Bank Systems & Technology had two very good articles posted Tuesday.  One by Art Gillis about the lack of technology used by BIG banks and the other by Matt Gunn on the subject of mobile banking.

As I was reading these articles I couldn’t stop thinking about some of the easy “wins” banks could leverage that would bring both value to the customer and more revenue to the bank.  Below is an excerpt from the Matt Gunn article…

“Research published by Aite last year showed that some banks were slow to roll out mobile banking services because of a perceived inability to generate revenue through that channel. Additionally, many banks that do offer mobile services to retail customers, do not offer mobile services tailored to the needs of small business clients. The research found that mobile offerings for small business could potentially be a source of revenue for banks, with 27 percent of the small businesses Aite surveyed indicating they would be willing to pay for the service if it were offered by their primary institution.”

I think banks are missing the boat.  There is no doubt mobile will have a place in every aspect of our lives at some point and every company should be thinking about it.  But mobile is NOT a “service”, it’s a means to access services just like our computers.  That’s like saying our computer is a “service” and the banks should charge us for using it to access their services.  Trying to figure out how to charge us for “accessing” bank services is just plain ridiculous.  Banks need to allow us access to their services through all types of access points.  These multiple and convenient “access points” pay for themselves by reducing the number of employees the bank needs to answer all of our stupid questions by email and phone.  That’s where the banks can reduce costs, and ultimately create happy, loyal customers.

Banks need to focus on the actual “services”, no matter how we get to them.  Banks touting they now offer mobile so they can PR it up and create some buzz to be cool is worthless if the services accessed through mobile are less than adequate.  And, if you’re charging me to use mobile and the service has zero value then it’s a double fail.  Banks need to start looking at services like Mint. Intuit just bought Mint, but the ability for people and businesses to begin accounting for everything they do with their cash can be immensely valuable.  Individuals need and want to better understand where their income goes.   Businesses should have a suite of receivables management and accounting tools at their fingertips through the bank.  What better place to do this than in the system that is tracking the cash.  Give us some “services” like that, which we would gladly pay for as an individual or business AND let me access them through mobile – NOW we’re talking value!