Bank of the West Makes Big Move in Mobile Wallets

Despite mobile wallets having been around for a couple years now, banks are still behind the curve in terms of allowing users to put these systems to work. Some banks will offer one or two of the major service providers, while others are understandably putting more behind in-house solutions.

Some banks are pulling out all the stops, though, and offering the slate of five of the biggest mobile wallet options around. Recently, one more such bank joined the ranks with Bank of the West.

Bank of the West now offers its users access to not only the major device-based mobile payment systems—Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay—but also Microsoft Wallet and Mastercard’s MasterPass system. That offers a fairly complete range of options for users, and elevates Bank of the West to one of a comparative handful of banks allowing such options.

This actually reflects some fundamental changes Bank of the West has seen so far; it recently engaged in partnerships with both Fiserv and the Zelle Network from Early Warning to allow for better security in peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, a point that’s been eagerly pursued on several fronts.

Bank of the West executive vice president for consumer banking product and payment solutions Paul Appleton noted that consumers were “…rapidly adopting mobile payments,” and that this new move would allow customers to better follow an increasingly desirable payment avenue.

Given reports from Javelin Strategy and Research that suggest mobile payments will clear $220 billion by the end of 2017, it would be easy to say here that Bank of the West is just giving customers what they want.

That’s a reasonable response to most any market condition; if people want mobile payments, not providing these options is a sure way to suggest that customers go elsewhere. Given such a suggestion, and given that other options are available, then customers will take that suggestion to heart.

Banks that give customers what they want are likely to continue to have customers going forward. This fundamental fact of economic life is seen in industries across the board, and banks are no different here. Bank of the West is making a great step forward in providing valuable services, and will likely be appreciated by customers.