Banks and Technology

The process of rushing, queuing and waiting for bank tellers is slowly becoming history. Internet banking has brought us much convenience, especially when we need to perform an urgent transaction on the spot.

According to ComScore, Canada is the world’s top country in terms of online banking penetration. 2 out of every 3 Internet users access banking services through the Internet. Netherlands and France held second and third placing respectively.

This trend is fascinating considering how people were so skeptical about online banking a decade ago. Security is the most prevalent issue people have. It’s probably still a great concern but the banks have proven the reliability of their systems as users slowly got used to it. With the competition among banks so strong, we observe how different banks are quick to adopt technology to improve user experience.

Mobile banking allows users to bring their bank along with them, wherever they go. In-store experience is improved with the adoption of iPads, installed with full banking services. The idea is to have everything digitized, made simple with security uncompromised. Citibank coined this as the “smart-banking” model.

The iPad seems to have made a huge impact on the business community. Its wide display and easy-to-use touchscreen interface made it the perfect platform for businesses to create a new channel to service or engage customers. The banks should understand the pain users have to go through just to make a transaction. The cost of researching, developing and implementing the various technologies can be pretty costly. However, from the consumer’s point of view, such implementations are certainly welcomed. We always want things to be faster, better but secured. The bank that provides these three factors wins.

Perhaps, sometime in the future, we may not even need to queue up at the ATM to withdraw cash. Cash could be digitized and paid through our mobile phones with a simple scan. Just wondering.