Mobile Banking Offering Convenience, Speed and Accessibility

Nikola Petković, Head of Digital Channels, OTP banka Srbija

Nikola Petković, Head of Digital Channels, OTP banka Srbija

Nikola Petković is a skilled digital product owner and agile team member with over 16 years of experience in digital banking transformation. He excels in managing diverse teams and executing digital strategies. With excellent IT knowledge and a deep understanding of retail and corporate digital products, markets, and customers, he is a team player.

1. In your opinion, how has the mobile banking landscape evolved over the years? What are some of the advantages of the current technological evolution?

Technological evolution, i.e. changing society as a result of technological development, has undergone a phase of the use of basic tools by humans, then machines and finally progressed to automation and artificial intelligence.

The evolution of mobile banking has gone through similar phases. What started as a tool, 12 years ago, for mobile banking users was checking account balances and some of the simplest fund transfers. As technology progressed, mobile banking users had more and more functionality within the mobile application and less and less need to visit branches.

In the last few years, mobile banking has progressed rapidly, the processes are fully automated and accelerated, so that the user can open a bank account in just a few minutes, become a client and receive a cash loan and money in his account with a mobile phone, without coming to the bank.

Also, user experience is no longer an exception, but an expectation.

Today, the advantages of technology have made it possible to integrate non-banking services into banking applications, so some banks have enabled users to buy an insurance policy, trade shares, donate humanitarian aid, activate some of the digital streaming services and so on through the mobile application.

2. What according to you are some of the challenges plaguing the mobile banking landscape and how can they be effectively mitigated?

The use of mobile banking is growing rapidly worldwide. In the first half of 2020 alone, after the emergence of Covid 19, there were 26 percentmore mobile banking application sessions globally than in 2019. Compared to previous years, the number of people using mobile banking has increased sharply. While the acceleration of mobile banking has indeed brought opportunity for banks and financial institutions, it has also resulted in challenges.

There are significant security risks arising from the use of mobile applications, including mobile banking applications. As businesses expand mobile payment capabilities, it's critical to ensure that business and customer payment data is secure.

With the growth of mobile and digital banking continuing even after the pandemic, banks and their vendors must work to develop a seamless and secure environment for the future. User behavior regarding mobile banking is changing, and business needs are changing as well. Those who fail to recognize these changes will fall behind their competitors, while those who adapt must ensure they are putting the appropriate security measures in place to protect their customers.

How to take advantage of these benefits without compromising security?

Mobile banking offers convenience, speed and accessibility to consumers - no more wasted time, closing on national holidays, tedious queues or nervous bank clerks. It's no wonder people are adopting mobile payments and banking in droves, as the benefits are huge. While banks rightly monitor and listen to their customers in enabling seamless mobile banking and payments, they must be constantly vigilant about the security threats posed by mobile banking.

According to a late 2020 survey, it was estimated that 76 percent of mobile banking app vulnerabilities can be exploited without physical access to the device by hackers, as everyone from app developers to banks themselves can leave security flaws and vulnerabilities, and thus violate security.

"You cannot be an expert on every emerging trend in online banking. But you can always rely on tech experts and development teams who will help you make the right decisions and follow through with all the mobile banking trends"

Trust, security and reliability are of utmost importance for mobile banking users. A whopping 62 percentof mobile banking users claim they would switch banks after a negative experience.

More features, more risk. The bank's desire is to provide its clients with a stable payment structure and meet their requirements while maintaining the highest level of security.

To grasp this opportunity, banks need to make sure they are working with payment experts who have experience managing online transfers across the world safely and securely.

Doing this by partnering with an expert team and reputable vendors with good references can ensure that financial institutions can provide their customers with the best mobile banking experience while keeping data safe and secure.

3. Which are a few technological trends influencing mobile banking today? What are some of the best practices businesses should adopt today to steer ahead of competitors?

Following technological development, global trends in the form of payment systems (Paypal, Skrill, Payoneer...), neobanking apps (Revolut, Monzo, N26) and crypto or stocks investing apps, mobile applications of traditional banks have experienced tectonic changes in a positive sense in recent years in order to meet the needs and expectations of their clients.

Banks that want to be ahead of the competition in the search engine today must follow technological trends and react quickly.

The trends and best practices businesses that banks are focusing on today are:

User-Centered Experience and regular „hygiene“ of mobile applications -  To become a user's favorite, you do not have to build a super tech and complicated service. You need to develop a mobile banking app with a convenient service that will allow users to complete their banking purposes efficiently, fast, and even have fun sometimes.

To achieve this simplicity and smoothness, you need to follow the user-centered approach. This is especially important, when your target audience is generation Z and millennials.

Contactless ATM Interaction, Mobile Wallet and Touchless Payment

Enable the user to do everything with his mobile phone, pay, withdraw money and thus eliminate the need for the user to carry payment cards with him.

AI and Machine Learning

Both machine learning and AI bring more customization to mobile banking and help to provide a better customer experience, which is highly important, as we mentioned earlier. For example, you could use AI on the front-end technologies to mimic live employees via chatbots, voice assistants, or personal recommendations.

Voice Recognition

Another mobile banking trend is to enable the application to detect voice commands and perform operations in line with these commands. Voice commands prevent the user from encountering dozens of menus and enable them to reach the action they want in the shortest way.

4. Do you have any advice for industry veterans or budding entrepreneurs from the mobile banking space?

Best advice - listen your users, feel their problems, and have a desire to solve them. 

You cannot be an expert on every emerging trend in online banking. But you can always rely on tech experts and development teams who will help you make the right decisions and follow through with all the mobile banking trends. 

Financial

Machine Learning

Retail

Customer Experience

Artificial Intelligence

Voice Recognition

Agile