The realm of mobile banking is rapidly evolving, with user demand for innovative products on the rise. Basic payment functionalities within applications are no longer sufficient, prompting financial institutions to gradually expand beyond these limits.
Digital banking in Ukraine: how Credit Agricole is developing its mobile application Photo: chatgpt.com
Innovative Mobile Banking Features: Prospects Towards 2030
The future of the banking sector is digital, and more specifically, mobile. The mobile banking market is projected to reach $3.47 billion in revenue by 2030. Already, 6 out of 10 users prefer financial applications over websites.
According to an Insider Intelligence survey on mobile banking, 89% of respondents favor the convenience of mobile banking over traditional in-person bank visits. Furthermore, 40% of consumers are willing to switch to a provider operating exclusively in a digital format, and experts predict that by 2027, neobanks (those operating solely online) will have a user base of 377 million people.
The market for banking applications is growing rapidly; this is a fact. However, this also makes it more competitive. It’s no longer enough to simply attract customers. To gain an advantage, one must be able to retain clients by offering them the solutions they seek. Research indicates that the success rate of sales to existing customers is 60-70%, compared to 5-20% for new ones. Additionally, acquiring new users can be up to five times more expensive than retaining existing ones.
The figures are clear: for long-term success, it’s crucial that existing users of banking software remain satisfied. This is a far more economically viable approach. But how can such loyalty be achieved?
Exceptional user experience, top-tier customer support, and robust security are critical, but most applications already possess these basic characteristics. The key to success lies in providing the functionality that users genuinely desire.
To delve deeper into what specific “features” are needed to meet customer needs, we consulted with the oldest foreign bank in Ukraine – Credit Agricole.
Could you please tell us what features Credit Agricole used to enhance the customer experience while developing its mobile application?
“The CA+ mobile application is an in-house development by the bank. This approach is fundamental for us, as we do not want to depend on external providers; instead, we aim to develop the team’s internal expertise and independently influence the application’s releases. Before launching products and for every new release, we always conduct friends and family testing. Customer feedback is extremely important to us; it’s based on this feedback that we prioritize our work and create a backlog for the current year,” says the digital team at Credit Agricole.
According to the experts, they meet with some internet banking testers in person, establish close cooperation and friendly relationships, share their own product development plans with them, and gather feedback, which is crucial for continued stable development.
In your opinion, what do customers expect from banking services?
Customer expectations are rising across all sectors, and banking is no exception. People no longer compare their experiences between two competing banks. Instead, they compare the convenience of their experience across all industries.
Customers now expect the same level of personalization, speed, and convenience from their banks as they do from their streaming or retail platforms. Essentially, companies like Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, and Uber have set a new standard for customer expectations.
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As technology companies set a high bar, it’s no surprise that customers want their banking experience to be similar, with service that is:
- simple;
- fast;
- personalized;
- transparent;
- secure;
- reliable;
- multifunctional;
- equipped with prompt and competent information support.
What approaches did the specialists at Credit Agricole use when creating the banking application?
Credit Agricole has its own digital team: a product owner, product manager, product designers, and a large development team – project manager, analysts, developers, and testers. Together with the bank’s IT department, they develop and improve mobile banking for clients. Their mission is unique – to find the key to customer needs and offer a truly necessary and convenient product.
“This requires significant effort: it’s necessary to study market trends and offerings, foreign experience, research user needs, and add a touch of emotion, because every product should have a soul. This is how the new-generation mobile application CA+ was created. The bank’s team developed and launched it in a record short time – less than a year,” comments the digital team at Credit Agricole.
The digital team works using agile methodologies, which allows for rapid updates to the application in response to user needs. After all, if projects take too long, the product will lose market share, customers, and possibly even its purpose.
“Time-to-market is one of the main characteristics in banking projects, and our task is to shorten it while maintaining high product quality. To achieve this, we conduct beta testing among our employees to get feedback, identify its bottlenecks, and eliminate them,” explained Credit Agricole.
