What App, Doc? An Evaluation of Mobile Banking at the Top Latin American Banks
Abstract
Celent explores mobile technology and the breakthrough of apps in the retail banking industry in Latin America, focusing on the top 10 institutions.
The next logical move is to push the boundaries of services into consumer-related activities tied to financial services products, taking advantage of the huge amount of data banks have and the geolocation capabilities of mobiles.
External pressures from fintech startups and competition from digitally native players such as Google and Apple will definitely reshape consumer expectations of financial services and how they are delivered.
“There are some advantages of using apps for mobile devices for both clients and banks. On one side, banks are able to expand their services through a low-cost channel, but with the advantage of ubiquity,” says Luis Chipana, an analyst with Celent’s Banking practice and coauthor of the report. “Also, clients are able to save time and money by taking control of their transactions and accounts.”
“It may seem as though checking balances and moving money through a mobile phone are recent phenomena within smartphone banking,” says Juan Mazzini, a senior analyst with Celent’s Banking practice and coauthor of the report. “As banks move to make these transactions as streamlined and simple as possible, the meat of a platform will start to revolve around specific interactions driven by high-value data analysis.”
“As banks deploy more functions into the mobile and apps, the playing field gets more competitive, and consumers benefit from this,” says Stephen Greer, an analyst with Celent’s Banking practice and coauthor of the report.