Celent recently published a report, Branch Boom Gone Bust: Predicting a Steep Decline in US Branch Density. As expected, some misunderstood the report as another piece decrying the death of the branch channel. It isn’t. Instead, the report advocates embracing a “right-sizing” of the branch channel as a means to strategically invest in retail delivery [...]

Last Tuesday, 23 April, a hacked Twitter message from the Associated Press about an attack on the White House that injured President Barack Obama, turned out to be bogus. But the tweet sparked a brief 145 point market selloff that dramatized the power of algorithmic trading – sophisticated computer software that analyzes language using algorithms [...]

USAA Federal Savings Bank was an early-adopter of mobile RDC (mRDC) with its Deposit@Mobile product introduced in 2009, which followed the 2006 introduction of its desktop RDC product, Deposit@Home. This offers user impressions of its newest app version, currently available for the iPad and available for the iPhone and Android shortly. The upgrade offers two [...]

For years, I’ve been able to schedule an appointment with my healthcare provider, barber, pastor and friends, but never my banker. What’s up with that? That’s because banks have historically relied on a 100% walk-in model for in-branch sales and service. Things are finally beginning to change. They need to. With branch traffic declining at most [...]

Last week, the Chicago Tribune broke a story that PNC was considering charging fees for its mobile remote deposit capture (RDC). The story prompted this action even though I have previously commented on the topic. Should banks charge for mRDC, especially when data suggests many consumers would be willing to pay? Heck no! Why leave [...]

Last Wednesday, Celent hosted its sixth annual Banking Innovation & Insight Day. We had a full house of energetic attendees, and a solid crew of dynamic panelists and presenters. For the first time, Celent combined the Banking and Insurance events with a welcome by Celent CEO, Craig Weber introducing creative disruption and recognizing winners of [...]

All things mobile are so hot right now, and for good reason. Smartphones are quickly overtaking mobile telephony devices at breakneck speed. Remember when people talked on their mobile phones? AT&T activated 8.6 million iPhones and 10.2 million smartphones in the last quarter. Verizon iPhone activations increased by 47% in th3e past quarter. 6.2 million [...]

American Banker published an article last week describing Bank of America’s quest to bolster the ranks of its mobile banking customer base. According to the article, the bank is outfitting its teller stations with quick response (QR) codes that can be scanned by mobile devices to download the mobile app. What a great idea! For [...]

While at the AFP conference last month, I had the pleasure of hearing Ken Segall speak at a breakfast event sponsored by USDataworks. Ken worked closely with Steve Jobs as advertising agency creative director for NeXT and Apple. His experience inspired him to write Insanely Simple, published earlier this year by Penguin Books Ltd. Two [...]

The idea of offering self-service solutions inside the branch remains a strangely controversial topic among North American bankers. This need not be. Self-service is rapidly growing across multiple retail market segments and has been a staple of Western Europe bank branches for a decade. Resistance among North American financial institutions is likely more cultural than [...]