Mobile banking features vs online banking features
Before taking a look at 2023's must-have
mobile banking features according to FinTech Insights, it's worth distinguishing between mobile banking and web-based banking.
The obvious difference is the way in which the customer accesses their account.
Mobile banking requires the customer to download an app on their smartphone or tablet. By contrast, customers can access their bank's online portal using the web browser on any internet-enabled device: smartphone, tablet, desktop, laptop, or even a smart TV.
Historically, web-based portals tended to be more feature-rich than mobile banking apps, for two main reasons.
Firstly, the consumer normally accessed the web portal on a desktop or laptop, which had more processing power than first-generation smartphones and tablets.
Secondly, the first smartphones were smaller and somewhat fiddly to use (Blackberry, anyone?), which meant there was a limit to what tasks consumers could comfortably do on their phones.
With mobile devices now packing much larger, high-resolution screens and increasingly powerful hardware — a modern smartphone
has as much RAM as a standard laptop — the performance and UX gap has narrowed considerably.
That said, we strongly believe web and mobile shouldn't be treated as two sides of the same coin.
For one, they serve markedly different user needs and intentions. To ensure a satisfying user experience, you need to keep these differences firmly in mind when developing new features and user journeys.
More to the point, despite huge technological advances, apps still have inherent limitations. And that means features that might work well on a web portal might require significant compromises when implemented on mobile.
Crunching the data: the must-have mobile banking features in 2023
So, which mobile banking features are non-negotiable in 2023? What do consumers absolutely expect to be able to do on their bank's mobile app?
To keep things simple, we asked FinTech Insights to look solely at the UK banking market. However, it's worth noting FinTech Insights can research most major markets around the world. You can also create your own custom market of focus with handpicked competitors from different locations.
The chart below shows the most common mobile banking features in the UK. 50% of the market offers these mobile banking features. So if your app doesn't have these capabilities — or you offer limited functionality — you're likely already lagging behind your competitors.
The most widely available mobile banking features are money transfer features and account features. The latter are mobile banking features that enable you to do things like view your overall balance, go through your latest transactions, or check the details of individual transactions.
Other must-have mobile banking features, in order of popularity, are:
- Cards: features such as ordering a new card or freezing a lost or stolen card so it can't be misused. With consumers more worried about online payment fraud than ever before, it's no surprise that these security features would be high on the mobile banking features priority list.
- Login and security, specifically biometric login like Touch ID and Face ID, and auto logout after a specific period of inactivity
- Bill payments, including being able to schedule payments to leave their account at a date in the future
- Customer support, and particularly live chat, which is preferred by 79% of consumers because it's faster than an email or phone call and avoids having to stay on hold
- Adding new money-transfer recipients. On the banking apps of most banks in the data set, it's possible to add or remove both individual payees and organizations
- Viewing registered personal details such as the address and phone number
- Applying for a credit card or loan
- Receiving and deleting alerts
- Personal finance management
-
Opening an account without ever leaving the mobile app. Interestingly, despite this being a common feature, it continues to be a significant friction point. In 2022, 68% of consumers abandoned the account-opening process because it required too much effort. This is likely because, as online verification technology has become more sophisticated, consumers have become less tolerant of poor user experiences.
From good to great: which mobile banking features will set your product apart?
While the 13 mobile banking features FinTech Insights has singled out above are must-haves for any bank that's serious about doing well in its market, they won't necessarily place your mobile banking app at the front of the pack. To put it bluntly, they're the absolute bare minimum consumers expect from a mobile banking app.
So which mobile banking features would take an app from satisfactory to good, or, perhaps, even great?
Here again, FinTech Insights can help by showing you which mobile banking features are uncommon in a given market.
As the name suggests, these are mobile banking features that very few UK market players offer right now.
So, adding them to your app's capabilities is an opportunity to fill a market gap and position yourself as an innovator:
- Video selfies for verifying your ID. These add a further layer of security to onboarding. But, as things stand, only three banks implement this feature: two UK-based challengers — Monzo and Starling Bank — and two of the banks available on FinTech Insights but located outside the UK
- Assigning specific payments to a group of recipients, rather than a single recipient. Only four banks offer this: one in the UK and three in the rest of the world
- Viewing pending payments. Only 2 UK banks have this functionality, but it's quite common elsewhere in the world. 33 banks outside of the UK offer the feature
- Setting and switching off SMS alerts. 21 banks worldwide offer this feature, but only one of them is based in the UK.
- Searching for transactions by location. Only Monzo UK and Monzo US offer this functionality
- Deleting recurring stock buy orders. Only one UK market player's mobile banking app has this feature, compared to six in the rest of the world
- Making p2p money transfers using location services. Four banks around the world offer this feature, with only one of them based in the UK
- Junior accounts, specifically ordering a card and blocking or unblocking it. This is another big missed opportunity, with only one UK bank and four banks outside the UK offering the functionality
In 2023, a powerful set of mobile banking features is a must
There are no two ways about it: if you want to keep your customers loyal and stay ahead of your competitors in 2023, you need a feature-rich mobile banking app.
Growing numbers of Americans, Brits, and EU consumers prefer mobile banking to web-banking or visiting a branch.
More to the point, consumers are just as clear about which mobile banking features they expect an app to have as they are about their banking preferences.
The good news is that you don't have to rely on guesswork to make sure your mobile banking app continues to meet and exceed your customers' expectations as their preferences evolve.
With FinTech Insights, you can:
- Find out what's going on in your market
- Understand how your mobile banking feature-set compares to that of your competitors
- Study how market leaders have tackled UX challenges so you can de-risk your strategy, make better-informed decisions, and speed up your development cycle
Try FinTech Insights today
