The bank launched mobile banking services in November 2012 and seen significant user adoption since, with customer adoption exceeding the bank’s first-year adoption goals within one and surpassing its two-year adoption goals with two-and-a-half months.

“American Savings Bank customers took to mobile deposits because it makes banking more convenient, eliminating the need to visit a bank branch or ATM to make a deposit, without sacrificing the safety and security customers associate with banking institutions,” said Carl Tsukahara, chief marketing officer at Monitise, San Rafael, CA. “It brings the branch and ATM functions right into the home.”

A valuable tool
American Savings Bank is based in Hawaii and is the first bank in the state to deploy mobile remote deposit capture.

The bank teamed up with Monitise to develop and deploy its mobile banking program, which includes mobile banking and payments functionality across its native smartphone applications, mobile Web offerings and SMS services.

American Savings Bank supported the launch with a marketing campaign.

“There’s a growing demand among consumers for banking options that allow them to complete transactions, review balances, make deposits, receive alerts, etc. no matter where they are,” Mr. Tsukahara said.

“Not having a robust, easy-to-use mobile banking offering could mean the difference between a healthy, growing customer base and one that actively seeks out other alternatives,” he said. “It’s a necessity. 

“Mobile is showing overwhelming value as a tool to drive new account openings as well as cement existing account relationships. It also increases the reach for smaller regional and community organizations where having complete physical coverage is not possible.”

Mobile banking evolves
American Savings Bank is smart to include remote deposit functionality in its mobile banking offers as this feature is one of the more popular features of mobile banking apps, with Bank of America recently reporting that customers are depositing more than 100,000 checks each day through their mobile phones.

Remote deposit can also help banks attract new customers with Conestoga Banks reporting that it a 10 percent increase in account openings in the first 13 months following the introduction of remote deposit via mobile.

Research also backs up the popularity of mobile deposit, which is the No. 1 mobile feature sought by all smartphone and tablet owners who would switch banks for mobile banking, according to AlixPartners. The company also reports that 15 percent of all smartphone and tablet owners have already adopted mobile remote deposit capture.

Going forward, banks are beginning to explore how to continue to expand out their mobile banking services with additional functionality such as mobile payments.

“The market for mobile payments and equally as important, mobile commerce, which is also evolving fast and is absolutely an imperative for banks to take a key role,” Mr. Tsukahara said.

“Given their heritage, financial institutions are frontrunners in the race for consumer trust,” he said. “They are regulated and know how to move money and support consumers.

“They are ideally positioned to capitalize on bringing innovations to market and the winners will be those that attract large volumes of customers and keep them engaged with compelling services. If they are not already thinking about wallets, they should at minimum be considering how to add payment and commerce services into their current mobile experience.”

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York