Banks Working to Accommodate the Mobile Payments, Mobile-Only Banking User

We associate banks with staying in one place, with being conservative in nature. Everything about a bank is supposed to be standing still, from its brick facade to its vault to its safety deposit boxes to employees who know your name when you walk in because they’ve been there for years. Now, banks are finding a shifting demand to mobile, and a new report says they’re frantically trying to engage these customers too.

Naturally, online retailers are proving to be, or at least trying to be, role models for banks eager to get in on the increasingly popular mobile-only front. Yet these organizations—commonly-cited firms include Starbucks, Uber, and even Tinder sometimes—don’t exactly evoke the closest comparisons. Banks have completely different markets to reach, and purposes to serve, which makes it tougher to find decent role models in the field.

Yet with digital-only banks emerging, and a surprising number of customers making the leap to such organizations, banks must act quickly—much more quickly than they’re used to—to meet this growing demand before they’re left out of the field altogether.

One bank rising to meet the challenge is USAA, whose focus on the armed forces makes it unique in the field. It’s had to bring in several mobile features just to address its target market. It brought in mobile remote deposit capture for paper checks, and was one of the first banks to do so. Biometric authentication followed, and there’s more to come. Current reports suggest that it’s already working on augmented reality systems for customers looking to purchase cars, offering real-time information about pricing, safety and so on.

They’re not the only ones working toward greater innovation, naturally; all banks must, as they’re discovering. While the shelf life of this innovation may be comparatively minor—reports suggest that Generation Z isn’t much at all like the device-heavy millennials—failing to innovate here might cost a bank an entire generation of customers. That’s a loss no one can afford to endure, so further innovation is vital to the future of banking.

USAA is making a lot of strides here, but it’s not alone. Banks are working hard to keep mobile payments users, and others, in the fold as much as possible, and we’ll likely continue to see the produce of all that innovation follow.