8 Online Banking Trends for 2011

With 2011 on our doorstep I thought I would put out my thoughts on the top online banking trends for 2011. Your feedback and thoughts are welcome, let me know if you agree/disagree or if I missed anything major. So Happy New Year and here we go:

1. Mobile Payments continue to gain traction. With Near Field Communication (NFC) announced on Android mobile platform and Apple iPhone expected to follow in competition a tipping point has been reached. While it will take awhile for the infrastructure to get built, this is the game changer for the future and must be included. Additionally, the announcement by AT&T and T-Mobile's announcement of building a new mobile commerce network, the groundwork is being laid for innovation in banking and in new ways not thought of yet.

2. Mobile usage for online banking continues its march to overtake the web channel. Could this be the year that banks finally realize how important mobile should be to their strategy? USAA has surpassed over 1M mobile users, BOA has doubled mobile users to 4M and overall mobile growth at 10% a year, mobile is on track to surpass web site usage in the next few years.

3. App Stores are the new delivery model. Pioneered by Apple, copied by Android and others, extended by Google Chrome beyond mobile this is the new model for pushing software onto all sort of devices, mobile and otherwise. This represents an opportunity for banks to exploit new channels to add value and interact with customers. This could be through small apps (widgets) that provide specific functionality or larger apps that are more comprehensive. Expect to see a big increase in financial and banking apps in 2011.

4. Along the same lines of the app store, Smart Tablets have become an important bank and financial differentiator for companies. The iPad started the revolution and many new tablet devices are about to flood the market. The end result is new opportunity for smart tablet users looking to use the devices to run their financial lives. Being that company that provides unique and powerful solutions re-imagined for these devices will be a major advantage over competitors.

5. Context aware computing usage increases by banks and financial institutions. Context aware computing is the use of location, movement, orientation, environment and preferences to improve the customer experience. The start of this is ATM locators which pinpoint your location and show you on a map the ATM's closest to you. As smart phones have improved, the opportunity to create a much richer experience is here. We are seeing it first in the use of security with credit card companies by using the transaction and mobile phone geo-location as a fraud indicator. This could be done with ATM debit transactions as well and much more.

6. Mobile Remote Check Deposit becomes more mainstream. While remote deposit capture for banks is now widespread mobile capture from your smart phone has been limited. USAA was one of the first to deploy this technology and slowly other banks have been trickling out solutions. Recently we have seen Chase, State Farm Bank, PayPal. BOA and Conestoga Bank. FiServ, a major banking system provider is now offering the capability to it's clients through a partnership with Mitek which will allow more banks to deploy the technology easier. While making it easier for one off deposits this technology will eventually fade into the sunset as checks continue to disappear.

7. Social Banking Influence begins to take hold. We all know that banks are slow to adapt and social networking is no exception. We are however beginning to see more banks blogging, although few with anything interesting. An encouraging sign is the higher adoption of Twitter by banks which are using it to monitor what is being said about them in the Twitterverse and respond to it proactively. Some banks are also using it for customer service. Look for this adoption to accelerate as more banks start to catch on some more effectively than others. Along with this line, we are also starting to see the adoption of Twitter for making payments and performing transactions. Groundbreaker Vantage Credit Union has become the first to allow customers to transfer money between accounts using Twitter as well as receive balances.

8. More Services offered for un and underbanked in America. In my previous post on the un and underbanked in America I discussed new products coming to market to help the situation. In 2011, a new FDIC pilot program will begin to offer services for the underbanked based on prepaid debit cards. I am hoping this starts a trend to serve this market and help the poverty level in the United States. Find out more about the efforts of the FDIC pilot program.

Make it a great 2011, look forward to your comments.