Mobile banking apps are becoming a necessity for banks and credit unions. Customers demand the convenience of mobile banking apps, and the "bottom line" is now demanding the business efficiencies that mobile banking apps bring to financial institutions. In this article, we detail six features that financial institutions must include in their mobile app in 2018.

1. Mobile video-banking

Mobile video-banking allows customers and members to speak face-to-face with a representative from you financial institution directly within their mobile app. Recent increases in mobile bandwidth and decreases in mobile data costs have made mobile video-banking feasible, and banks at the cutting edge of mobile banking are taking advantage of this feature. Mobile video-banking allows your financial institution to serve your customers needs wherever they are, and this ability greatly increases customer satisfaction and engagement. Likewise, mobile video-banking can result in decreased visits to physical branches, which overtime can result in your financial institution needing to invest less in outfitting and staffing these branches. To read more on mobile video-banking, check out our blog post on the advantages mobile video banking provides to banks here.

2. Mobile Document Sharing

Mobile video-banking allows customers to carry out more complex banking transactions over mobile that my require a face-to-face discussion with a representative from the financial institution. However, these same transactions often require the discussion of a document that needs to be reviewed. At a physical branch, a customer and representative could discuss this document at a desk. Today, mobile document sharing technology allows customers and banks to share and review documents directly within the financial institution’s mobile app. Additionally, these documents can be discussed in real time, with the document being displayed on the majority of the mobile screen and a small video-feed of the customer and representative being displayed in the top corner of the mobile screen.

3. Mobile eSignature

To complete banking transactions over mobile, mobile video-banking and mobile document sharing are both key features. However, mobile eSignature is arguably the most important and final feature. A customer and representative can discuss a transaction and share a document all they want, however, without a way to sign the document over mobile, the customer would still need to visit the branch to complete the transaction. Mobile eSignature allows a customer to legally sign for documents electronically within their financial institutions mobile app. This provides added convenience and allows the “last mile” of transactions to be completed on mobile. Additionally, this feature can be coupled with custom workflow integrations with the financial institution’s bankend to decrease document processing and turnaround times. To read more on mobile eSignature, check out our recent blog post on how mobile eSignature benefits financial institutions here.

4. Biometric Security

Mobile devices are now built with increasingly complex hardware, and today this hardware can be used for biometric security purposes. Mobile phones are now including technology capable of fingerprint scanning, face scanning (Apple’s FaceID), and even iris scanning. Financial institutions can utilize these features within their mobile app in order to further ensure the authenticity of the apps user. Additionally, these security features can be coupled with mobile eSignature technology to ensure the user is who they say they are at the time of signing. Read more on biometric security within mobile apps on our blog post on how Apple's FaceID works.

5. Smart ATM Integration

Mobile banking apps are increasingly being used to interact with “smart ATMs.” Integrations between a smart ATM and a mobile banking app include using the customer’s mobile phone as a way to present a customers debit card. If the customer did not bring their bank card with them, they can instead login to their mobile banking app, present their mobile phone to a NFC reader on the ATM, and withdraw money without having their debit card present. Additionally, financial institutions are allowing customers to “pre-stage” cash withdrawals, where customers request their withdrawal amount prior to visiting and ATM. Once the customer arrives at the ATM, they simply flash their mobile device to the ATM which then immediately delivers the requested cash. Read more on Smart ATM integrations with mobile banking apps on our blog post on the subject here.

6. Mobile Card Management

Mobile card management allows customers to enable and disable their credit or debit cards with just the click of a button. While this feature is not a major technical feat, customers love it and more and more financial institutions are rolling it out. Customers no longer have to get on the phone and wait an hour to cancel their card if they suspect it is missing. With mobile card management, customers can quickly disable their card, and they can quickly reactivate their card later if they end up finding where it was misplaced.