Indian banks stragglers in mobility

Axis Bank, Citi, DBS, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI were tracked

The financial services industry was one of the early adopters of emerging technologies in India but banks are still not on a par with their global peers in leveraging mobility and cloud. None of the six Indian banks, Axis Bank, Citibank India, DBS Digibank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and State Bank of India (SBI), reviewed by research firm Forrester in its 2016 Global Mobile Banking Benchmark late last week, scored above the global average of 65 out of 100.

ICICI Bank, the highest rated Indian bank, achieved an overall score of 63 out of 100, SBI scored the lowest with 35 points among 46 large retail banks. Axis Bank scored 52 points and HDFC Bank 48 points, while Citibank in India stood second last with 38 points. Even DBS Bank, which is among the foremost players in India when it comes to bringing mobility into banking, scored 57 points.

Forrester evaluated across 14 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the US.

Australia’s Westpac topped the annual benchmark, scoring 86 points. A cluster of nine other banks, CaixaBank in Spain, CIBC and Scotiabank in Canada, Garanti in Turkey, Bank of America in the US, Bank Zachodni WBK in Poland, Lloyds Bank in the UK, Wells Fargo in the US, and Commonwealth Bank in Australia, were at the forefront of mobile banking, said Forrester.

The survey between February 15 and April 15, 2016, evaluated banks based on criteria segregated into seven categories: range of touchpoints, enrollment and login, account information, transactional functionality, service features, cross-channel guidance, and marketing and sales.

"Mobile banking adoption has reached a critical mass. Rapid progress in mobile technologies and consumers’ ever-increasing expectations and changing behaviour have left many banks around the world playing catch-up,” said Aurélie L’Hostis, lead author of Forrester’s report.

“In the meantime, a cluster of banks is racing forward; these banks are putting customers at the centre of their strategy, striving to anticipate customers’ emerging needs, and embracing an agile and iterative approach to speed development of new mobile banking capabilities that differentiate them from their peers in four continents,” she said.

Customers expect their banking needs — seeing, understanding, and managing their finances — to be met on any touch point. Successful banks, according to Forrester, provide mobile features to move money easily, pay bills quickly and easily, send money to other people without requiring sensitive personal details, deposit checks remotely, and buying options through digital wallets.

However, while banks that scored lower made it easy to see account information they still lacked money management tools, the report said.

Apart from providing customers secure and optimised mobile websites and downloadable apps, the report said, those banks that scored higher supported a wide range of mobile touch points such as wearable devices that enabled digital banking teams to connect with customers.

Many leading banks have launched smartwatch apps over the past year, offering basic features like checking an account balance or recent transactions. Canada’s CIBC lets customers make a quick transfer via the Apple Watch app, while Poland’s Bank Millennium lets them find ATMs and make payments in stores. NatWest in the UK lets customers use their Apple Watch to withdraw cash from an ATM without their debit card, while Spain’s CaixaBank has been experimenting with other emerging touchpoints, such as Google Glass and smart TVs.

“Over the past few years, digital banking teams at most banks have upped their game by making mobile apps and sites easier to use, broadening the range of transactional features, and building better marketing and sales functionality,” said the report.

“However, digital banking teams need to continue to raise the bar as they are no longer competing just with each other. New digital banks and digital wallets are competing for customers by promising better digital customer experiences,” it added.