November 1, 2012 – Nearly half of all banks are working on their mobile channel offerings this year, suggesting that banks think the demand is there from corporate customers. Mobile channel development is a growing trend, with 45 per cent of banks ranking this a priority in the coming year, while 63 per cent stated that expanding self-service channels such as mobile would be part of their strategy over the next three years.

Finextra and Misys have announced the results of their annual survey of trends in transaction banking. The responses from 105 professionals in the trade finance, payments and cash management industry located in 40 countries highlighted the stronger strategic focus on customer service and channel and product innovation.

The trends for banks to create a more joined-up, corporate customer focused division from disparate product and service teams gained real momentum after the 2008 global financial crisis. Particularly at tier 1 institutions, boards began to value more highly the steady, fee-based business of payments, cash management and trade finance. So they began to seek better ways to manage these business divisions and differentiate through improved customer service.

This trend has not yet run its course, but the model is well established in all markets. 81 per cent of surveyed institutions say they have created a transaction banking group that combines cash management and trade finance, at least at an operational level.

Taking a medium term view over three years, banks are mostly looking at strategies to improve customer service through new products and services and self-service channels. In last year’s survey new products and services was also the top response, but this year customer service and self-service channels have featuredmuch more prominently.

As more people become accustomed to personal banking via smartphone and tablet, those who work in the corporate world increasingly expect the same intuitive interfaces and simple functionality to enable them to authorise payments and view transactions and letters of credit and other trade finance documents. All these things they can do while deskbound, they are expecting to be able to do remotely, or even via mobile device while in the office.

Corporate transactions are much more complex than retail, with various levels of authorisation through different parts of the customer corporate and the bank. Cash management and trade finance processes involve many more accounts and parties. As a result, mobile channels cannot simply be ported across from the retail business. Relevant mobile functionality must be identified, designed and securely delivered from scratch to meet the corporates’ needs.

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