Reluctance To Go Mobile Inhibiting Innovation In Financial Services (enterprisersproject.com) 104
Lemeowski writes: Compliance concerns have long prevented financial services businesses from adopting mobile capabilities as quickly as other industries. But Yvette Jackson of Thomson Reuters argues that technology advancements have made compliance worries of the past now obsolete, and financial services companies are running out of excuses for not going mobile. She stresses that holding onto this reluctance will cause businesses to miss opportunities, limit innovation, and turn away talent by restraining their workflow. She says, "Any millennial joining the financial services industry, who expects a flawless user experience both at home and at work, is – I'm sure – surprised on their first day in the office when they get to their desk and are transported back in time by the technology they're expected to use."
Sounds Right (Score:1)
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Maybe they didn't quite understand what "99% uptime" meant.
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Maybe they didn't quite understand what "99% uptime" meant.
Perhaps they mean their "503 Service Unavailable" page is up 99% of the time.
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Ironically enough, they now have a web presence that doesn't work 99% of the time.
Unsurprising? Yes.
Ironic? No.
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It's really not that much of a difference.
Access front-ends are sketchy as fuck. I know because the company I work for still has clients that use those pieces of shit. I have to periodically reconnect all the client's users' database files to the server (one at a time, because they have different user-made customizations on each workstation) because OLEDB seemingly randomly shits the bed. Or because the user got a new workstation, and Access relies on a system-maintained database list that didn't get import
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Sounds right.
Doesn't sound right to me. My bank constantly pesters me to "install the app" instead of using a browser. I don't see why I would need to check my bank balance while driving on the freeway, rather than just waiting till I get home. I understand that some people don't own a computer, use their mobile device for everything, and may find a banking app useful. But if they ask repeatedly, and I decline every time, then the pestering should stop.
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Eh, I've had need/desire to check balances while moving around town.
But... if I can do this via a browser on my desktop at home/work, why shouldn't I be able to do it via a browser on my phone? Why the fuck do I need to give my bank Xmb of storage on my device - storage that could be used for more mp3s, pics of my kids, etc - to do a task that *should* be able to be done via the mobile browser?
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Sounds right.
Doesn't sound right to me. My bank constantly pesters me to "install the app" instead of using a browser. I don't see why I would need to check my bank balance while driving on the freeway, rather than just waiting till I get home. I understand that some people don't own a computer, use their mobile device for everything, and may find a banking app useful. But if they ask repeatedly, and I decline every time, then the pestering should stop.
More to the point, if you need to actually check your bank balance at all, you might be doing something wrong.
Like the TV commercial where a guy is looking at new flat screen TVs, checks his bank account with his mobile app, then buys the expensive TV. If you're running that close to the red, perhaps a new TV shouldn't be top on your to-do list.
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If you're running that close to the red, perhaps a new TV shouldn't be top on your to-do list.
But... consumerism!!! We must all spend, spend spend our last dollars. Fiduciary responsibility is for Mormons and other weirdos that should never be elected to public office!!!
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More to the point, if you need to actually check your bank balance at all, you might be doing something wrong.
Like the TV commercial where a guy is looking at new flat screen TVs, checks his bank account with his mobile app, then buys the expensive TV. If you're running that close to the red, perhaps a new TV shouldn't be top on your to-do list.
Or perhaps he keeps most of his cash in a higher yielding savings account, and has to check to see if he needs to transfer over some funds before using his debit card.
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Or perhaps he keeps most of his cash in a higher yielding savings account, ...
Ha! "Higher yielding" Good one. :-) The amount of interest one can earn is pretty minuscule - even one over-draft or maintenance fee could kill any earnings. It's not really worth the hassle to have to monitor and move money around like that.
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Or perhaps he keeps most of his cash in a higher yielding savings account, ...
Ha! "Higher yielding" Good one. :-) The amount of interest one can earn is pretty minuscule - even one over-draft or maintenance fee could kill any earnings. It's not really worth the hassle to have to monitor and move money around like that.
If you use a bank, you're right. I use a credit union with free overdraft protection, no maintenance fees, and interest on checking, although it's about a quarter of the interest on savings. I may make only $30 to $40 a year in interest, but it's that much more a year I'd not have otherwise. I'm considering keeping it all (or 90% or so) in the savings account and using a credit card, paying off at the end of the month, to make an additional two to three percent. Even at only $100 or so a year, it's a w
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Thanks for the discussion. I actually know all that, though perhaps others do not.
