Are you tired of hearing "there's an app for that" yet? Well, get used to it, we are still at the beginning of the great app rollout. 

Even as recently as our iPhone Banking Report published in March, I assumed most financial institutions would have a single iPhone app. One bank. One app. It's how the Web worked, for the most part.  

But when Starbucks unveiled a dedicated app just for its stored-value card (separate from the main Starbucks brand app), I realized that I wasn't thinking big enough.

For example, in August PNC Bank become the first U.S. financial institution to offer multiple apps when it released an app for its Gen-Y-focused Virtual Wallet. That was followed last week by Wells Fargo when it unveiled its cash-management app for larger businesses, CEO Mobile (screenshot below; press release).

Now, I believe that each major bank will roll out dozens of apps, perhaps hundreds, to support their business lines, major products and large segments. There will be an app for each major affinity credit/debit card, one for students, one for small businesses, one for large business, one for senior checking, one for home equity lines, and so on.

And, if that's not enough, there could be a dedicated app for each stock broker, loan officer and mortgage broker. There could be one app for every branch, neighborhood, or region. Right now the search-and-discovery tools at Apple would implode under the weight of all these apps. But they'll figure that out. It's worth billions to them. 

Today, more than 100,000 apps are available for the iPhone. But fewer than 20 are for U.S. financial institutions. It's conceivable that in the banking vertical itself, well over 10,000 apps could be developed, possibly many tens of thousands (see notes 1, 2). 

Wells Fargo is first U.S. bank with a cash management iPhone app (12 Nov 2009)

Notes:
1. They won't all be iPhone apps. The mobile market is too big to have it all consolidated at one player. 
2. It's also conceivable that we'll move away from the dedicated app framework, and users will be able to configure their phones with hundreds of info feeds without needing to install an app for each one. More like the iGoogle portal model.  It will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

Day two of the Mobile Commerce Summit ran just for the morning (see Day 1 highlights), but anyone who overslept missed the highlight of the conference: the much-too-short panel discussion on revenue opportunities that started at 8:15 AM and ended at 9:00 (note 1). 

Panel: Mobile revenue opportunities 

• Drew Sievers, founder & CEO, mFoundry
• Joe Salesky, chairman & chief strategy officer, ClairMail
• Cameron Franks, director, Mobile Commerce Americas, Sybase 365
• Jayatsu Bhattacharya, SVP business development, Mobile Money Ventures (Citigroup & SK Telecom joint venture)
• Mustafa Patni, former director of mobile banking, WaMu

Observations from the panel:

• POS payment services: NFC at point of sale
• Value-added services
• Fees for mobile banking services: transaction, monthly, or annual
• Premium accounts with a rich mobile feature set
• Stock/investment trading (Citi Hong Kong is able to charge a premium for mobile trading)
• Bill pay: expedited payments
• Person-to-person (P2P) payments
• Much of the revenues will be indirect, from deepening and improving customer relationship
• Remote deposit capture for businesses
• Merchant advertising: offers to customers as they shop
• Loyalty programs: driving customers to certain merchants with alerts, offers, and discounts
• Lots of cost-saving opportunities: self-service customer service, moving bill payments to on-us transactions, loyalty program management, security, fulfillment, marketing, call deflection

Panel: Smartphone impact on the customer experience 

Armin Ajami, VP retail Mobile channel, Wells Fargo

• Almost half of smartphone users use the mobile Web daily (source: ABI research, Feb. 2009)
• 18% of U.S. consumers have smartphones
• 263,000 apps now available for smartphones, predicted to grow to about 700,000 by 2013
• There are 27 different app stores today
• Mobile-optimized website <wf.com> launched in July 2007, text banking launched Oct. 2007, native iPhone app launched May 2009
• Funds transfer on mobile-optimized websites takes 2 minutes with 5 clicks, no zooming or scrolling vs. 10 minutes via iPhone mobile browser with 7 clicks, 5 zooms, 7 scrolls and 10 minutes

Alain DeSouza, sr. mgr., market development solutions marketing, Research in Motion

• Globally, 12% to 14% of mobile phones sold now are smartphones; in North America, it's now above 20% (22% to 26%)
• Blackberry app store officially launched April 1, 2009
• Not excited about putting NFC chips into handsets (adds cost); will do it when it makes business sense (last year it was a top-5 opportunity, this year more of a top-20)
• P2P transfer is not a killer app, but could be important for adoption
• Be careful not to waste bandwidth in your app development

Note:
1. Note to conference organizers: Never start a session at 8:15 AM after a Thursday night in Las Vegas.

About 100+ folks gathered in the brand new M Resort near Las Vegas for the third annual Mobile Commerce Summit by SourceMedia. Jeff Dennes from USAA and Jim Simpson from City Bank of Texas, both provided an extraordinary amount of metrics on their mobile rollouts (details below).

