I look at lot of mobile banking apps. But there are several thousand in the U.S. alone, so I'm not going to claim that I know which one is "best" or even who should be in the top-100.

But I will say, of the mobile banking apps I'm familiar with, ANZ Bank's is right up at the top. Kudos to the bank and Fiserv's M-Com unit that helped with development.  

Why is it so good? It's full featured, of course. But it's the first banking app that feels like it runs WITHIN the iPhone instead of being bolted on. It's almost like what Apple would have done if it was building a banking app right into the operating system (notes 1, 2, 3).  

I especially like how the person-to-person payments function integrates with iPhone Contacts. And how iPhone's photo gallery can be used throughout the app to illustrate goals and payees with your pictures (click on inset above for a better view) and to store bill payment-receipts (see screenshot below).

But never mind what I think, look at actual customer usage. According to a July 15 investor presentation, in the year since it was released, the ANZ goMoney already accounts for 26% of the bank's total online traffic. If ANZ mobile can continue that pace for another 12 months, it will surpass regular PC-based online traffic by this time next year.   

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ANZ goMoney demo video is definitely worth two minutes of your time
Note: Clickthrough below to ANZ website and play the video (the version on YouTube is the older version of the app)

Notes:
1. Hyperbole alert. It's Friday afternoon, so I may be getting a bit carried away. But I stand by the opinion.  
2. I don't have an ANZ account, so I'm basing my observations on the superb demo video, complete with Apple-esque soundtrack (see screenshot above).

Our second-to-last demo of the morning is MyMoney from Fiserv's Galaxy unit. Brian Bellhorn, director of marketing, will conduct the demo.

MyMoney is an application that allows customers to view their bank account balance and transaction info within their Facebook account.

The MyMoney application was launched earlier this year and was initially available to Galaxy customers only. Now the service is available for any Fiserv customer. It's an extremely affordable option.

The MyMoney program includes an online enrollment option. It helps financial institutions find new customers on Facebook. It also encourages word of mouth, by making it easy for users to tell their friends about the program.

They closed the demo by saying that during their 7-minute demo, 1200 more people will have signed up for Facebook. Clever.

Finovate takes place four weeks from today (Oct. 14), and we've already surpassed last year's attendee total. Luckily, we booked a bigger space, so there will be more bankers and tech execs to network with and everyone in the audience will have a seat at a table to park that laptop, Blackberry, iPhone, or whatever.

But the space isn't unlimited and if we continue the sign-up pace of the past few weeks we'll sell out well before Oct. 14. So, don't wait too long, register here (see note 1).  

When we announced the Finovate lineup, there were three companies that chose to remain secret. Two of those are now being named (note 2):

• Rate Surfer which participated in the TechCrunch50 DemoPit last week (post here)
• MyMoney from Fiserv's Galaxy unit, a Facebook application that allows users to check their bank balance and transactions from within their Facebook account (post here)

Note:
1. Clients with annual subscriptions to our All-Access Online Banking Report are eligible for a conference discount; email info@netbanker.com for your client discount code.

2. The 24th company is in stealth mode and will be revealed on or very near the conference on Oct. 14.

It's been a while since we looked at the actual usage of payment, personal finance, lending, and banking apps on Facebook (previous coverage here; see note 1). And assuming the numbers provided by Facebook are accurate, it's not good news. 

Overall, the banking and personal finance apps have anemic usage levels totaling just 263 daily users (for apps with more than 1 daily user). That does not include virtual currencies or stock tracking/investing applications (see note 2). In comparison, the most popular general Facebook app, FunWall, has more than 3 million daily users.

But the number will grow rapidly if major financial institutions add balance inquiry functionality such as (#4) MyMoney from Fiserv's Galaxy unit (previous coverage here) and mShift's Key Point Credit Union app discussed here (only 1 daily user, so it did not make our table).  Activity in Facebook personal finance apps yesterday (13 March 2008):

*See comment 1

**Does not include apps with less than 2 users

Notes:

1. You cannot make a meaningful comparison with last summer's activity because Facebook changed the way it reports usage. Previously, the company reported the number of application downloads and now it shows the much, much smaller "active daily user" total. For example, in July 2007, LendingClub had already had more than 11,000 downloads. Under the new measurement system it tallies just 26 daily users which puts it in third place (see table below).

2. The leading stock tracking app, Fantasy Stock Exchange, has 7,990 daily users. The most popular virtual currency AceBucks has 11,300 daily users.

Fiserv's Galaxy unit has created an online banking module for Facebook called MyMoney. I haven't been briefed on it yet, but Galaxy will be hosting a webinar on Tues, Feb 12 and Wed, Feb 13 (register here), if you want a closer look.

According to the company, MyMoney offers full-service transactional online banking:

...members can conveniently view account balances, review history, transfer money between accounts, and much, much more.

Galaxy hopes that the Facebook application leads to viral member growth for its credit union clients:

When a member adds MyMoney™ to their Facebook page, their friends will be notified and given the opportunity to also join your credit union right then and there, giving you yet another way to reach this growing audience.

I couldn't find any mention of the application on Facebook, so it doesn't appear that its been implemented by an credit unions yet. Who will be first? Drop a note in the comments or send me an email (jim@netbanker.com) if your company plans to deploy it.

In November, we awarded an OBR Best of the Web to a similar service from KeyPoint Credit Union powered by mShift (coverage here).

Thanks again to Jeffry Pilcher for the tip.

Every day another announcement reinforces my belief that mobile banking is here to stay, and today is no different. For those who have not heard, a recent press release is noteworthy: “mFoundry and First Data Team Up for Mobile Solutions.”  This announcement by itself is impressive; however, when you also consider the other partnerships in place, such as last November's “CheckFree and Firethorn Partner To Deliver Mobile Banking and Bill Payment Services for Financial Institutions,” you realize the true scope of what is unfolding. 

Let me step back just for a moment to frame what is taking place. As of June 2006, according to fdic.gov, there were 8,767 commercial banks and savings institutions operating within the United States. In addition, there are 8,535 credit unions, according to cuna.org, as of May 2007. This represents a total of 17,300 U.S. financial institutions. Now, let’s look at some of the figures quoted in the press releases listed above. 

According to the First Data press release, “As a component of this relationship, First Data's STAR(R) Network and mFoundry expect to offer mobile banking opportunities to more than 5,400 financial institutions.” CheckFree, which already served thousands of financial institutions itself, was just acquired by Fiserv (pending approval). When we dig into that press release we see that, “Fiserv currently serves almost 6,000 core processing clients and all top 100 banks in the U.S.”

Now, I understand that there are overlapping institutions and that not everyone will provide mobile banking; therefore, I will not attempt to estimate the number of institutions that will implement the Rich UX solution via their preferred vendor. However, I’ve worked with scores of vendors over the years and they all agree on one thing – the toughest part of signing a new institution is simply getting a foot in the door. So once you realize that Firethorn and mFoundry have literally thousands and thousands of “open doors,” you begin to see why the estimates of quick mobile banking uptake are more and more likely.