can now make ‘Pay Anyone’ payments of more than $1000 on their mobile without needing to log into internet banking, or remember additional passwords or PINs, or visit a branch. They can also use Voice ID to make BPAY payments of more than $10,000 on their mobile.

Commenting on the announcement, Managing Director Customer Experience and Digital Channels, Peter Dalton said: “This is a significant security update that will make it easier for our customers to complete high value transactions on their smartphones.

“Customers increasingly want the convenience of banking on their digital devices and this solution delivers that with the added level of voice biometric security.

“This will be particularly good news for our small business customers who regularly need to make payments of more than $1000 on the go and will only need their voice to authorise those transactions.”

The rollout comes after ANZ completed a successful pilot program with the new technology in recent months and will be available for customers using the Grow by ANZ app from today. It will then be rolled out to other digital channels across the bank.

ANZ has developed Voice ID with world-leading voice biometrics company Nuance to bring the new technology to Australian customers.

Nuance managing director Aust & NZ, Enterprise Division Robert Schwarz said: “ANZ is taking a forward-thinking yet secure approach to identity verification with Voice ID, making it fast, easy and secure for customers who are on-the-go to perform high value transactions.

“Through the ANZ mobile banking app, Voice ID uses proven voice biometric technology from Nuance that is more secure and more convenient than legacy authentication methods.”

Westpac Rated Best in Mobile Banking Functionality

From IT Wire.

The Commonwealth narrowly pipped Westpac as Australia’s top bank due to the usability of its mobile and digital services, but Westpac was deemed to be the bank with the highest score in mobile banking functionality, according to a newly published study. However, apart from CommBank and Westpac, the other Australian banks still have a way to go when it comes to money movement, service features, cross-channel guidance, and marketing and sales.

The study of Australia’s large retail banks by global research firm Forrester found that digital banking teams have improved transactional features like mobile bill payment and point-of-sale payments – but few banks help customers manage their money better, make relevant product offers, or provide much help through mobile banking.

Forrester surveyed five large retail banks in Australia. As well as the Commonwealth and Westpac, it surveyed ANZ Bank, Macquarie Bank and National Australia Bank (NAB).

But, in naming CommBank the best of the big banks, Forrester said it emerged on top with “impressive usability”.

“CommBank ranks as one of the top banks globally in usability in our benchmark. The bank stood out with impressive usability, specifically in making search and navigation clearly visible and easy to understand at all stages of the key tasks that the persona is looking to achieve,” said Forrester’s report author Zhi Ying Ng.

“The bank also offers strong mobile functionality, provides the widest range of touchpoints for customers, and makes login convenient.”

Forrester also found that CommBank earned the highest score in money movement.

“It not only lets customers make basic internal and external money transfers, but also supports more sophisticated features, such as letting customers use their phone’s camera to pay someone or pay bills,” Forrester notes.

Forrester says Westpac excels at functionality.

“Westpac received the highest overall functionality score and emerged second overall in our review, delivering services that are both useful and usable,” Ng said.

“The bank earned full marks for login, letting customers view balances conveniently and offering useful product research and financial tools prior to login. Westpac stood out in marketing and sales; the bank offers relevant products and services to customers based on their immediate needs and information that the bank knows about them.

“It’s also the only bank in Australia that gives customers product comparison tools within mobile banking.”

And, according to Forrester, many Australian banks provide strong login features, giving customers the ability to see the balances without logging in and to use fingerprint biometrics or a quick PIN to log in.

But on a negative note, Forrester also says many banks are weak on service and sales.

“Few banks help customers manage their money better, make relevant product offers, or provide much help through mobile banking,” Forrester says.

It says it also reviewed the mobile services of other leading retail banks worldwide and is publishing these results in separate reports.

Forrester conducted the 2017 Australian Mobile Banking Benchmark between 21 February and 13 March and says the Australian banks it reviewed achieved an average functionality score of 64 out of 100, an average usability score of +6 (on a scale from –30 to +30) – and the individual category scores reveal the differences between the banks’ mobile banking services.

Forrester says some banks are stronger in functionality or usability, while others excel in both areas.

“The other Australian banks have work to do to match the leaders,” Forrester says.

“Most large Australian banks offer a sturdy foundation for mobile banking that meets customers’ basic mobile needs and expectations.

“But apart from CommBank and Westpac, the other Australian banks still have a way to go when it comes to money movement, service features, cross-channel guidance, and marketing and sales.

