How mobile banking can unlock real financial progress

By Mat Mehrotra, Chief Digital Officer, BMO Financial Group

Across industries, digital transformation has continued to accelerate fueled by evolving customer expectations, new competitors, and clear business opportunity. In banking, it’s no different – technology has transformed customers’ everyday financial lives. 

Mobile banking is one of the first apps you’ll find on anyone’s phone. Managing your money has become as simple as picking up your phone and launching your bank’s app – in an instant, you have balance information, statements, payment options and a range of other services to manage your finances. 

And that’s just the beginning. The opportunity for financial institutions now is to move beyond “simple and digital” to help customers make real financial progress. That journey starts with a deep understanding of what customers need to improve their financial lives.

Unlocking the potential of simple and digital

BMO consistently asks consumers how they feel about a number of financial matters – from personal financial security and the economy to how they rate their current digital banking experience. 

Our quarterly BMO Real Financial Progress Index revealed in May of this year that more than three quarters of Americans and Canadians feel that mobile and digital banking have made money management significantly more convenient. Among respondents who say they are making financial progress, the figure jumps nearly 10 percent. This correlation poses a huge opportunity for banks: education. 

For example, according to our survey, top features that digital banking has made more convenient include fraud flagging, automated bill pay, and automated transfers. Think about the roughly 25 percent of people who responded that they don’t use mobile banking who aren’t reaping any of this benefit.

Tools to help customers get ahead

Beyond day-to-day financial management, how many of us are aware that our mobile banking app offers tools that can actually help us get ahead? At a time when inflation is on the rise and with many facing economic uncertainty, creating a budget is essential – and it’s something your mobile banking app likely provides for free. At BMO Harris Bank, our U.S. personal banking customers report that one of our most helpful features is TotalLook, a tool that aggregates all of your financial accounts into one view to help with budgeting and planning ahead.

Adoption is key to unlocking this potential, with the best outcomes coming at the intersection of human and digital – goal setting in one-on-one conversations with a banker complemented by digital tools to help achieve those goals.

An improved way to reach underserved communities

In addition to mobile banking helping existing customers improve their financial lives, it’s imperative that we also think about how digital can help marginalized communities improve their access to the financial system. A 2019 FDIC survey revealed that a whopping 7.1 million Americans were “unbanked”, meaning that no one in the house had a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union. Around the same time, a Federal Reserve study found that smartphone ownership among the unbanked was just as high as those fully banked. 

Digital offers banks the opportunity to get creative about overcoming access barriers to bridge the financial inclusion divide. No one with a smartphone should miss out on the opportunity to make real financial progress through simple and digital ways to manage their money. The challenge, of course, is to persuade the unbanked to adopt – and the way in which banks communicate this message is key.

Everyone can benefit from strategies to help them manage money, increase savings, and improve long-term wealth. Digital banking offers real potential to increase the participation of unbanked households in the financial mainstream through access to safe, reliable banking services via a device they almost certainly have in their pocket. 

Bottom line, mobile banking is already helping customers make real financial progress – and we’re just getting started. Driving adoption, evolving the experience, and increasing access are clear focus areas for banks looking to help customers improve their financial lives.