Tablet banking apps are giving financial institutions an opportunity to expand mobile banking beyond the more task-focused experience available on smartphones. BB&T’s iPad banking app takes advantage of the tablet’s larger screen to offer customers not only account access, transfers, and bill payments, but also the ability to open accounts, explore home equity products, and access financial education tools.
The approach demonstrates how banks can design different digital banking experiences for different devices rather than simply adapting a smartphone application to a larger screen. As tablets become more widely used, however, their growing data consumption and reliance on wireless connections could also introduce new considerations for mobile banking security.
You have to love the gorgeous presentation that well-crafted iPad apps can deliver. The elegance of the touch interface, the wide open spaces of screen real estate when compared to smartphone apps, and the convenience of mobility combine to create a compelling user experience. BB&T has been offering mobile banking for a few years, has iPhone and BlackBerry apps, and has just launched an iPad app that takes advantage of the tablet’s real estate. Rather than just the task specific, narrow focus of the smartphone apps, the tablet version lets users apply for (or create) new accounts, plus a range of other service options such as home equity lines and financial education services –tasks that are simply not practical via the smartphone interface.
BB&T claims that it guards clients’ accounts with 128-bit encryption technology, multiple firewalls to shield the network and logon security measures with automatic inactivity logoff.
“Most banks just took their iPhone app and ported it to the iPad, but we took advantage of the unique characteristics that the iPad has to offer,” said Sumit Deshpande, Raleigh, NC-based online channel group manager, mobile and messaging services at BB&T. “It is really about providing a means for our clients to access BB&T services wherever and whenever they want.
“With the iPad app we leverage what we have in the online world, enabling financial management, making transfers and bill payments and the ability to open new accounts using existing online process, so there is a sales aspect as well,” he said. “We make it easy to open up new accounts with us via the iPad.
“Another key piece is financial education, providing access to materials like mortgage calculators, finding the nearest branch and ATM and a self-service platform for client to manage their finances.”
Tablet Usage Creates New Demands on Mobile Networks
Tablets consume far more data than smartphones. This is from Cisco’s recent report:
In 2010, 3 million tablets were connected to the mobile network, and each tablet generated 5 times more traffic than the average smartphone. In 2010, mobile data traffic per tablet was 405 MB per month, compared to 79 MB per month per smartphone.
Data consumption is of little concern to the provider, in this case BB&T. But as Cisco’s report continues to say, tablets are going to have a huge impact. It should be no surprise that the carriers are starting to throttle the consumption of the heaviest users. Cisco’s forecast:
Mobile-connected tablets will generate as much traffic in 2015 as the entire global mobile network in 2010. The amount of mobile data traffic generated by tablets in 2015 (248 petabytes per month) will be approximately equal to the total amount of global mobile data traffic in 2010 (242 petabytes per month).
Mobile Banking Raises Wi-Fi Security Concerns
Wi-Fi hotspots could start to look good to consumers again, in which case security concerns will become more important. Conducting banking activity over an open Wi-Fi connection is fraught with issues. I’m only comfortable doing that from home over my password-protected Wi-Fi link.
The larger screens and greater functionality of tablets could give banks another valuable digital channel for delivering services that are difficult to provide through smartphone applications. BB&T’s iPad banking app illustrates how financial institutions can use tablets to combine everyday banking transactions with account opening, product information, and financial education.
At the same time, greater use of tablets for banking could make connectivity and security increasingly important considerations. As consumers access more sophisticated financial services through mobile devices, banks will need to balance the convenience of tablet banking apps with safeguards that help customers conduct sensitive transactions securely.