“Australian banks should give customers the flexibility to schedule future-dated or recurring transfers and to view and search for transactions easily. They should also provide value-added contextualised products and services that help to improve customers’ financial well-being.”

And, according to Forrester, many banks can improve service features and money management.

“None of the Australian banks we reviewed let customers contact the bank via secure messaging or chat to request help. Few banks send customers mobile alerts to warn them of potential security issues.

“Some Australian banks offer basic digital money management, such as setting up a simple savings goal, but the majority does not offer personalised financial guidance or planning tools to help customers achieve their financial goals.”

Forrester says that the most successful banks share a common, iterative approach to mobile.

“Digital teams at leading banks have built strong relationships between their digital business strategy and technology management teams, which work together on a joint business technology agenda.

“They have adopted an iterative test-and-learn process. Cross-functional teams and an agile approach of experimentation, measurement, and quick adjustment have helped drive success at leading banks.

“Westpac uses an Agile framework where digital banking execs, CX pros, product managers, designers, and solution architects work in sprints to develop and test mobile banking products and services.

“Our research is intended to provide a benchmark for the current state of retail mobile banking in Australia 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 money transfer options to more advanced capabilities, such as personalised financial guidance and planning tools.”

Forrester says most banks let customers bank through a wide range of mobile touchpoints and, 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 and third-party messaging apps”.

“This fractured landscape has driven many firms to adopt approaches like responsive design. CommBank and Westpac support customers on the widest range of devices,” Forrester concludes

Bank App Power Users Are Still Active Branch Visitors

From S&P.

Despite the growing popularity of banking apps, the death knell for brick-and-mortar branches should not be sounded just yet.

In the 2017 Mobile Money survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence, 81% of the mobile bank app users polled said they had visited a branch of their primary bank sometime within the month prior to taking the survey.

What is more, the study showed a higher percentage for those that used their app at least once a day. That is, customers that used their mobile app more were more likely to have visited a branch than those that used their app less than once a day. Based on this, perhaps apps can be viewed as a barometer for the most engaged customers, both in the cyber world and the real world.

But while they may still be going to branches, frequent app users are not necessarily loyal to their banks. The survey showed that daily app users were three times as likely as non-daily users to have switched their checking account to a different bank in the year prior to the survey. It might be that these frequent app users are hunting for the best possible terms and services, which could include the functionality of the bank’s app. Active users were much more willing to consider opening a checking or savings account with a “branchless bank” (i.e. one with no physical building/office locations).

Deposits and withdrawals were the most commonly cited activities that these so-called power users did inside their bank branch. The same was true for non-daily app users. One of the areas where the two groups notably diverged, however, was savings and investment services. Of daily app users that visited a bank branch in the prior month, roughly 17.7% made use of savings and investment services at the branch. For non-daily users, the percentage was only around 6.4%.

As one might expect, the people that used the app heavily were more open to the idea of a paid app. Daily users were nearly twice as willing as non-daily users to pay a fee of $3 per month to keep using their mobile bank app. The age breakdown of active versus non-active users was also as one might assume. About half of those aged 18 to 25 used their app at least daily, versus 17.6% of those aged 67 and over.In terms of the services they use on the app, daily and non-daily users do many of the same things, such as checking their balance and reviewing transactions. One of the areas where they seemed to differ, though, was transferring money to another person. About 25.7% of daily users said this was a feature they used most, versus around 12.2% for non-daily users.

As far as features they would like to see, daily users were much more likely to want a smartwatch app than non-daily users, which stands to reason. The daily users are likely more tech-savvy in general, and therefore probably want to use the latest technological gadgets.

The 2017 Mobile Money survey was fielded between January 26 and February 1 from a random sample of 4,000 U.S. mobile bank app users aged 18 and older. S&P Global Market Intelligence weighted the data to be nationally representative. Results from the survey, which was conducted online, have a margin of error of +/- 1.6% at the 95% confidence level based on the sample size of 4,000.

The BBC Does Fintech

Interesting programme from the BBC looking at UK developments in Fintech. The discussion centered on how mobile devices are fundamentally changing banking and why incumbents are struggling to respond. Listen to the programme, or download it here.

The UK is a world leader in financial services technology, otherwise known as fintech.

Presenter Evan Davis asks how Britain has beaten Silicon Valley and what challenges fintech poses to traditional banking?

