Mobile banking adoption needs innovation boost to reach next level

While consumer acceptance of mobile banking apps has shown great strides, as fintech players and others get into the game and people seek simplicity, growth and deeper usage demand improvements. The potential for mobile banking services is vast, but there are no shortcuts.

Not surprisingly, Anne Boden, founder of the U.K. digital bank Starling, is a booster of the mobile banking experience. She considers what mobile banking is today to be just a small subset of what it could be.

Boden sees the mobile device as a sort of portable pocket banker, a miniaturized advisor drawing on a multitude of apps that cover every aspect of a consumer’s financial life.

She does not see the extinction of banks that others do. She actually sees a kind of rebirth for banks at the intersection of mobile banking, open banking, data sharing, and other trends. Boden sees banks as active clearinghouses and curators.

“To visualize how this works, I always imagine a good quality market such as you might find in any town or city center near you,” writes Boden writes in her book The Money Revolution. “This is a place where individuals and small businesses come to sell foodstuffs, from excellent coffee to fine cheeses…. In the future, it is very likely that banks will take the market role, bringing together financial brands and services that they are likewise proud to be associated with them.”

 

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