Riding the Three Waves of
Mobile Banking

Richard Crone, CEO, Crone Consulting, LLC

The promise of mobile banking lies in the hands of the 3 billion cell phone users worldwide. This phenomenal adoption rate makes cell phones one of the most successful technologies in the history of mankind.

Mobile banking features flexible communication methods (voice, text messaging, web browser and downloadable applications) and revenue opportunities through use of promotional messages and fee-based mobile payment services.

Most calls today to call centers are made from a mobile device and two-thirds of these calls are to request checking account balances. This drives the need to offer cell phone users the ability to check balances and view recent transaction history—without calling a call center. Consumers are interested in being proactively notified about low balances or bills that are due. Bill notification automatically creates the next step, which is the ability to make mobile payments. Consumers have also indicated a willingness to pay for both proactive messaging and mobile payments. 

The opportunity for marketing messages is also a powerful revenue-generating opportunity. Some financial institutions have found that offering account status alerts as a reward gets consumers to opt in for promotional messaging—which is expected to be a $12 billion business worldwide by 2011.

The first step credit unions can take to position themselves for mobile banking is to begin capturing cell phone numbers as part of their member record. Voice-based search technology is also needed to verify member identity. Capturing cell phones also creates the ability to improve collection efforts.