Has mobile check cashing reached critical mass? .Mitek, a San Diego, Calif.-based technology firm that leads the field of mobile check cashing applications, recently reported that 2,000 financial institutions in the United States now offer mobile banking. The number suggests a tipping point has either been reached or is quickly approaching. NorthWestern Financial Review spoke with Scott Carter, Mitek's chief marketing officer, about the implications of this number and what's ahead for mobile banking..Q. This level of availability means what for mobile check cashing? .It's our view that we've reached a critical mass of adoption. J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America were the first two. They were out there on the edge, if you will, not knowing how consumers would react. There were unknowns but they put some very heavy advertising around the service. And there were a number of customers who moved to those banks just to have access to that technology. More than 20 million consumers have used it. So we're now at a point where it is consumer led. The response of consumers has been so overwhelming..Q. If I'm not offering this at my bank yet, what might push me over the line? .There are case studies from early adopters that saw 10 percent to 40 percent increases in new accounts. There is probably less upside to new accounts now, however, since there are a number of banks already offering this service. So then it switches to a retention strategy. Customers may get frustrated by not having the service. Also, this is a lower-cost channel. A recent report estimated $50 per year, per mobile banking customer, in savings for the average financial institution that has a mobile banking offering. For Millennials, the mobile channel is their first choice. Users of mobile also have a higher purchase propensity, so there are cross-sale opportunities..Q. How does a bank clear a check transacted via mobile device? .There is a misconception that mobile deposit makes a demand for new back-end processes at the bank. With the advent of Check 21 rules a number of years ago, banks have been going with remote deposit capture for a while. So it's just switching from one type of image to another. The very same processes are in place for image capture. We comply with the Check 21 requirements in terms of image quality and provide a very clean image of the check. The bank can calibrate how much it wants to review certain transactions..Q. So the security issues have largely been ironed out by previous technology? .Yes because we're talking about the same bank ecosystem. From a security standpoint, a user is locked into a specified application protected by a user name and password. More sophisticated banks are also leveraging device insight and location and those sorts of application that in some cases can make the mobile channel more secure than other channels. There have been reports two years in row now that show 80 percent of financial institutions offering the technology have had no losses whatsoever in the mobile deposit channel.. Q. It seems banks may have missed the early adoption phase of mobile cashing. Are there any services out there right now that are still an early adopter opportunity? .We're constantly looking at other forms of inconvenience or friction for consumers on their mobile device. In banking, we've launched, for instance, mobile bill pay where you take a picture of a statement to process the bill. That has been well received..One other thing we're seeing is a desire to get the banker out from behind the desk and greet the customer with a tablet application. Our technology can be installed to streamline the account loading process and to do things like pre-fill application forms with information obtained from a photo of the customer's drivers' license. This is also a wonderful way to orient that customer in digital services..FACEBOOK watch: Bank of Ann Arbor.Bank of Ann Arbor, Mich., uses poster art-style graphics and frequent postings to promote its community involvement. Early adopters of Facebook found the platform an immediately useful tool for getting the word out about its community outreach. The $970 million Bank of Ann Arbor makes its community presence job No. 1 for its page, and it has been rewarded with nearly 22,000 followers..For the summer, the bank's top banner is a bold, Rolling Stones-inspired announcement of a free summer concert series hosted by the bank called Sonic Lunch. Other recent posts announce a children's theater supported by the bank as well as community fundraising efforts. The goodwill is abundant, right down to kudos posted about an Oklahoma community bank that was singled out in Forbes magazine for its performance.."Congratulations to fellow community bank from Oklahoma — Citizens Bank of Edmond — on the shout out in Forbes! Community banks are innovative!" the post reads.
