“Of the next billion people who come online, the vast majority of them are going to do so for the first time through a mobile device.” – Jimmy Wales in SAP Spectrum, [Manr10, p. 17]
Where does this road lead?
“If you had asked most bankers five years ago when they thought that mobile banking would become mainstream, they would likely have told you “not in my lifetime”. Yet, in the last five years, that is exactly what has happened and now banks everywhere are talking about mobile banking.” [King10, p. 228]
Even though banks everywhere are talking about mobile banking tools, Mobile E-Banking is still in its infancy, especially in Switzerland (see [Frey11, p. 24] and below). Even innovations or prime examples such as mint.com (see [Intu11]) or Swissquote (see [Swiss11]) cannot hide this fact. Is it fear of reputational damage, e.g. fear of hitting the headlines in Social Networks (see [Frey11, p. 24]) that slows development down?
At the same time, the number of always connected mobile users is growing steadily. Most of the used new devices (millions of iPads, Galaxy Tabs, iPhones, Nexus, etc.) allow an intuitive user guidance – easy-to-use Apps are available. Provider and retailer sell mobile devices with data flatrates. Consequentially, the SMS Banking (~ “Mobile Banking 1.0″) area is over —
Nevertheless, fact is that bank customers want to have access to “Bank 2.0″ wherever they are. In the evening, you rather grab your smartphone or tab that’s always online than turn your PC or Mac on. And who would like to make the detour to go to the bank branch?
“Bankers need to start treating mobile as a serious competitive advantage.” [King10, p. 228]
King, an acknowledged strategic advisor to the financial services sector and author of “Bank 2.0″, is absolutely right. In fact, a couple of companies are already working on solutions and aim at leveraging the competitive advantage of a soon introduction of new “Mobile Banking 2.0″ applications (and “Apps” respectively). Thus, the above-mentioned companies like mint.com, IBM and Swissquote are just examples.
However, while in some countries at least mobile money transfer and basic mobile banking features are “day-to-day business” some countries are more reluctant to introduce new technical tools. The latter particularly applies for Switzerland, one of the main financial places worldwide. Technical support is in Switzerland quite often reduced to mere SMS (~ “Mobile Banking 1.0″) services – without making use of the now market-ready options of new mobile technologies. And the potentials go even beyond “classic” Retail Banking.
Based on my own experience as a bank advisor, I must however say that Swiss banks exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect security, business risk etc. very closely particularly due to the (compared to other jurisdictions) very strict banking secrecy and data protection rule that Swiss law provides. This explains, at least to a certain extent, the reluctance of Swiss banks towards mobile money transactions and the introduction of new “Mobile Banking 2.0″ technologies in general.
In turn, it is exactly the tension between the opportunities that new technology provides and the challenges that makes Switzerland a very interesting place for bank advisors. Beyond, intuitive applications on new devices will give an impulse for “a real” Mobile Banking 2.0 (see [Alt+10, p. 44]).
Readers of this post who are interested in this subject can find some “incitations” in the reference list. If you need more information on the topic, please do not hesitate to contact me…
Reference list:
- [Alt+10] Alt, Prof. Dr. Rainer; Möwes, Till; Puschmann, Dr. Thomas: “Neue Wege zum Kunden – Innovationen in der Kunde-Bank-Interaktion.” In: “Wirtschaftsinformatik und Management”, URL: http://goo.gl/815lO, last verified on February 18, 2011.
Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, 2010, WUM 4.2010, pp. 40-47 - [Frey11] Frey, Matthias: “Die Bank als Plattform.” In: IBM – Think! URL: http://www-05.ibm.com/at/think/data_info.html, last verified on February 18, 2011.
IBM Österreich Internationale Büromaschinen Gesellschaft m.b.H., 2011, pp. 24-25 - [Intu11] Intuit, Inc.: “Free Personal Finance Software, Budget Software, Online Money Management and Budget Planner | Mint.com.” URL: http://www.mint.com/, last verified on February 18, 2011.
Intuit, Inc., 2011 - [King10] King, Brett: “Bank 2.0: How Customer Behavior and Technology Will Change the Future of Financial Services_”
Singapore: Brett King and Marshall Cavendish (International) Asia Pre Ltd., 2010 - [Manr10] Manross, Perry: “How Wikipedia Is Serving The Next Wave Of Internet Users.” In: SAP Spectrum, 4/2010, URL: http://en.sap-spectrum.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/SAP_SPECTRUM_2010-no-04_E_j_wales_wikipedia.pdf, last verified on February 18, 2011.
SAP AG, 2010, pp. 16-18 - [Swiss11] Swissquote Bank Ltd.: “Mobile – Technology – TRADING – Swissquote Bank ltd.” URL: http://www.swissquote.ch/sqweb/epb/technology/mobile.jsp, last verified on February 18, 2011.
Swissquote Bank Ltd., 2011
Related articles:
- Schwiebert, Marc; Körber, Olaf; Thälker, Carsten: “Neuland im Bankvertrieb – Wie mobile Endgeräte die Kundenkommunikation verändern.” In: “Wirtschaftsinformatik und Management.” URL: http://goo.gl/twA0p, last verified on February 18, 2011.
Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, 2011, WUM 1.2011, pp. 24-29