Technology is radically changing the way bank customers interact with their providers, and mobile touchpoints are at the forefront of this change. In the past five years, mobile banking adoption in the US has more than quadrupled, hitting 17% by the end of 2011. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 33%.

As such, eBusiness professionals and mobile strategists at banks are in a white-knuckle contest to out-do each other in the mobile space. To evaluate and gauge banks’ mobile offerings, we applied Forrester’s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark to the four largest retail banks in the US.                                                                                                 

What we found:

  • Big US banks offer solid, not-yet-splendid, mobile services.  We employ 63 individual criteria in our Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology. The combination of weightings and scores for the criteria generates an overall score based on a 100-point scale. In our inaugural ranking, the four largest US banks posted an average score of 63 out of 100 – above our minimum standards but far from perfect.
  • Chase earns the top spot overall. With a score of 74 out of 100, Chase received the highest overall score among the four banks we evaluated. The firm scored an impressive 90 in our accessibility category, but the critical break from the pack came in the transactional functionality category, where Chase earned a score 26 points above the average. The strong showing results from a wide array of mobile money movement options — transfer functionality, mobile bill pay, and the ability to add a payee, among others — as well as mobile remote deposit capture and other features like mobile P2P.
  • Banks must improve and enhance their mobile PFM and cross-selling. We uncovered numerous opportunities for eBusiness professionals to improve aspects of mobile efforts. For example, just one of the four banks we evaluated offered any type of product research or robust cross-selling on its native iPhone app. In addition, none of the four banks we assessed earned a positive score on our mobile personal financial management (PFM) criteria.

How can you use this benchmark? Forrester’s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark can be used to evaluate any bank’s mobile offerings, identify best practices, and draw comparisons to competing banks. In addition, this benchmark can be used as part of a broader digital banking audit (which could also include a review of public and/or secure online banking content and functionality, social media interactions, and interactions with customers through other touchpoints). If you would like more information, please contact your account team at Forrester, or you can reach out to us via Forrester’s INQUIRY services. 

Let us know what you think…