Top Mobile App Development Technologies That Will Reshape Mobile Banking In The COVID-19 Crisis

Nowadays, the world is facing a COVID-19 crisis. It causes a recession in almost every sphere, though promotes tougher competition for every customer and, as a result, encourages the adoption of emerging technologies like IoT, AI, Blockchain, and others.

The banking sector is no exception. It’s especially true in the time of lockdown when customers can’t physically attend the banking facilities. Banks are searching for an efficient way to attract more clients, improve their customer experience, and provide personalized service. It is possible with the help of a mobile banking app. Therefore, financial institutions are seeking mobile application development services now more than ever.

In this article, you’ll discover how emerging technologies reshape the mobile banking industry during the COVID-19 crisis.

The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Banking

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already been implemented in the banking sphere. It helps to accelerate data processing, improves data storage and sharing in cloud computing, and automates routine operations within banking systems. All that has a significant impact on the entire industry and helps banking institutions to stay competitive in the market. According to recent Accenture research, AI will generate $1.2 trillion in the financial industry by 2035.

While financial institutions have been using AI for their inner banking needs for some time now, they have only recently started to broadly implement the technology in their customer service apps. Here is how AI can improve a mobile banking application:

Integration of Virtual Assistants

Voice assistants are becoming a new norm in banking. OCBC Bank in Singapore, The Royal Bank of Canada provide their users with Siri for e-banking operations, HDFC relies on Amazon’s Alexa services, and Bank of America’s has presented its own AI-powered virtual financial assistant with more than 12.2 million users reached in 2020.

The AI personal assistants help clients with their finances in many ways. They can report on bank account balances, perform money transfers, pay bills, and handle credits. There is no need for customers to manually insert data or concentrate on reading app messages. Now, every operation can be done on the go with voice commands.

Besides that, voice technology is a source of valuable data insights for banking institutions. They can learn more about their customers’ behavior and needs. As a result, banks can provide their clients with better and more personalized services.

Customization

AI helps to personalize mobile banking apps for each client. AI studies customers’ behavior and based on the results provides app users with personal, high-quality service. AI in mobile banking apps can offer:

• Improved customer support. By gathering and analyzing customers’ data, AI algorithms put the most relevant and necessary data at users’ fingertips. They don’t need to search through an app or a website’s FAQ for answers, all the data can be retrieved within several clicks.
• Personalized advising. AI technology can generate a personal portfolio for each client and based on this data it can provide professional advice on how to manage their accounts better. Also, AI-driven chatbots can help their users to plan events in the future or adjust their spending strategies, depending on their needs. For example, chatbots could advise on how to start saving up for a car or a house.
• Automated transactions and reminders. Mobile banking app users can configure their apps at their own discretion. For example, they can automate bill and tax payments according to certain dates or set up budget-based reminders to not exceed the spendings.

Risk Management

AI algorithms help banks to better analyze their customers. They can study clients’ financial history, credit stories, their approximate income and provide banks with detailed insights on any potential risks involved in the loans.

Moreover, AI technology effectively identifies fraudulent behavior patterns. By detecting and analyzing suspicious activities in real-time, AI algorithms can protect banks and users from scams and frauds, making banking services safer.

Enhanced Authentification

Numerical codes are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Modern technologies provide quick and secure biometric authentication patterns. For example, by using fingerprints, face or voice recognition technologies, users can get into their apps easier and pay faster.

Lloyds Banking Group plc, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, and Citi Bank in Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong, and other countries are already successfully using facial and voice recognition for client identification and verification. The biometric data is well protected and strongly encrypted from any misuse by third parties.

The Impact of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality on Mobile Banking

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are largely associated with video games however can be successfully applied in mobile banking apps as well. This technology will work well for the visual type of customers who manage data better when they see it.

Here are just several examples of how VR can be used in banking:

Virtual Trading

There are a number of companies that experiment with visual trading platforms. For example, Citibank traders are testing Microsoft HoloLens, a virtual workstation that inserts holograms into real-world environments. It converts banking workflows and trading data into colorful maps and patterns. This way Microsoft HoloLens helps traders sort out the complex data at a glance, eliminating the necessity to search for the necessary data similar to one another tables.

Virtual Wealth Management

Data visualization can help investors at stocks better manage their finances. Fidelity Labs have recently started a StockCity project where investors can manage stocks in a 3D environment. By using Oculus Rift, virtual reality glasses, investors can dive into the 3D city of stock data. In this city, every stock represents a building with its own height, footprint, trading volume, and other characteristics.

Brick and Mortar and Virtual Banking

Some banks embed AR functionality in their mobile apps that help users to find ATMs and banks nearby. By scanning a certain area with a mobile device, users can get real-time data on the nearest banking institutions.

With VR technology customers can make virtual payments. For example, MasterCard experiments with payments in the virtual world. The most popular MasterCard projects are MasterCard and Swarovski, MasterCard and Priceless Golf, and others. Very soon we can expect visiting virtual banks that would provide us all the services a customer can get in an offline facility.

Blockchain Technology in Mobile Banking

Blockchain is a disruptive technology in the cyber-security field. It is spreading among many industries and it’s adoption rates are extremely high. Statista predicts that blockchain solutions will reach $18 billion by 2024, in comparison to $1.5 million in 2018.

Using its decentralized architecture, bank institutions can build secure and at the same time transparent mobile apps. Here are the main benefits banks can obtain by using blockchain solutions in their mobile apps:

Secure Transactions

Blockchain technology enables its users to perform various financial operations without involving any third-parties due to its decentralized structure. It means that it’s very hard for internet fraudsters to intervene in transaction flows and hack the data. Moreover, these blockchain transactions can be established among several participants. This makes business operations more complex, yet they remain safe.

Know Your Customer

Know Your Customer program (KYC) requires banks to verify the identities of their clients before performing any bank operations. This process can be rather time-consuming and take from 30 to 50 days to acquire all the necessary information on a client.

Blockchain can play a significant role in streamlining KYC processes. Banks can exchange the necessary data on the clients much faster and speed up verifying processes.

Customer Retention

With Blockchain, banks can improve their customer retention models by starting loyalty rewarding campaigns. For example, paying their customers with coins for spending more time in their apps or sharing tokens for using certain services.

Operational Efficiency

Blockchain together with other technologies like AI can automate and speed up bank operations. They can speed up money transfers and prologue bank operations to 24 hours a day. This way bank customers can use its services any time which results in faster payments and improves customer experience.

Conclusion

In the time of pandemic and total lockdown, we have to change our behavior and habits. We Stay Home and Save Lives. In these conditions, many financial institutions face hard times as they receive fewer customers and their operations become slower. To stay afloat and provide the same high-level services, banks search for ways of reaching their customers online.

One of the most effective ways to do so is to develop a secure and cutting-edge mobile application. It is possible with the implementation of the latest technologies in mobile apps that can guarantee enhanced customer experience and high customer retention.