More than two years ago, Westpac – a bank in New Zealand – rolled out its “Cash Tank” feature for mobile bankers. Suddenly, customers could view key information like account balances without needing to log in (needless to say, it was and is opt-in-only). This new mobile banking feature immediately made a splash and was hailed as a small-but-impressive innovation. Other banks – such as Société Générale in France and Bank of the West in the US – offer similar pre-login information features.

This led folks like me to wonder: How might digital teams at banks take pre-login information further or make it even better?

Great digital strategy is often about pushing the limits – and not just in big ways. So Citi’s recent update to its smartphone apps is noteworthy for the bank’s decision to push the idea of pre-login information even further with Citi Mobile Snapshot. Citi customers who bank via their mobile phones can view not only balances but recent transactions without the hassle of logging in.

We spoke with Andres Wolberg-Stok, Global Head of Emerging Platforms and Services who shared with us a diagram that demonstrates the evolution of its mobile banking effort before and after Citi Mobile Snapshot (see below).

As the mobile banking space becomes more competitive – the five largest US banks are virtually neck-and-neck-and-neck when it comes to their mobile banking efforts – firms like Citi will need to differentiate themselves with experiences and features that benefit customers and help the bank meet business objectives.

Since launching Mobile Snapshot, Citi has seen double-digit adoption and, intriguingly, found that customers who use Snapshot access their accounts three times as often as others.  

Citi has been able to break new ground before with mobile efforts such as its first-of-its-kind tablet banking app, but resting on laurels doesn’t cut it in today’s digital banking market. As Wolberg-Stok puts it, “We’re very excited about this… but we’re also always looking forward.

What mobile features or experiences do you think have an outsized impact? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.