In the beginning of July we will publish our brandnew report on mobile apps of wealth managers targeted at the affluent, wealthy and ultra-wealthy client segment. Over the last three months our analyst team has combed through far more than 100 apps of the leading global private banks and wealth managers to determine the strengths and weaknesses of their app strategies. The report tackles the following questions:

Who has the best app strategy and app portfolio to target wealthy clients?

What are the clients’ typical use cases for wealth managers’ apps?

How should the building blocks of an effective and succesful app strategy look like?

What are the best practices looking at functions/features, user experience, design, navigation, security, content and other elements?

How will the future of mobile apps for private banking / wealth management look?

Is there a choice between mobile website and native apps?

When should a bank or wealth manager “go tablet”?

…and many more!

We’ll keep you posted.

In Mary Meeker’s now famous yearly “State of the Internet” presentation a chart (page 28) shows how strongly Internet users in different countries share their life via social media. Surprisingly, it is the population of Saudi Arabia who lead the ranking (60% “share most or everything online”), followed by India, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. The US are - surprisingly - way down the list with only 15% and Germany almost last with under 10%.

Apart from the interesting question why emerging markets are so much more into social sharing compared to Europe and the US, the main point is that social sharing is BIG. It’s important. It’s probably the most important trend from a marketing perspective in the next ten years. So, we are wondering why this trend is largely ignored by banks around the globe. In our latest research on Mobile Apps for Banking and Wealth Management Websites we found that only a minority of banks of about 40% allows (some) sharing of their content via social networks mostly in a very basic version.

Social sharing comes in many different flavors. It’s simple to put a Facebook or Twitter icon below or above every article. But that’s not very likely to generate the kind of user excitement one would like to see in social networks. A bank should think pro-actively about its “sharing strategy” which contains a number of important steps:

1. Ask the right questions: What should be shared? Who should be encouraged to share? Which sharing channels are most effective - given the segment one wants to reach? Plus a few more questions of which the sharing strategists should think about.

2. Generate sharable content: Once the strategy is clear, sharable content needs to be put in the right place. It could be a host of new, engaging client tools on the website - for instance to encourage the clients to think about their financial future in completely new ways. It could be a new mobile game inside our outside the standard banking app. It could be an outrageous video campaign, targeted at a much focused client segment like wine collectors, going viral.

3. Opt for a/multiple sharing channel(s) that fit(s) the target segment: YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and/or a host of other platforms. It all depends on the user segment.

4. Test: But beware, there is always the risk that instead of benign recommendations and sharing on social networks you may get a veritable shit storm ridiculing a marketing campaign gone very wrong. To avoid this, some testing and tweaking with real users before you go live is essential.

5. Follow: Make sure you are not missing a success or a shit storm (well, you ain’t gonna miss a real shit storm). So, track your campaigns closely, track the shares/likes/pins, track the comments you get…whatever.

By the way, social sharing is closely related to another concept which will have a major impact in the coming years: “On-demand marketing”. We will talk about this in one of the upcoming blogs…

First there was the mainframe computer. A huge hulkish machine housed in a big data center. Then came the PC/desktop. A few years later we saw the first laptops and notebooks. Fast forward to today: smartphones and table computers are ruling the world. But the next big innovation is already underway: wearable computers. We are talking i-watches, helmet cams and, of course, glasses. Google has just introduced the concept of Google Glass: it’s a camera, a microphone, a search engine, a map and much more all linked through the view of your eyes. You can take videos, photos, and audio tapings just like you see and hear things at that moment. But you can also look at things or persons and get all the information that is stored on the web. You can make comments about anything you experience while walking or driving etc. etc.

What will happen to the banking industry when you look through Google Glass? There are some obvious things: find your way to the next ATM while walking a foreign city, getting directions to the next branch office of your bank or checking the latest forex rates while you look at the rates the money exchange booth in an airport is offering to you.

But there are also many further reaching possibilities you may think: what about getting ads for the best interest rates on cash accounts when you walk the streets and pass by a bank? What about bringing along your friend via Google Glass who happens to be an investment expert when you talk to your bank adviser the next time and getting her feedback on the bank’s investment proposal immediately? You may walk through town and get quotes and all the houses that are on sale plus the different financing options offered by competing banks. You probably can think of many more examples.

The concept of wearable computing brings a new dimension on how information is truly ubiquitous, every conversation is monitored and screened, in fact every human action can be recorded live, tagged and followed on any network. There are also huge regulatory and privacy issues arising. It’s time for banks to get ready for this next BIG thing.

Apps are generally more secure than regular html webpages. There are several reasons for that, most prominently that apps are downloaded from a
walled environment, called app store. This holds also true for banking apps. We’ve asked our contacts at major retail banks worldwide about incidents of fraud through mobile apps. The answer is simple: basically zero. It may  be that Internet criminals have not learned yet how to break into mobile apps but for the time being, bank customers can feel somewhat safer using their mobile app than using web- based banking.

So, why do banks still get an “F” on mobile app security? It’s a communication problem. Our surveys show that many users don’t feel safe
using apps for banking transactions. One major reason is that they fear their bank accounts can be easily manipulated in case the mobile device is
stolen.

Yet, despite the users’ uneasiness with mobile banking, banks communicate only very hesitantly about the security measures and precautions for mobile banking apps: 34% percent of banking apps contain no information at all on security and 42% fail to do so on privacy issues. This is one of the results of our recent Mobile Apps for Banking 2013 benchmarking report. In addition, the report finds that app store descriptions of mobile banking apps include information on security matters in only 64% of cases.

