Monthly Archive for November, 2011

Mobile Banking Adoption Will be Twice as Fast as Online

Carl Tsukahara, Clairmail’s chief marketing officer (CMO), was recently featured in an article in Bobsguide.com, the premier financial IT solutions network from the Association for Financial Professionals. Below is a reprint:

Carl Tsukahara, Clairmail Chief Marketing Officer

The adoption of mobile banking among consumers will be twice as fast as the take up of online banking, a technology vendor has predicted.

Carl Tsukahara, chief marketing officer (CMO) at Clairmail, a mobile banking solutions provider, said: “Mobile has been growing at a much faster rate of adoption than Internet banking. The biggest difference between mobile technology and previous models is that every single consumer has a device. And some parts of the world are purely mobile. In some places no landline network exists.”

“Online banking has been in place for ten years and at the high end, has attracted an estimated 60 per cent of customers. Mobile adoption, at its current pace, is expected to be much faster than this.” Read More »

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November 30, 2011 | Adoption, Analysts, CM in the News and Opinion | 0 Comments

FinApps Party Challenges Mobile Application Developers in Spain

Andres Fontao, Clairmail’s Executive Mobile Banking Consultant, recently attended the first annual FinApps Party in Barcelona, Spain, and reported the following:

Andres Fontao, Clairmail Executive Mobile Banking Consultant

IT architects, software engineers, web designers, graphic designers, usability experts, students and even some of Spain’s 5 million unemployed recently took part in the first annual FinApps Party, held in Barcelona.

During a 24-hour period, 23 teams ideated, designed and developed 21 different financial applications for smartphones and tablets. Participants were free to choose the technology, with the majority developing for iOS and Android.

The winners were Encaixa’t, StockSound, Servihabitat, CCeApp and Parebank.

  • Encaixa’t is a mobile payment application for Android that allows consumers to pay at small businesses using QR codes. 
  • StockSound is a brokerage application that combines music with stock market performance; while listening to music with your smartphone, volume is automatically regulated according to increase or decrease in stock prices and market indices. Read More »
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November 29, 2011 | Europe, International and Opinion | 0 Comments

How to Monetize Mobile Alerts for Revenue Growth

Due to heightened government scrutiny on traditional fee income, a poor economy and negative publicity, financial institutions (FIs) face tremendous pressure to fill revenue gaps.

The strategy chosen by many FIs to make up for revenue gaps is to adopt selective ways to tease more revenue from targeted current customers and products. One promising area for revenue growth, as discussed in Bankerstuff, is to monetize mobile alerts.

Undoubtedly, FI customers value alerts. According to Javelin Research, 45% of customers value alerts that keep them from going into overdraft, 40% value alerts that keep them from falling below a pre-set balance threshold, 38% value alerts about a bill coming due and 31% value alerts confirming a deposit.

Still unclear, however, is which alerts customers are willing to pay for, which customer segments will pay, how much they will pay and in what kind of pricing structure. Read More »

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November 28, 2011 | alerts, Analysts, mobile alerts, Research and Security-Fraud | 0 Comments

Mobile Banking is Not Just an Extension of Online Banking

While some people erroneously view mobile banking as simply the extension of online banking to the mobile device, a new report from research firm, Celent, clarifies that mobile functionality is differentiated from internet/web functionality in a number of important ways.

Some of Celent’s observations include:

  • Mobile is location-aware:  Smartphones have GPS embedded. Feature phones (less fully capable) are able to determine location, but less accurately, based on which cell phone tower(s) the phone is connected to. In any case, a mobile application can tell where you are and use that to suggest you visit a certain bank branch, ATM, or retailer, depending upon your requirements.
  • Mobile is immediate:  Sending an SMS message is a near real-time event (as opposed to email, which is generally asynchronous). People can check their email with varying frequency, but an SMS message is usually transmitted, received, opened, and read within mere minutes. This can be quite handy for alerts around low balances, overdraft, and suspicious transactions. Read More »
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November 22, 2011 | Analysts, mobile banking, online banking and Opinion | 0 Comments

Fifth Third Bank Launches Mobile Banking Apps

Congratulations to Clairmail customer Fifth Third Bank on the launch of its mobile banking applications for the most popular mobile platforms – iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

In addition to conducting mobile banking via text banking and the mobile web, Fifth Third customers can now conveniently view balances, transfer funds, pay bills and more, all from their smartphones.

Mobile banking is free to all Fifth Third Bank customers.

Fifth Third’s apps were developed in partnership with Clairmail, the leading provider of mobile solutions for the financial industry. Other Clairmail clients with mobile applications include PNC Bank, Bank of the West, and Sallie Mae Bank.

To view a demo of the Fifth Third iPhone app experience, click here.

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November 21, 2011 | Biz Press, CM in the News, Cust-Partners, mobile banking and News | 0 Comments

Mobile Fraud Sentiments of Baby Boomers vs. Millennials

A joint study recently conducted by ThreatMetrix and The Ponemon Institute revealed some interesting differences with respect to mobile payments and fraud sentiments between two age groups: Millennials (defined as age 18 to 25) and Boomers (55 or older).

  • While only one in four Boomers indicated they have used their smartphone or tablet to make a mobile payment, 60% of Millennials cited they have done so.
  • Of those who have used a mobile payment, Millennials were much more likely than Boomers to do so because of convenience (60% versus
    44%).
  • 26% of Boomers perceived fraud risk to actually be lower when using a smartphone versus a computer, compared to 40% of Millennials.

“Mobile offering better fraud protection is a common misconception that fraudsters use to their advantage,” said Bert Rankin, vice president of marketing, ThreatMetrix. “Not only are merchants still trying to understand the mobile channel, but the majority of consumers don’t even download virus protection on their smartphones. And with more consumers using mobile devices to purchase goods, leverage social networks and conduct banking transactions, fraud is of growing concern in this channel.”

The Clairmail Fraud Solution empowers FIs to enlist their customers in the fight against fraud by generating and sending real-time mobile alerts to customers, and enabling them to instantly take action by replying to the alert. Customers are able to quickly detect false positives and swiftly resolve fraudulent activities via the Clairmail Fraud Solution.

Learn more by downloading the Clairmail white paper, Fraud Solution: Leveraging Mobile to Combat Fraud.

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November 17, 2011 | Analysts, Research and Security-Fraud | 0 Comments
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