Guests:
Antony Jenkins, Founder and Executive Chairman, 10x Future Technologies
Ishaan Malhi, Founder, Trussle.com
Eileen Burbidge, Co-founder, Passion Capital

The Time For Mobile-Centric Banking

Mckinsey says that Consumer adoption of digital banking channels is growing steadily across Asia–Pacific, making digital increasingly important for driving new sales and reducing costs. The branch-centric model is gradually but unmistakably giving way to the mobile-centric one.

Deferring the development and refinement of a digital offering leaves a bank exposed to the risk of weakened relationships and lower profitability. Now is a critical moment to draw retail-banking customers toward Internet and mobile-banking channels, regardless of the general level of network connectivity in a given market.

Our annual study, the Asia–Pacific Digital and Multichannel Banking Benchmark 2016, was led by Finalta, a McKinsey Solution, and examined digital consumer-banking data collected between July 2015 and July 2016 from 41 banks. This article focuses on our findings from Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, examining consumer digital engagement, user adoption, and traffic and sales via Internet secure sites, public sites, and mobile applications.¹ We detail three counterintuitive findings, and make suggestions for how banks should move forward.

Three counterintuitive findings

Consumer use of digital banking is growing steadily across all five markets (Exhibit 1). In the more developed markets of Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore, growth in recent years has been concentrated in the mobile channel. Indeed, among some banks use of the secure-site channel has begun to shrink, as some customers enthusiastically shift most of their interactions to mobile banking. In emerging markets, growth is strong in both secure-site and mobile channels.
Exhibit 1
Three counterintuitive findings point to the need for banks to act aggressively to improve their use of digital channels to strengthen customer relationships.

First, banks can excel in their digital offering despite limitations in the digital maturity of the markets they serve. One measure of digital maturity is the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), published annually by the World Economic Forum. This scorecard rates how well economies are using information and communication technology. It examines 139 countries using 53 indicators, including the robustness of mobile networks, international Internet bandwidth, household and business use of digital technology, and the adequacy of legal frameworks to support and regulate digital commerce. Comparison of digital-banking adoption with the level of networked readiness reveals that a country’s level of digital maturity does not necessarily promote or inhibit the growth of a bank’s digital channels.

Singapore, for example, has the most highly developed infrastructure for digital commerce in the world. However, when it comes to digital banking, Singaporean banks trail their peers from the less-networked markets of Australia and New Zealand, where banks have been able to draw consumers to digital channels despite gaps or weaknesses in digital connectivity.

Some banks have also been successful in pushing mobile banking regardless of network limitations (Exhibit 2). While Australia and New Zealand have moderately high levels of third-generation (3G) and smartphone penetration (trailing both Hong Kong and Singapore), the banks surveyed have achieved much stronger consumer adoption of mobile channels than their peers in other markets.
Exhibit 2
The second key finding is that having a relatively small base of active users does not necessarily mean low traffic (Exhibit 3). Among all participating banks in our survey, banks in Malaysia report among the smallest share of customers using the secure-site channel; however, these customers tend to log on many times a month, and the typical secure-site customer interacts with the bank more than twice as often as the secure-site banking customers of participating banks in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Exhibit 3
Third, the survey data reveal wide variations in performance across key metrics by country. In Australia and New Zealand, for example, there is wide variation in digital-channel traffic, with customers logging on with 32 percent more frequency at participating banks in the upper quartile than those in the lower quartile. In Hong Kong, digital adoption among upper quartile peers exceeds that of the lower quartile peers by ten percentage points. Participants in Singapore observe a sixteen-percentage-point gap between the upper and lower quartile peers in the proportion of sales through digital channels.² The wide gap between best and worst in class in multiple markets points to a significant opportunity for banks to beat the competition with compelling digital offers.

What banks should do

Banks in emerging markets have an opportunity to leapfrog to digital banking. Despite gaps in technology and smartphone penetration, a number of banks have tapped into consumer segments eager to adopt digital channels. Banks in emerging markets should prepare for rapid consumer adoption of digital channels. The digital evolution in emerging markets will differ considerably from the trajectory of banks in more developed markets.

Banks in highly developed markets have room to grow their active user base and digital sales. Indeed, the cost and revenue position of banks that do not act to improve their digital offering may weaken relative to peers that shift more business to digital channels. Banks in all markets should plan for this transition, especially through the integration of diverse technology platforms, the consolidation of customer data across multiple channels, and the continuous analysis of customer behavior to identify real-time needs. It is important to build services rapidly and to go live with minimally viable prototypes in order to attract early adopters—these digital enthusiasts eagerly experiment with new features and provide valuable feedback to help developers.

