Pub. 6 2017 Issue 8

l e a d i n g a d v o c a t e f o r t h e b a n k i n g i n d u s t r y i n k a n s a s 18 Member FDIC | © 2016 INTRUST Bank | Equal Housing Lender Good relationships build business. Business. It’s the link that holds your community together. As a family-owned, Midwest-based financial institution, we understand the importance of local business and built our foundation by developing trusted relationships. Our goal is, and always will be, to be a proactive partner by providing the best financial solutions so you, and your community, can thrive. Call us at 800-732-5120 or visit intrustbank.com . example, faster transaction alerts. Great Western uses a niche digital vendor for its mobile channel and believes this is more advantageous than using a standard package from core systems providers. The Midwest is home to some of the nation’s few mobile-ready ATMs. Chicago-area Wintrust is a relatively early adopter of Cardless Cash, which lets the customer scan a QR code with their smartphone instead of using a debit card to withdraw money. In a competitive banking environment, and especially in heavily-banked areas, financial institutions are keeping an eye on customer attrition and looking for an edge. This sometimes means making investments in new ATM hardware or services like mobile P2P payments that do not necessarily add revenue but that have become part of what customers expect from their banks. It is difficult to quantify the value of a high-quality mobile banking experience, but our survey results give an idea of how important it is to consumers. Despite being generally fee-averse, more than 40% of survey respondents from the Midwest indicated that they would be willing to pay $1 per month to use their bank apps, while more than 20% said they would pay $3 per month. Respondents from the East North Central census division, which includes Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, were more willing to pay a fee. Although banks are unlikely to start charging for their digital services, satisfied mobile banking users could prove stickier deposit customers even as rates continue to rise and other institutions tempt them with promotional offerings. When it comes to delivering products and services, banks of all sizes have a high bar to meet. Large, deep-pocketed institutions are constantly innovating with their digital channels, and it is not easy for their smaller peers to keep up. But many regional and community banks boast sophisticated mobile apps with desirable features that are not yet ubiquitous among the nation’s largest banks. In a banking landscape populated by fewer branches and with visits to those locations by tech-savvy customers on the decline, the combination of a strong local brand and robust digital experience could give smaller banks a competitive edge. Methodology The 2017 mobile banking survey was fielded online between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1 across a nationwide random sample of 4,000 U.S. mobile bank app users 18 years and older. Results have a margin of error of +/- 1.6% at the 95% confidence level based on the sample size of 4,000. S&P Global Market Intelligence researched mobile apps for 45 U.S. regional and community banks between Sept. 18 and Nov. 10. These institutions consisted of, for the most part, the top five retail deposit market share leaders with under $50 billion in assets in each of the nine U.S. census divisions. This research is based on product descriptions available on bank websites and in app stores, as well as company-provided information. Some companies may have subsequently updated their apps or may offer additional features and services. This analysis does not necessarily reflect functionality or services available through text banking, mobile browsers or secure messaging. Continued from page 14