IDC has observed that banks in the APAC region are ramping up mobile banking offerings, due in part to customers who are becoming more tech- and mobile-savvy. In 2012, mobile was the top priority channel for most banks, and leading banks had concentrated their resources to it, launching standout features, ensuring more activity rate and managing the tech requirements of mobile banking.
Malaysia’s Maybank Berhad stands among a handful of top banks in Asia Pacific that have succeeded in building leading mobile banking services, according to the research firm.
A recently published IDC Financial Insights report in July 2012, ‘Business Strategy: Have Leading Asia/Pacific Banks Raised the Standards for Mobile?’ which examined the leading mobile financial offerings in the region and best practices, revealed more insights into what banks in APAC are planning.
Michael Araneta, Associate Consulting and Research Director for IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific stated, “The initial focus for leading banks was to offer baseline functionalities for mobile banking that are similar to those found in PC-based online banking: transaction history, payment origination, and funds transfers. However, some banks have succeeded in launching standout features that leverages new mobile form factors, which fit very well into the increasingly mobile lifestyles of Asia/Pacific customers.”
Araneta continued that there was also a shift in notion of what a banking channel is. “Prior to the emergence of the mobile channel as the major mode of engagement, a channel was effectively owned, managed, designed, and controlled by the bank. The bank itself ensured that channels worked in alignment with its own conditions, including processes, workflows, and channel strategies.”
Araneta added that today that power has shifted from banks to the customer who now owns, manages and controls the device at hand. He concluded, “This means that banks’ mobile strategies need to keep in mind customers and customer preferences more than ever.”
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Top Asia/Pacific banks with leading mobile banking offerings in 2012 (Sources: IDC Financial Insights 2012) |
This IDC Financial Insights report also highlighted the technology considerations crucial for banks as they launch their mobile banking offerings. There doesn’t yet appear to be an industry convergence around a single model or platform for mobile banking: Web versus native app? There is no clear preference.
Also, there are many vendors in the mobile space, suggesting that the market will soon consolidate. The report suggests that banks will follow the lead of their main core provider or look to a vendor who can support multiple channels.
Araneta added, “There are two areas that banks are pressured to respond to, especially if they want to be seen as a market leader in mobile: nearfield communications (NFC) and mobile wallets. However, in most markets, NFC is slow to reach critical mass and may never reach such market prevalence.
He opined that if NFC models are not transparent or clearly beneficial for the bank, alternative models of next-generation payment technologies will be more attractive to implement. Mobile wallets also require a well thought-out strategy, especially if these mobile wallets can offer compelling offers and reward programs for consumers.
The analyst concluded, “Mobile wallets present a new layer of intermediation that banks need to work through. Rather than focus on launching their own mobile wallets, banks should aim to work well with various existing mobile wallets, so that they can influence their customers through them.”