The significant variation of performance among countries shows great potential for banks to boost digital engagement with a dual emphasis on enrollment and cross-selling. Banks should carefully consider four best practices that often bring immediate gains by streamlining the customer’s digital experience:

Deliver credentials instantaneously upon in-app enrollment. The global best practice shows that banks that issue credentials instantaneously through in-app enrollment see their mobile activity rise on average 1.5 times faster. Of the banks that provided data on functionality, more than 50 percent do not have in-app enrollment. This presents a significant value-creation opportunity.

Simplify authentication processes to make them both secure and user friendly. Approximately three in five banks surveyed lack the ability to authenticate a user’s mobile device. In our experience, banks that store device information and allow users to log on simply by entering a personal identification number or fingerprint see three times more digital interaction than banks that require users to enter data via alphanumeric digits each time they log on.

Implement ‘click to call’ routing to improve response times. Instead of using a voice-response system, where customers must listen to a long list of options before selecting the relevant service choice, an increasing number of mobile apps are adopting click-to-call options for each segment, enabling customers to bypass the voice-response menus. Of the banks that provided data on capability, only 30 percent in our Asia–Pacific survey offer authenticated click-to-call options. The improvement in customer service is significant, with global banks able to improve the speed of answering customer calls by up to 40 percent.

Make digital sales processes intuitive and simple. Take credit cards as an example: best-practice global banks achieve average conversion rates (the ratio of page visits to applications) some 1.6 times those of Asia–Pacific banks. They do this by presenting products and features for which a customer has been prequalified through an intuitive, easy-to-read dashboard display or via tailored messages. Application forms are prefilled automatically with customer data. With intuitive and simple applications, banks in the Asia–Pacific region could increase the rate of completed applications by 22 percent, to come up to par with global best-practice banks.

Across the five markets we focused on, the branch-centric model is gradually but unmistakably giving way to the mobile-centric one. Looking at how digital-channel adoption and usage is evolving, along with the diversity of scenarios, banks have ample room to win in their target markets with a carefully tailored digital offering. Digital-savvy consumers warm quickly to well-designed and easy-to-use digital-banking channels, often shifting to the new channel in a matter of days. Banks need to act quickly to improve their customers’ digital experience or risk being left behind.

Lost or stolen cards replaced instantly with ANZ digital wallets

ANZ today announced its customers can continue to use their digital wallets when they report their card as lost or stolen with a new service that automatically updates their replacement card details.

As soon as a customer calls to report their debit or credit card as missing, ANZ puts a stop on the original card and automatically uploads the new virtual card details to the customer’s digital wallet.

ANZ Managing Director Products Australia, Katherine Bray said: “Our customers report about 670,000 cards as lost or stolen each year and we know waiting for a new card to arrive can be a real inconvenience.

“Now our customers can keep using their digital wallet, whether it’s Apple Pay or Android Pay, to make purchases while they wait for the new physical card to arrive in the mail.

“For many customers their smartphone is now the primary way they do their banking, including making purchases, so we’re working hard to keep improving their mobile experience with changes like this.”

ANZ has also made it possible for customers to keep their existing Personal Identification Number (PIN), provided it hasn’t been compromised, meaning less change with the same high level of security.

ANZ is the only major Australian bank to offer both Apple Pay and Android Pay with about 8.3 million transactions made across the bank’s digital wallets last year.

Citi’s Mobile First Strategy

Good piece in the McKinsey Quarterly where the bank’s Head of Operations and Technology, Don Callahan, describes the bank’s efforts to accelerate its digital transition. Watch the video.

We know we have to be mobile first, and we are doing a lot there. In order to be all-in on mobile, we have set up a “lean team” in our Long Island City office, with about 100 people who are operating in a very agile way.

Callahan surveys the 21^st-century banking terrain: digital competitors are massing on every front—from fintech start-ups to new divisions of global institutions—while the speed of every banking process and customer interaction accelerates daily. All this change requires a focus on agility, Callahan says, which in turn demands a cultural rewiring.

At the helm of Citi’s digital transformation, Callahan is helping drive new thinking across the bank. He points to Citi’s digital lab for start-up innovations, powerful new apps for customer smartphones, and, internally, a push to expand capabilities across cloud computing and big data and analytics that enable automation and machine learning. In an interview with McKinsey’s James Kaplan and Asheet Mehta, Callahan describes what it takes to mobilize digital change at one of the world’s leading financial institutions.