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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Mobile Services Become Tools of the Trade

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a revolution under way in consumer banking circles.

Consider San Diego County Credit Union, the region’s largest credit union with $5.8 billion in assets, it recently added live mobile chat to its mobile banking services.

Mobile chat enables its customers to directly connect to credit union representatives using either iPhone or Android smartphones, and eliminates the need for hitting the keypad to cycle through a long list of options to reach customer service.

SDCCU becomes what it says is one of but two U.S. companies — the other being San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc. — and the only financial institution to offer chat as part of its service offerings.

And it certainly won’t be the last.

It seems that just about everyone is jumping on the mobile banking bandwagon.

An American Bankers Association survey recently found what it calls a sharp increase in the popularity of mobile banking, driven mainly by 18 to 34-year-old customers, members of the so-called millennial generation.

The ABA poll of 1,000 adults found that while the Internet remains the most popular banking method, mobile banking is now preferred by 6 percent of customers, up from 3 percent in 2010.

The number is even higher among 18 to 34 year olds at 15 percent, with the percentage fast growing.

“These results show customers are embracing new technologies that make managing a bank account simpler, easier and more convenient, but that doesn’t mean that the traditional bank branch is going anywhere,” said Nessa Feddis, a retail banking expert at the ABA.

SDCCU was one of the first financial institutions locally to offer mobile remote-deposit capture, software that lets its members take photos of checks with a smartphone camera and deposit the amount into their account. 

Teresa Halleck, president and CEO of SDCCU, said that a recent survey found that 11 percent of banking customers are likely to switch banks this year, so it’s important to keep up with the competition, especially the large banks like Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo.

“It was clear that SDCCU needed to offer mobile banking services to our customers,” she said, in view of the surveys.

SDCCU first launched mobile banking services in May 2009, and within the past two years, has expanded its mobile banking services to include downloadable apps for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones.

Its mobile browser also has the same functionality as the downloadable mobile apps, which increases options for customers, said Halleck.

Additionally, SDCCU offers a SMS text based solution for those customers who want to perform basic functions quickly via text.

Since December 2011, SDCCU customers using mobile banking increased 175 percent, while text banking users increased 4,662 percent, she said.

However, she said customers using SDCCU mobile deposit service increased 9,461 percent.

“We’re definitely on the cutting-edge of technology and ahead of our competition, including many of the major banks,” she said.

Tony Cherin, a business professor at San Diego State University, said that mobile banking “is the movement of the future, and will spread to even the smallest business banks as well as credit unions.”

“I don’t think it is necessarily just among the Millennial,” he said. “I am an older guy myself, and I am definitely tied into mobile banking through my credit union.”

“I really like the ability to look at my accounts through my iPhone, and the ability to transfer money through my iPhone, such as take a picture of a check, and deposit it,” he said. “It saves me a trip to my local branch.”

“The virtual branch that is sitting there in your iPhone or your Droid is a pretty potent factor in terms of banking today,” added Cherin.

At the Beginning of Change

Cherin said the industry is just at the beginning of change, which will become commonplace in a few years.

“Banking is a service that is extremely convenience oriented,” he said. “The more convenient you make it, the better it is.”

SDCCU is but one player locally.

Other institutions offering similar services in San Diego range from JP Morgan Chase, which also offers mobile deposit software to the San Diego-based BofI Federal Bank, which offers banking services online and operates without a branch-based system.

SDCCU’s Halleck said her institution will continue to leverage technology to offer what she calls “breakthrough convenient services through online and mobile banking channels.”

“We anticipate smartphone technology and adoption of mobile banking services will continue to evolve and become the new norm for convenience, especially as it relates to customer service expectations,” she said.

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