Citizens Bank, Bottomline Technologies Get Together on Mobile Banking

Mobile banking, these days, is an increasingly desirable offering, so much so that some banks are starting to wonder if there’s a percentage in actually keeping branches open any more. That’s a point not lost on Citizens’ Bank, which has started up a new partnership effort with Bottomline Technologies geared toward developing new mobile options, as well as some online banking tools, for customers.

The announcement focused on a corporate digital banking platform, which offers not only business to business (B2B) payment capabilities but also cash management tools. Since the platform can be modified to meet the various demands of different businesses, it should have versatility sufficient to match a large swath of the market.

Better yet, Citizens and Bottomline noted that the new online banking systems would help lower the risks of fraud many large-scale enterprise users, a development that will be welcome for anyone banking online. The new developments are the result of extensive research into current market trends,a and should go quite a ways toward reflecting what banks and their customers want to see.

Managing director and general manager of digital banking Norm DeLuca commented “This new technology platform brings together a unique combination of financial services offerings, which, until now, were largely restricted to single-point solutions that can be overly complex and expensive. We can deliver the seamlessly integrated experience now required to banks to engage customers in new and more advanced ways.”

With banks actively shutting branches thanks to mobile development, and other banks actively considering following suit, it’s not out of line to see corporate banking take on a similar shift. Getting businesses to do their banking online allows banks to take that much more weight off the branches and maybe even shut down some redundancies.

Though that’s not always the best in the long term—fewer jobs hurts the overall market for goods and services thanks to fewer employed people buying stuff—it’s not a bad move in the short term and potentially allows banks to just shift some people around to focus on things like market research.

For now, though, the Citizens’ / Bottomline partnership should yield some noteworthy new entrants into the field. Though the long-term potential is a bit disturbing, there’s room enough to head that off.