Banks should take these findings seriously. Mobile banking is becoming ever more popular but a significant portion of potential users are deterred by
security concerns. Every banking app and every app description should  display and explain security features of the app prominently. Users must understand that data encryption of banking transactions is as safe as on the fixed Internet. Log-in procedures and other safety measures should also be clearly communicated. Users’ perception of security will then be as strong as the actual security itself.

by Francis Groves, Senior Analyst Social & Mobile Media

Earlier this week, Ignites, the Financial Times publication that follows the US mutual funds industry, has highlighted some of the strengths of social media strategy of Blackrock, the hugely important fund manager that also owns the iShares ETF business. Blackrock is reported to have seen the biggest rises in the numbers of people following it on Twitter and YouTube, 15.9% and 38.4% in the month to May 11 of any of the US’s top 10 fund companies (Ignites reports). But what really drew our attention was the group’s blogging strategy. Blackrock and iShares staff are sharing the same blog - under the iShares brand - and Blackrock is adopting its subsidiary’s ‘blog-centric’ social media strategy which basically amounts to focusing on great content in the expectation that readers will it pass it on. MyPrivateBanking commend this commitment to blogging as the thinking person’s social media. Although many commentators are apparently critical of the idea of a single blog for the entire group, we wonder if doing away with dual or multiple content series actually makes content a whole lot more accessible for social media consumers. It’ll be interesting to see if Blackrock/iShares stay with their single blog approach.

Which are the best and the worst features/areas of mobile banking apps? In our latest report on mobile banking apps for retail customers we have looked very much in detail at all the important functions. Here is the list of average percentages of the maximum reachable rating points for the banking apps from best to worst area:

User-friendlyness (e.g., navigation, speed): 89%
Availability of mobile apps (on different operating systems/platforms): 81%
Integration with other online media (e.g., website, social platforms): 81%
Core functions for clients (like account overview, payment features, brokerage): 76%
Security (encryption etc.): 70%
Support features for clients (like FAQ, help function etc.): 66%
Means of communication (email, messaging, phone numbers): 55%
Content and features for client retention (like product infos): 37%

I personally find it quite encouraging that user-friendlyness reaches such a strong score. This shows that banks have understood the important basics of how to “make” an app. On the other hand, the low score for communication features and marketing content is a bit shocking. It’s almost as if the banks don’t want to communicate with their clients and are not interested to leverage apps to showcase their products and services. Definitely something that should change in order to harness the full power of mobile apps for the banking business.

Yesterday one of our clients asked me in a meeting how we make sure that our evaluations are really objective and independent. I think that’s a fair and very important question so I am answering it today via our blog.

First of all, we are not being paid to write a report. We write reports and do benchmarking analysis on topics and companies we chose to. Only when the research is done and final, we start to sell the product.

Secondly, we are using a very structured and elaborate research process. We start by doing interviews with end-users trying to find out what really drives their preferences and usage behavior of an app or a website. Based on this qualitative research we construct use cases. Where do people use an app? Why? What motivates them? What do they like about an application or a website, what do they hate? The next step is to develop a catalogue of very detailed benchmarking criteria based on these typical use cases. Once we have our benchmarking criteria we test them and refine them until they are absolutely bullet-proof and work across all the different global markets. Then our analysts start analyzing apps, websites or social media presences. We always compare the global leaders with each other because we are convinced that the leading financial firms are the benchmark of the industry worldwide. This process is repeated twice within 4 weeks by two, sometimes three independent analysts to make sure that our standards are applied objectively. The final result is our detailed, comprehensive and completely data-driven benchmarking analysis.

Thirdly, we make sure that our analysts are objective and neutral. They are not paid based on sales or revenues they are generating with certain clients. They are paid for their analytical skills and only for their analytical skills. This ensure their complete neutrality in the process.

Last but not least, we are doing no consulting work in order to avoid that our company gets attached to strongly to one client’s revenue stream. We are living from the sales of our reports and some limited advisory work we do. But there are no extended consulting projects at all.

These four points ensure that the results you see in our research are based only on an objective and scientific analytical process and not any other considerations. This is what earns us the trust of our clients.

The result that strikes me most in our new report about Mobile Apps for Banking is how global and how broad the movement around banking apps is. The top-5 banks in our ranking are from the US, Singapore, France, Australia and the Netherlands. This shows that mobile apps in the finance industry have reallyreached a new stage on a worldwide scale. It is aslo interesting to see that the features and functions across countries are quite similar. Of course, there are lots of differences with regard to quality and content but the best banks provide apps that have comparable ranges of features and functions. But have a read for yourself….

Here is a sample of the most recent media articles that are quoting our latest report “Mobile Apps for Financial Advisors and Wealth Managers 2013“:

Banking Technology

Wealth Briefing (log-in required)

Mobile Business (German edition)

CIO (German edition)

We’ve just published our newest report on Mobile Apps for Financial Advisors and Wealth Managers. And it has become pretty clear to us how important this new technology already is for the wealth management industry. Meeting with the client, talking to the client, reviewing his or her portfolio - this is the core of a wealth management relationship. Such meetings can become very dull, boring or outright overwhelming for a client if the advisor throws heaps of paper at him or her. Now imagine, there are no more paper reports but dynamic charts, graphs, background information in video format, real-time portfolio data, and the expertise of another specialist (say a tax adviser) can easily brought in via messenger or even video chat. The dynamics of such a meeting will be very different; the client experience much better… So, that’s why we call it industry disruptive for the wealth management industry. Have a look yourself…