Calvin Grimes, product manager for Fiserv Mobile Money, sits down with Michelle Robart, contributing editor for TMCnet, to explain the benefits of mobile banking and what he predicts in the future for this exciting industry.TMCnet: For anyone who is not familiar with Fiserv, can you provide a brief overview of what the company offers, and who its customers are?
CG: Fiserv is one of the world's largest providers of information technology services to the financial and insurance industries. Leading services include transaction process, outsourcing, electronic bill payment and presentment, investment management solutions, business process outsourcing, software and system solutions. Fiserv reported nearly $4 billion in annual revenue from continuing operations for 2007, processed 18 billion transactions and provides technology solutions, including core and online banking systems, for top 100 U.S. banks, credit unions and community banks.
TMCnet: What is Fiserv Mobile Money and who can benefit the most from using this service?
CG: Fiserv Mobile Money is the industry's only all-in-one, triple-play mobile banking and payments solution providing universal reach by serving any device via any access mode on any carrier network. The solution provides financial institutions with the flexibility and scalability to deploy different access modes such as text (SMS), browser (WAP) and mobile application to meet the evolving needs of their customers. Fiserv Mobile Money also integrates seamlessly with existing banking systems and security infrastructures, including those offered by Fiserv. With one technology deployment, financial institutions can maximize their mobile return on investment and consumer adoption, while providing their customers with a user experience tailored for their unique mobile device and mobile banking preferences. Powered by proven technology from Mobile Commerce, Fiserv Mobile Money is available today via an in-house software solution; a hosted version of Fiserv Mobile Money will be offered in 2009.
TMCnet: What are some of the main benefits of Fiserv Mobile Money for businesses and professionals?
CG: Fiserv Mobile Money provides consumers with an enhanced mobile banking and payment experience for all mobile devices, such as the Google Android-powered G1 and the Apple iPhone, as well as a broad range of phones from other leading manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. The Fiserv solution also enables consumers to choose the most convenient access mode - browser, text, or downloadable application - to meet their mobile banking needs, including checking account balances, receiving alerts, transferring funds and paying bills.
TMCnet: With the rising consumer demand for mobile banking services, what do you think is the main driving force behind mobile banking popularity?
CG: Certainly, a major factor is that mobile devices and the carrier networks have evolved to the point where they can support mobile banking services. More importantly, consumers are using these services in greater numbers, and many more are interested and ready to adopt in mobile banking services. In Fiserv's latest mobile survey, 23 percent of consumers said they use their mobile device to conduct mobile financial services, up from essentially zero in 2006. The survey also showed that 75 percent of consumers are interested in using mobile banking services, up from 49 percent in 2006. Among Generation Y consumers, that figure is even higher - 83 percent express an interest in and willingness to using mobile financial services.
TMCnet: What are some of the creative, real-world ways customers are using mobile banking in their daily lives?
CG: Today's increasingly mobile consumers are frequently away from their Internet-connected desktop or laptop computers that they would generally use to access online banking and bill payment services. However, consumers are rarely very far away from their mobile devices, giving them continual connectivity and unprecedented access to mobile banking services. During this economic downturn, mobile banking is providing consumers with a very powerful tool to help make more informed choices about how they manage and spend their money. So now they can use any mobile device, anywhere, anytime to check account balances to determine whether to make a purchase. In the course of a day, they can receive alerts that will empower them to transfer funds to avoid an overdraft and pay an overdue bill to avoid a service shutoff. This gives consumers tremendous flexibility and empowerment to manage their finances more effectively than they ever have before.
TMCnet: What are some of the trends shaping the mobile banking industry in the U.S.?
CG: Financial institutions generally will choose one of two paths - either pursuing a relatively defensive strategy whereby they are looking to provide straightforward, check-the-box mobile banking functionality - or taking a broader, forward-looking mobile commerce strategy aimed at providing mobile banking services today, while setting the stage for opportunities to generate revenue from the mobile channel and near-field communications, contactless point-of-sale transactions and micro-payments.
TMCnet: Looking ahead, what predictions do you have about companies continuing to utilize the benefits of mobile banking technology?
CG: In the near term, we see financial institutions seeing the value of providing customers with multiple ways to access mobile banking via WAP, SMS and downloadable applications. We also anticipate continued growth of near-field communications to help us realize the full promise of mobile commerce. You'll see companies across the industry spectrum using mobile phone numbers rather than email addresses to interact with their customers for peer-to-peer communications, and you'll also see retailers using NFC for loyalty, contactless card programs.
TMCnet: How can mobile banking help companies improve their bottom line and survive economic hardships?
CG: Mobile banking can help financial institutions reduce costs, improve their bottom line, boost customer retention and generate revenue from the mobile channel. That's especially important during this economic downturn. For example, ANZ National in New Zealand and Australia has been able to monetize the mobile channel using the M-Com-powered solution, by charging their customers for bill pay transactions and mobile text alerts. The bank is also driving down annual cost-to-serve expenses by $20-30 per customer by "right-channeling" customers from more costly offline channels such as the call center to the lower-cost mobile channel. At the same time, they're lowering churn rates to 5 percent for frequent mobile users versus 10-15 percent on average.
To read more of Michelle's articles, please visit her columnist page. Read the full article.
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