Thursday, August 02, 2007

Mobile Banking - Business Case?

Maybe its just me... although I noticed in a recent post to the excellent Blog by Brandon McGee at Mobile Banking that HSBC is charging for some of their mobile services i.e. alerting. This may be the only way to get a positive business case for the roll out of Mobile Banking.

When contrasting this business case to the huge available fee generating market for Mobile Payments, I am frankly shocked at how often the banks try to replicate the ATM/Branch/Website on the mobile phone instead of understanding that the mobile is poor for browsing and poor for extensive text entry. The research has shown that the consumer will pay a premium for the convenience of using a mobile device to perform a financial transaction, whereas the they expect to be able to subscribe to alerting services for free! Sounds like a case for a rich client on the phone.

If the task i.e. Sending Money or Buying Stuff is either Immediate or Impulsive and it is Inconvenient to use another channel then it is a suitable task for the mobile. However, it is imperative that user be able to perform the task in an convenient, fast & secure manner.

PayPal has proven that "transaction processing" is where the money is and that the banks still just want to let you view your account balance on a mobile!

Maybe its just me...