Personally, I'm debt-free (including my house) and keep about 10% of my cash/savings in the bank, which is enough to last me about 9 years w/o a job (though I'm still employed and well paid as a software engineer). The rest is invested in growth and growth/income stocks and bonds as about 45% pre- (401k and IRA) and 45% post- tax accounts. I put at least $20k a year into my 401k (I'm over 50, so the limits are higher.)
I
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... before using his debit card.
I forgot to add: Debit cards are evil. Use a credit card and pay it off every month.
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Why is a debit card evil? I have not one but several accounts that are tied to debit cards. When they run low, my accountant moves some money into 'em. They have loss protection on the 'net and if they're compromised and things look funny then my accountant will call me and ask if they should put money into the account. She keeps all the numbers and even separates some of them for me and does my taxes at end of the year. I do have credit cards but only a few and mostly for overseas travel. I'd like a couple
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A debit card is directly tied to your account and money is directly removed from it at the time of purchase. If money is withdrawn in error say, by a bad guy, you have to ask to have the funds replaced and the bank may refuse if not convinced it was stolen or an error. (If your balance is too low in this case, you may incur other "funds not available" incidents and charges if you also use auto-payments, etc.)
A CC is not tied directly to your account, erroneous purchases can be disputed prior to bill paym
Re: Sounds Right (Score:2)
Some of us move funds into and out of accessible accounts, preferring to keep the minimal balance in that debit account to avoid being taken completely if something bad happens.
Think being concerned that an account might be compromised is doing it wrong? You're pretty sure you're account is secure? Keep the dream alive, my friend. Trust no 1.
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Some of us move funds into and out of accessible accounts, preferring to keep the minimal balance in that debit account to avoid being taken completely if something bad happens.
Think being concerned that an account might be compromised is doing it wrong? You're pretty sure you're account is secure? Keep the dream alive, my friend. Trust no 1.
I don't have a debit card (no one should, I use a CC), don't do auto payments. I do keep fewer funds in my checking / direct-deposit account, but not so few that I need to check it. Also, I have something called a memory and use it to remember how much are in my accounts - to the nearest ten thousand anyway :-)
A support having multiple accounts for different purposes, but you should keep enough balance in your payment account to cover expenses over a few months, in case something happens to you and you'r
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> Doesn't sound right to me. My bank constantly pesters me to "install the app" instead of using a browser. I don't see why I would need to check my bank balance while driving on the freeway ...
Perhaps they've made a lot of loans to auto body repair businesses and are trying to protect their investment. Distracted driving and all that ...
BTW, am I the only one who finds the phrase "Innovation in Financial Services" a bit less than reassuring? Sort of like "This vehicle is equipped with the very lates
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I agree that the pestering should stop. Too bad that big data can't seem to log 'Do not call' requests.
I use banking apps, but not b'cos I want to check my balances while driving. That I normally do on my laptop. One of my bank accounts is E*TRADE, and they had closed most all of their banking centers except at headquarters, and the only way to deposit money into that is using their app. I actually like that I get to keep a check once it has been cashed, just for the records. So after opening a Well
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Sounds right. I recently applied for a programming job at a bank. After the interview and showing me the place, they offered me the job. I politely declined. Then I quickly closed my accounts and moved to a more modern bank. Why? That bank literally uses MSAccess tables to store ALL of the customer data. And VB5 "processes" to interact with the feds. Un-believable.
I call BS. As someone who does work in IT in the financial services industry, no programmer is interviewed, given a tour and then offered a job.
Regulations require a background check which takes several days so no offer is made until that clears.
And they certainly aren't going to show a non-employee the database in which they store customer data, that's restricted data.
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And here I thought posting as an Anonymous Coward was the definition of trolling. :p
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My impression is that it is rarely appropriate to include the words "bank" and "think" in the same sentence.
Re: Security laziness... (Score:2)
They think. You just recognize it as price gouging, excess fees, and undesirable services.
Re: The more regulated inustries are like this (Score:2)
You have no idea what's going on in the payments industry. Otherwise known as banking.
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Bank manager: [Looking through a credit card statement the size of a yellow pages telephone book, shaking his head and calling a customer on the telephone:
"You may be a city trader, but as your local bank manager and a respected member of the community, I must insist that you come down to my office this afternoon for a serious face-to-face chat about the sensiible management of money!".
City trader: "Yes, what would like to know?"
WTH is this woman talking about? (Score:2)
Every competent bank offers a mobile app which lets you manipulate your accounts and deposit checks via OCR, and companies like Vanguard and Fidelity offer mobile apps, too.
