Below are interesting stories the Banking.com staff has been reading over the past week. What have you been reading? Let us know in the comments section below or Tweet @bankingdotcom.
- Gruenberg: Cell Phones May Hold Key to Access for Unbanked
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plans to issue a report next year exploring whether cell phones could help draw consumers not served by a bank into the mainstream financial system, the agency’s chief said Thursday. “We want to take a hard look at this issue from the perspective of economic inclusion to try to assess what the potential is here in a careful way of using this technology to expand access,” FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said at a conference hosted by the Consumer Federation of America.
- New Twitter Rules Stymie Credit Unions From Promoting Themselves
New rules from Twitter have thrown a wrench in the social media works for some credit unions that want to use promoted posts to break through the clutter and highlight their offerings on the popular social networking site. Peach State FCU entered the social media realm in October with Facebook and Twitter profiles, using promoted posts on each site. (A promoted post pays the site to expose the tweet or post to a larger number of users.) But a recent change to Twitter’s rules sometime in November has shut out some credit unions from using this common business marketing practice. “We had some luck with Twitter in October doing promoted tweets and promoting the account as a whole,” said Meredith Olmstead, founder and social media marketing consultant at Social Stairway, who is serving as a social media consultant for Peach State.
- Mobile Wallet Collaboration Crucial for CU Success
A mobile wallet will only be successful if members adopt and consistently use the app to conduct daily transactions. Ultimately, merchants will play a critical role in the success or demise of each mobile wallet solution. Forging mutually beneficial relationships with merchants, navigating the various merchant requirements including point-of-sale technology preferences and negotiating pricing agreements can be a daunting, if not impossible, feat for an individual credit union to accomplish, regardless of its size or resources.
- NAFCU – Strategic Growth Conference
According to data from FindABetterBank, consumers who are specifically interested in mobile banking services are very likely to believe they’ll bank 100% virtually in the future. While fewer banking “traditionalists” (those using checks, for instance) see an all-digital future, it’s still a healthy percentage — nearly two-thirds.
- Security and BYOD policy management key barriers to corporate mobile banking
Corporate treasurers cite security challenges and bring-your-own-device business policies as the key obstacles to wider uptake of mobile banking platforms for treasury activities. Of 135 finance and treasury professionals collared by Capital One at the annual Association for Finance Professionals (AFP) gathering, barely one-in-three used a corporate mobile banking platform. Security challenges with sensitive corporate data was cited as the primary barrier to widespread adoption (66%), followed by obstacles for companies figuring out their BYOD policies (24%).
- Banks Face Losing To Google And Amazon, While Shortchanging Corporate Clients
Two strong critiques of banking in the Financial Times today. Francisco Gonzalez, CEO of BBVA bank, writes that banks can expect competition from Amazon, Google and Facebook. BBVA is based in Spain but owns BBVA Compass in the U.S. Goonzalez writes that technology has transformed many businesses — next in line is banking. That may come as something of a shock to bankers who think they are on the cutting edge, but Gonzalez points to competitors in providing financial services including PayPal, Square iZettle, SumUp and Dwolla.
- Email Design: Discover Card’s “Statement Available” Message
Most statement alerts are simple one liners asking the user to do all the work: login, find the right tab, click on the correct button, and so on. Discover, on the other hand, positions key summary information right within the body of the email: statement end date, statement balance, credit available, minimum payment due, and due date. The company includes a button to view the statement at the top, but somewhat buries the payment link near the bottom. Analysis: This is one of the better (maybe best) statement-available message I get from the major brands. But it could still be improved