The biggest innovation of the day was iPhone-enabled remote check-deposit capture soon to be available from USAA (official launch June 25; see picture below). 

Session highlights
Jeff Dennes, executive director, mobile money & movement, USAA:

• 7.9 million logins so far this year vs. about 7 million in all of 2008
• Highest week to date, 476,000
• 4.8 million USAA members own mobile; 1.5 mil use it to access Internet
• 20% say mobile is primary channel
• 11.4% of members using USAA mobile
• Why so much usage: no branches, members trust USAA, extremely mobile military-oriented customer base, more technically capable than average
• Have SMS, Firethorn downloadable app, WAP <mobile.usaa.com>, native iPhone app
• Native iPhone app released 2 weeks ago: Went to number 1 in first week with 55,000 downloads; 45,000 logins in first week, 93,000 in second week
• iPhone app built in-house and has patents filed
• Will be launching first iPhone remote deposit-capture app on June 25 (see photo above); tune in to the bank's webcast at 7 PM Central time at <budurl.com/usaaannouncement>
• Current iPhone app has insurance functions: filing a claim, roadside assistance
• Personal financial management functions coming soon
• With mobile rollout, are seeing call volumes going down
• 35% of access to mobile site comes from iPhone, 35% from Blackberry
• Will be building app for Blackberry; others as demand warrants (e.g., Pre)

Jim Simpson, VP IT, City Bank of Texas

• Mobile banking is powered by ClairMail (use Jack Henry for core processing and online banking)
• Launched 17 Oct 2008 with balance, history, funds transfers, "call me," near-real-time alerts (not batch) including reward-checking status/summary (sent out 7 days before end of checking cycle telling users how they stand on meeting necessary activity levels
• Have microsite: www.citybankmobile.com
• Made a major cross-channel marketing effort at launch: TV, print, radio, in-branch, and so on; used it to differentiate themselves in competitive Lubbock market
• 10.2% online banking penetration
• 64% use weekly
• Average age is 32
• Average account balance on primary account is over $5,000
• More than 3,000 active users
• Limited use of mobile browser site, bnkngo.mobi; text-message banking is much more popular (also have gocitybank.mobi); get 5,000 balance requests via text messaging each week vs. 25 or 30 mobile Web logins
• Real-time alerts (vs. batch) is one of the key benefits that users like; they often can text message a confirmation of the transaction while still standing at the checkout counter; not always that fast, sometimes can be a few minutes later
• Coming: End-of-day, text-based account summary, "payit" loan payment via text (in response to text alert), iPhone/Blackberry apps
• How to make money? Adding ad-supported links within text messages; e.g., link back to the restaurant where the transaction originated

Ginger Schmeltzer, SVP, SunTrust

• Currently at 2.5% penetration of online banking users powered by Firethorn
• 33% access via iPhone; 33% via Blackberry
• Have an RFP out now to find vendor(s) to increase functionality
• See real benefits from using mobile channel to decrease fraud

Patrick Reetz, VP & director, online banking, M&I Bank

• Rolled out mobile in Oct 2008 powered by MShift
• Within 11 days, achieved one-year goal of 2% penetration of online banking users (longer term, their initial goal was 10% by YE 2010)
• Currently have 7% penetration

Ellen Johnson, SVP retail online services, Huntington Bank

• Have just under 25,000 users of mobile Web banking, launched in June 2008
• Number of users of text banking surpassed mobile Web in April, launched 6 months ago
• Mobile banking customers are 38% more profitable; text banking, 13% more profitable
• Call center contacts per active user dropped 3.4% in first 6 months
• Have a mobile microsite for marketing

Juli Anne Callis, president & CEO, National Institutes of Health Federal Credit Union (previously at Keypoint Credit Union)

• At Keypoint Credit Union, even usage between iPhone and Blackberry access
• Keypoint powered by mShift and will be using mShift at her new CU
• Launched on Facebook Nov 2007 (OBR Best of Web winner)
  

Amy Johnson, channel manager -- CEO Mobile, Wells Fargo

• Launched 2 years ago (April 2007), and Wells Fargo remains the only major U.S. bank offering full corporate mobile banking
• Mobile Web-based system
• No charge except certain text messages (and those fees may go away)
• No set-up process -- just log in at mobile site with existing online credentials
• Will not disclose usage, but are targeting top-tier customers: top 10%-15%
• Access: 30% iPhone, 50%+ BlackBerry -- no Android so far
• $2.5 billion in wire approvals via CEO Mobile in 2008

Kevin Morrisson, AVP card products, H&R Block

• Using text messages to defer calls to call center (currently receive 80 million annually), especially people checking to see if their refund has arrived.
• Program was piloted this year and is expected to roll out nationwide later this year. Found dramatic decline in voice calls from test group.
• Mobile program powered by Metavante/Monitise joint program. 