For support on-call personnel, there are laptops (bigger screens and real keyboards) plus tethering.
Why millenial? (Score:3)
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I work for a fintech company, and some of our recent clients only upgraded to IE8 on Windows XP in the past few years.
Re: Why millenial? (Score:2)
Ditto for my employer. Our clients are, largely, rolling along on IE8 and complain when our websites drop compatibility and become more standard. IE9 is becoming passé for us, but our clients are just mired in unresponsive IT environments.
Banks that cater to end users are much more likely to be using current browser tech and supporting those browsers.
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Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)
I haven't done a whole lot of work in financial services, but what I have done was with ancient in-house software that had clunky, keyboard-only interfaces that would make any self-identified "millennial" break down crying. It was also rock solid software that didn't crash randomly or even slow down. It didn't lose data or corrupt files or update fifteen times in an hour. It worked exactly the way it was expected to work: the same way it had worked for decades.
You see, when you're working with millions of dollars in other people's money, a "flawless user experience" is a significantly less important aspect of software development than never fucking up.
I have a feeling that the financial services industry isn't going to miss millennial "talent" who needs to be able to dick around with their accounts on their smartphone anytime, anywhere.
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I have a feeling that the financial services industry isn't going to miss millennial "talent" who needs to be able to dick around with their accounts on their smartphone anytime, anywhere.
And yet, just look at their advertisements.
Banks are now advertising services like sending payments to email addresses. They were so busy criticizing PayPal during the last ten years for doing just that, they kind of missed the boat on that one.
who needs to be able to dick around with their accounts on their smartphone anytime, anywhere.
That's the thing. I don't need to dick around with my account on my smartphone. I just want to know my bank balance. That's it. In fact, it would be great if the app on my smartphone couldn't make any financial transaction. This way, if I lose my phone one day, or if
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If they are holding you at gunpoint then you're alright. If they were going to shoot you then they'd have just shot you already and taken what they wanted.
I've been mugged and I pulled out my wallet and gave them the cash that was in it. They told me to give them my wallet and I told them that I'd not be doing that. They looked at me a little funny and took off. It's about 30 seconds of your day and feels like five minutes but you can't have my wallet. I'll give you the cash. Hell, I won't even call the cop
Click-Bait? (Score:2)
Trying to figure out if the author is shilling some service, or just woefully inept? Ah, but what can you expect from a CIO focused article...
Isn't the bigger problem (Score:5, Insightful)
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Amen. I wish I had points to mod you up ...
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Maybe I have the terminology wrong, but aren't 'millenials' pretty much 25-ish year-olds? Considering they're the ones who will be using, working in, and running pretty much everything in 15-20 years, isn't it kind of counterproductive to try to keep them out of *any* industry?
Along those lines, sure they'll be in for a shock, but won't they be pretty much the only ones around to move these systems and processes into the future anyway?
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We could skip a generation and go straight to their kids! You know... the people *raised* by millenials! :-)
Any argument that a whole generation is bunk is pretty ridiculous, IMHO.
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There's a huge difference between keeping them out and not allowing them the power to be sole decision makers.
Re: Isn't the bigger problem (Score:2)
Amen and amen. We've become afflicted with a Millennial team redesigning the primary website I support, and a Millennial team implementing a replacement to several internal apps, finally consolidating the functionality globally. However, they;
0. Use the Agile process to avoid serious testing. Fixing it in production is now part of the process.
1. Make decisions without consulting with the 'business', implementing logic that neither meets the needs nor actually performed the required functionality.
2. Chang
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Welcome to the real working world (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Welcome to the real working world (Score:2)
Where I work, security is designed to presume the device is compromised. The flow of data is what's analyzed, and improper activity is blocked and audited.
We also get regular spearfishing emails from our own security teams to test our responses. Failure to identify the attack results in notice to our management, required training and retraining, and may result in dismissal.
Some of this makes certain team I need to accomplish impossible. I have to get special permission.
And we have simple, one click encry
Do they actually know what financial services do? (Score:1)
As someone who works at a decent-sized bank, and knowing what other 'big' banks are doing around the area, I really wonder what the writer was thinking here.
Financial services are roughly three categories:
* Backoffice -- Mostly IT, so maintenance, development etc. (on aging platforms from time to time, but that doesn't matter). Not something you want to do mobile, you want a decent workstation. Maybe outsourced, maybe in-house (if deemed sensitive enough)
* Frontoffice: helpdesks, financial advisors, etc. Th
Get over yourselves. (Score:2)
"Any millennial joining the financial services industry, who expects a flawless user experience both at home and at work, is – I'm sure – surprised on their first day in the office when they get to their desk and are transported back in time by the technology they're expected to use."
