Bank of America - Mobile Banking

Problem Statement

Bank of America is struggling to position their mobile banking service in the continuously changing industry. The bank already has a mobile application but is evaluating if they should add more features to this app and how this will affect their clients.

Situation Analysis

Company

• Bank of America is the largest U.S. bank holding company; it was founded in 1904 and expanded with several acquisitions.

• By the end of 2009 BoA was the leader in the market, serving 82% of the US population (over 53 M customers) and positioned number one in online and mobile banking.

• Very strong and best-managed banks before the crisis which brought losses and a very strong drop in stock price.

• Mobile banking was launched in 2007 and in less than 3 years they have 4 million customers using the service.

Customers

• Chose their bank based on low account minimums, competitive rates and convenient locations.

• In 2009 10 million consumers used mobile banking and this was expected to grow to 37 million by 2014.

• Customers willing to use mobile banking are not the same as online users.

• Security issues, low value and cost of data access were the primary reasons why customers would not use mobile banking.

• Debit card holders were the most active users because of the convenience of checking their account balances at any time.

• They are reluctant to try a new banking service if it represented an extra cost and were also afraid of losing control of their finances.

• Customers switch their usual bank channels and the retention is higher for online services.

Competition

• The main competitors were: Bank of New York Mellon, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup, and PNC Financial Services.

• Competition also used mobile banking to ensure a good service to their customer; they used SMS, web browser and apps, depending on the bank and the customer they served.

• Citibank and Wells Fargo had different applications for their target groups, making this a customized service.

Collaborators

• Starcom, agency that supports the bank on digital matters.

• Other agencies and consulting partners.

Context

• The banking