Rebecca Mann, director of strategic alliances, Western Union

• Using mobile to replace either the sending or receiving part of a money transfer
• Partnering with US Bank for international remittances

Lisa Stanton, CEO, Monitise America

• Can do more secure services within an app compared to mobile Web or SMS

Matt Krogstad, VP business development, M-Com

• Critical for banks to be point of registration and source of funds
• Should be able to register outside online banking -- via call center, ATM along with mobile phone
• In Australia, mobile money transfers was slower to take off, approx. 18 months after adoption of mobile banking

Clint Heyworth, attorney, consumer finance group, Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel

• One-to-one relationship with phone (e.g., you have it with you) makes it better for security compared to PC where others have access
• Not a lot of legal differences between delivering banking services via mobile vs. online
• Don't expect to see specific regulation regarding the mobile channel; will likely be the same regulations as for online banking

Tom Wills, senior analyst, Javelin Strategy & Research

• Security is single biggest factor inhibiting mass consumer uptake
• Only 500 pieces of malware have been identified so far in mobile vs. thousands of new ones every day online
• 47% of respondents are uncomfortable with mobile security (Mar 2008 data)
• Main concern is hackers, mentioned by 73% of those above
• Expects anti-virus software makers to build mobile versions

Rebecca Sausner, editor, Bank Technology News

• Total revenues for mobile banking vendors this year will be $26 million (source: Aite)

Sean Moshir, CEO, CellTrust (also mobile banking sub-committee co-chair of Mobile Marketing Association)

• 66% of consumers still not yet comfortable using mobile device for financial transactions (source: 2009 KPMG Global Consumer Survey)
• 7% said they would pay a nominal fee to access online banking services via mobile phones (source: 2009 KPMG Global Consumer Survey)

While working my way through the RSS backlog tonight,
I found a post from Rob Findley at The Bank Channel, I wish I'd seen a week ago. It would have made a nice example in our latest Online Banking Report on the iPhone and other mobile applications. 

Last month, Dutch giant ING released a Google Android mobile application called ING Wegwijzer (see translated page below), that goes one step beyond the iPhone's GPS-enabled ATM finder apps.

In the ING (Netherlands) version, you have three choices of how to view the nearest ATMs (see below):

• List
• Map (regular or satellite)
• Camera

The camera option is very cutting edge. Users point the camera in their G1 mobile phone camera (inset) and the app overlays a pointer to the nearest ATM (see below). The application works for all ATMs, ING-owned and others, but only in The Netherlands. 

The application was developed for ING by SprxMobile using technology from Australia's Austria's Mobilizy.

I saw a Japanese startup demonstrate a broader mobile shopping app at TechCrunch50 last September, the Sekai camera from Tonchidot, but this is the first production app I've seen using the technology.

Bottom line: This is probably overkill in terms of a mobile ATM finder. However, it shows the power and versatility that's rapidly being engineered into mobile phones.   

ATM location as pointed out by ING app running in camera viewfinder

ATM locations also displayed via typical mapping

ING landing page for the Wegwijzer (link) (Google translation, 18 March 2009)

MoBank, the U.K.-based mobile banking and payments said to be launching this month, is creating some buzz on the other side of the Atlantic (stories here, here, and here).  Given the pedigree of its two founders, Steve Townsend and Dominic Keen, who blazed many online banking trails at Egg and First Direct, it should provide a glimpse of the future of mobile finance.

The company is establishing a call center on the Isle of Man, run by Steph Gregg, a veteran of Egg, First Direct and Vodafone. Melanie Hunter is head of marketing, and David Rubin is head of mcommerce.

The company was named to Red Herring's top-100 global start-up list last month (here) along with FinovateStartup alum ClairMail (demo video here).

It appears at launch the service will support bill payment and certain mcommerce activities, such as purchasing movie tickets. An iPhone app is expected at launch. Users will register their credit/debit card(s) with the service. The company plans to expand into mobile banking and money-management activities in the future. 

The company has raised more than $1 million according to news reports. The company was founded in 2006 and presented at The Essential Web conference in June 2007
(p. 43, here) and had four employees at that time.

Here's how the company described itself 18 months ago:

MoBank is creating the world's first mobile-led online bank. The company believes that, for some sections of the population, small screen devices will become the channel of choice for most banking and payment services. moBank's business model is based on providing a free-to-use basic banking service with paid-for add-on features. Furthermore, moBank's users are enabled to participate in a range of unique, value-generating m-retail activities.

What's innovative: It sounds like a mobile-based account aggregation and bill-pay service, similar to Mint on the iPhone. But it could also contract directly with one or more banks like SmartyPig has (previous coverage). But as ING Direct proved, optimizing on a new delivery channel can pay off with great word of mouth and positive press.

MoBank pre-launch homepage (6 Feb. 2009)

Note: For more info on the growing market, see our Online Banking Report on Mobile Banking.