Too fucking bad. Newer isn't always better or more reliable. People / companies paid money for stuff that works, and they don't mind if it keeps working.
She stresses that holding onto this reluctance will cause businesses to miss opportunities, limit innovation, and turn away talent by restraining their workflow.
Perhaps, or perhaps it'll just turn away those easily distracted by shiny new - squirrel !
Bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
This woman has no idea what she is talking about. I am posting anonymously because I work for one of the top five banks in the US as a systems administrator whose job is to protect internal IT assets, create monitoring tools, and help make long-term decisions. I am also writing this as a pissed off individual who just read an article written by a complete moron on the subject.
One - my bank that I am employed at has tools and resources that all web based, both internally and for the most part, for all of our customer-facing functions. Most of our sites are at minimum CSS2 compliant, thus making our sites responsive and able to be viewed in a variety of browsers. In addition, like many other banks, we have customer apps for the major platforms. So as far as not being able to be used from a smartphone, or in some other modern manner, I cry foul.
Two - I work from home a lot. We utilize many up to date products / protocols to enable remote workers to access their files, team sharing resources, etc. HR, calendars, employee resources, etc. are all available. Many of these are utilized by several in-house apps / sites to provide custom work environments / workflows for various teams and departments. I operate both Windows and Linux servers (been a UNIX man since before I was out of junior high school), and I employ modern tools. My favorite tool is my Hackintosh running a remote access application ;)
Three - Like it or not, banking and financial institutions are required by Federal (and in many cases International) law to adhere to various standards and auditing procedures, and yes, we get audited quite a lot - which is something the average consumer should WANT AND REQUIRE by any banking institution. Some of this may utilize non-post 2010 technology and/or buzzwords, but it works, and like it or not, it is well understood by both the teams that support these installs as well as those auditing them. You don't change something because some dumbass somewhere said "Wow! This website says this is the next thing - we change NOW!" Plus, like it or not, non-IT people are very difficult to teach / retrain on how to use a new environment, and so is the Federal Government. Sometimes things aren't changed because of some long-standing regulation that controls how changes occur. Perhaps this is why the American banking system is one of the most stable things around... (I expect arguments on that statement...)
Four - Millennials are often not qualified to understand the hows and whys something was implemented a particular way. Sure, their high-falooting college edumacation gave them everything they need to know about IT, so the first thing they do is come in is to run their mouths, and then get frustrated because no one older or more experienced / wiser seems to want to immediately jump on board and run with their new ideas. Sure, new ideas should be explored, but only in time and with the appropriate amount of study and testing. I spend the majority of my days creating tools to help detect and resolve problems on multiple environments automatically. I have to keep abreast on everything going on in the networking and security communities. So, I understand the potential issues with every change I recommend or even make on how to do something. I listen to all the ideas that are brought before me, but I also have the experience to know when something is more or less a fad, and when something can truly improve the workflow for myself, my team, or enterprise-wide. Legacy tools and code are going to be present everywhere for some reason.
Five - Tables and smartphones are wonderful things, but I personally can't be productive in my job using a tablet or an iPad, no matter what someone else might think. I need a laptop or a personal computer that I can run a shell on, etc. Another way to look at this is how can an organization adapt to allow for many different types of technology to be used by people with varying needs as long as their jobs are performed correctly? Has this author never heard of A
You are absolutely right. Another Perspective: (Score:1)
But then, once a project gets to the point where technical requirements need to be specified in detail, the pains start. The banks marketing department wants "everything to work with just one click and without cumb
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"All them old farts dint know nuthin when I was 21 and alla them kids today with their hippity-hop and Eye-Phones don't now nuthin either! "
(Roughly translated from the original Sumerian, I believe)
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Not only the millenials (Score:2)
The financial services industry, who expects a captive user base both at home and at work, will – I'm sure – be surprised in the next few years when they check their quarterly reports and find that the technology they're using and services they provide, have completely removed them from the arena in which new potential customers look for financial services.
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What!? (Score:2)
And that millennial, my good man, would be a fucking idiot. There is no such thing as flawless user experience. Most systems, most procedures have flaws.
From these types of articles, it seems that millennial
Again, why should I NEED to see the bank .. (Score:2)
Look, it's money. It's not something that impacts at other than a binary state. "Have" or "not have". Otherwise, why would you want to know about your finances?