What happens behind the scenes? The team constantly working on the development and improvement of the CA+ and CA+ Pro applications consists of representatives from almost all bank departments. The teams interact not only through specifications and documents but also in person, discussing tasks and progress. This creates real synergy and mutual support. The bank sees high efficiency in this; tasks are implemented quickly, the IT department is more involved in the business and vice versa, the team clearly understands its objectives, hypotheses are generated more frequently, and their quality has increased.
“As a result, we strive to provide the client with a product that customers enjoy using. This is well reflected in our app ratings on the marketplaces,” the company emphasized.
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Cybersecurity is currently a very pressing issue, so what technologies are employed in the application to secure customer data?
As banks transition to digital technologies, the volume of customer data processed and stored increases significantly. This rapid growth in data usage is accompanied by heightened concerns regarding its security. Banks must continuously adapt to new cybersecurity threats and ensure compliance with industry regulations, especially at a time when fraudsters have begun utilizing artificial intelligence.
According to various surveys, nearly 74% of customers are concerned about the security of banking applications.
Credit Agricole also noted that they are constantly working on improving cybersecurity. Among the basic technologies are 3DSecure for online payments, enhanced authentication through one-time temporary passwords, and dual authentication.
“Credit Agricole prioritizes the security of its clients’ payments, therefore, it automatically and free of charge enables the 3D Secure technology for all cards issued by the bank without exception,” stated bank representatives. “The bank also constantly informs clients about security measures during transactions and potential fraud schemes.”
Perhaps you can share plans regarding application improvements, for instance, are new features planned?
“Thanks to the rapid development of technologies like artificial intelligence, mobile banks will be able to offer more personalized services, instant response to customer inquiries, and enhanced transaction security. Additionally, increased integration with other digital platforms is expected through open banking, allowing clients to manage not only their finances but also other areas of their lives within a single application. We see that the use of biometrics for authentication and the implementation of chatbots have already become market standards, enhancing convenience and service speed,” noted Denys Babenko, Director of Proximity Marketing and Innovation at Credit Agricole.
In addition to optimizing biometric authentication systems and achieving the highest level of customer data protection, banks and leading players in the fintech market are working on creating, developing, and implementing the following elements in their applications:
- cryptocurrency payments and trading: the popularity of crypto is rapidly growing today, crypto cards are emerging, and stores are starting to accept digital currencies;
- integration with wearable devices: the ability to manage banking operations, for example, from smartwatches, rings, bracelets, etc.;
- automated budgeting and savings tools: although these features have existed for quite some time, they are constantly evolving, users receive interactive reports on their spending and personalized forecasts (AI stimulates the development of this area), incentives to save money, etc.;
- gamification: the introduction of game elements to engage users and encourage more frequent interactions with the application (a prime example is monobank’s “dress the cat” or the “shake the tree” for donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine);
- AI-powered assistants: AI has been used by banks for a long time, but technologies are advancing, and bots can now independently solve basic human problems, hold conversations, recognize voice, and personalize approaches.
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The future of mobile banking, as noted by some analysts, lies in a comprehensive set of features within applications. Beyond fulfilling basic payment tasks, modern applications must offer much more. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a SuperApp, but the diversity of offerings should distinguish a financial institution from dozens of others. One such feature and an important element of progressive mobile banking is bill splitting.
The best mobile banking app features are designed to simplify customers’ lives, and the bill splitting feature stands out among others, especially for individuals who frequently dine out with friends, rent apartments, or travel in large groups. The bill splitting feature quickly calculates each person’s share, eliminating the need for manual calculations.
For instance, several American banks offer this capability to their customers through mobile apps for iOS. Among them are Chase, Ally, PNC, Citibank, Bank of America, TIAA Bank, TD Bank, and Citizens Bank. All of them offer the “Split the Bill” feature.
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