alerts

Banks to Expand Mobile Banking and Payments in 2012

Financial institutions (FIs) are moving beyond the basics to deliver increasingly sophisticated mobile capabilities, according to a recent Forrester survey which evaluated the plans of ten top-tier U.S. banks and credit unions.

“After several years of technology-driven expectations, mobile banking is finally seeing sustained traction in the United States, and banks have rolled out support broad enough to enable consumers with nearly any mobile device to access basic banking functionality,” said Brad Strothkamp, vice-president, principal analyst, eBusiness and Channel Strategy, Forrester Research. “As consumers gain confidence with the channel, their needs are shifting from simple functionality like account balances and ATM locators to transactions like bill payment and account transfers.”

The Forrester survey indicates that FIs are moving to meet these more transactional needs by delivering increasingly robust mobile banking and payment solutions: Read More »

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January 26, 2012 | alerts, Analysts, mobile alerts, mobile banking, Payments, remote deposit capture and Research | 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

71% of FIs Say They Have Insufficient Resources to Detect and Prevent Fraud

Financial institutions (FIs) expressed dissatisfaction with their existing fraud prevention and detection tools, particularly with respect to cross-channel fraud, according to a study released last week by research firm Novarica.

In its report, Fraud Detection and Prevention at US Banks, Novarica reported that:

  • Only 6% of FIs surveyed believe their current fraud tools can detect cross-channel fraud patterns.
  • 35% said their tools do not detect cross-channel fraud. 41% cite organizational silos as a top barrier to effectiveness.
  • 71% of FIs said lack of resources keep them from effectively detecting and preventing fraud.
  • 53% said lack of customer awareness is a barrier to fraud detection.

Read More »

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November 2, 2011 | alerts, Analysts, Research and Security-Fraud | 0 Comments

Utilize the Mobile Channel to Combat Fraud

A new study, “Mobile Payments & Online Shopping Survey of U.S. Consumers”, revealed that only 21% of U.S. consumers surveyed feel they are completely protected against fraudsters when conducting mobile banking activities.  Not surprising, considering U.S. consumers and FIs suffered over $37 billion in fraud losses in 2010.

However, the study also showed that 84% of consumers feel that it is “important” or “very important” for online payment service providers to express a commitment to protect them against fraud and other abuses – especially in the mobile channel. Per Javelin, FIs that use the mobile channel to combat fraud can experience up to a 50 percent reduction in fraud losses.

Ideally, a mobile fraud solution will empower FIs to generate and send real-time mobile alerts to their customers and enable them to instantly take action by replying to the alert, in order to quickly resolve fraud incidents and detect false positives. The solution should “deputize” FI customers in the fight against fraud and accelerate the identification and resolution of potentially fraudulent transactions.

Learn how the Clairmail Fraud Solution can enable FIs to leverage the mobile channel to effectively identify initial fraud incidents, resolve compromises and mitigate recurring fraudulent activities by downloading our white paper, Fraud Solution: Leveraging Mobile to Combat Fraud.

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September 29, 2011 | alerts, Industry, Research and Security-Fraud | 0 Comments

U.S. Bank Expands Mobile Alerts to ATMs, Debit Cards

U.S. Bank recently announced that it has expanded its mobile alert program to ATM and debit card holders. The alerts – delivered via SMS, email or both – are designed to draw attention to and quickly resolve fraud issues and to report on ATM withdrawals and other debit and check transactions.

On the fraud detection side, the new real-time alerts notify cardholders when suspicious or irregular activity has been detected. For instance, if a consumer in New York gets an alert about a transaction on his card made in San Francisco, he can immediately text to cancel the transaction.

On the account management side, a customer can elect to be notified via mobile alert when a transaction meets or exceeds a predetermined amount; cardholders may also receive real-time alerts for international transactions, gasoline purchases, ATM withdrawals, declined transactions or for online, mail-order or telephone transactions where the card is not present.

Clairmail congratulates U.S. Bank on their expanded mobile alerts offering, particularly their actionable fraud alerts. As a long-time advocate (and innovator) of real-time, actionable alerts, we are excited to see the mobile alert technology we’ve been evangelizing taking off.

We are witnessing this ascent first-hand, as seven FIs are processing more than 20 million mobile banking requests and alerts every month using the Clairmail platform, and the numbers are continuing to spiral upwards.

As exemplified by U.S. Bank, mobile fraud alerts will be an increasingly critical element for an FI’s mobile banking solution.

Learn more about Clairmail’s comprehensive suite of mobile fraud alerts by downloading our white paper, Fraud Solution: Leveraging Mobile to Combat Fraud.

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September 6, 2011 | alerts, Biz Press, mobile alerts and News | 0 Comments

Half Of U.S. Mobile Consumers Use Cell Phones For Real-time Info

Mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool for information-seeking and communicating: 83% of American adults own some kind of cell phone, and these devices are impacting many aspects of their owners’ daily lives. 

For instance, a new survey from the Pew Internet research project quantifies how people rely on their mobile phones for real-time information.

In the past month, 51 percent of U.S. adult cell phone owners used their phones to get just-in-time information they “needed right away.” The numbers are even higher for 18-29 year-olds (64 percent) and 30-49 year-olds (57 percent).

Moreover, the Pew study shows that text messaging (SMS) continues to top the list of ways that Americans use their mobile phones. Three quarters of all cell owners (73 percent) use their phones for text messaging. There are over 173 billion text messages sent each month in the U.S. alone – roughly 240 million per hour – and worldwide SMS traffic is expected to exceed 11.6 trillion by 2015.

Not surprisingly, companies are capitalizing on the popularity of SMS alerts to provide real-time information. Ticketmaster alerts consumers when tickets are on sale, ESPN texts the final score to sports fans when the game ends and airlines notify travelers when their flights are delayed.

The financial industry recognized that mobile alerts could be applied to banking as well, and mobile financial alerts are becoming much more commonplace. Javelin Strategy & Research forecasts that 62 billion U.S. households will receive financial alerts by 2014.

Proactive mobile financial alerts are an integral component of a complete mobile banking solution, and enable financial institutions to mitigate fraud, lower servicing costs, drive customer acquisition, improve customer retention, facilitate cross-selling and preserve fees. 

Learn more by downloading the Clairmail white paper, Proactive Alerting & Process Orchestration: Optimizing Customer Touchpoints and Engagement.

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August 25, 2011 | alerts, Analysts, Industry and Research | 0 Comments
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