Focusing on the three key points of account financing and financing-
mobile banking ushered in a new round of upgrades
Our reporter Guo Ziyuan
Recently, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Merchants Bank have successively updated their mobile banking versions, optimized and added a number of functions, and improved aging services.
The reporter observed that this round of mobile banking upgrade mainly revolves around three key points, namely account management, financial management, and financing management. The core logic is to build an open platform of "finance + pan-finance + life" through the channel of mobile banking, which is more effective Reach users, increase user stickiness, and improve service levels.
“ICBC’s mobile banking users have reached 460 million. Currently, mobile banking has become the preferred channel for user transactions and services.” The relevant person in charge of the Internet Finance Department of ICBC said that mobile banking has basically covered all personal businesses, providing account applications and transfers. Functional services such as remittances, investment and financial management, life payment, consumer payment, credit cards, loans, etc., account for 98% of bank counter services.
What changes will the mobile banking upgrade bring to you and me?
What is the future development trend?
The reporter interviewed relevant industry insiders.
Optimize services from the user's perspective
The impact of mobile Internet on financial services is not only to change channels, but also to reshape service thinking.
Banks have to think about the problem from the user's standpoint, not only from "business" to "business", but also from "what I give you, what you use" to "what you need, I will give you what."
The upgrade of this round of mobile banking embodies the above concepts.
The reporter observed that changes in banking services were mainly concentrated in three areas: First, in account management, the user’s original multi-year income and expenditure data was integrated and sorted, and a "smart account book" was introduced to facilitate users to more clearly distinguish between flexible expenditures and fixed expenditures. , And then manage cash flow more effectively; the second is in financial management, according to the user’s investment behavior, the existing financial products are automatically combined to recommend the optimal configuration for users; the third is in financial management, based on big data analysis, Combining the user's debt structure, capital reserves and financing costs and other factors, provide users with financing solutions.
Take financial management as an example.
"In the past, the wealth management products we provided were mostly from the bank's professional perspective. I sold what products I had to users, but now we need to optimize the service experience from the user's perspective." Jiong said.
The key to ensuring optimal configuration is the "open platform."
Xu Wenhao, chief product manager of the Wealth Platform Department of China Merchants Bank, introduced that, starting in 2020, China Merchants Bank has successively introduced eight wealth management subsidiaries of other banks. The rich product pool provides more possibilities for China Merchants Bank to select the best.
Opening up platforms, building a scene ecosystem, and linking banking services with third-party partner services has become a major trend in the development of banks.
The relevant person in charge of the ICBC Internet Finance Department stated that the new version of ICBC Mobile Banking has built the "ICBC Micro Application" cloud platform, opening application program interfaces (API interfaces) to third-party partners, and exporting financial technology service capabilities and platform traffic resources , To build an ecosystem with partners, and there are currently more than 50 micro-applications settled.
Expand more service scenarios
What is the logic behind the creation of an open platform for mobile banking?
Many people in the industry said that compared with other high-frequency Internet scenarios, financial services are low-frequency scenarios.
How can low-frequency scenes better reach users?
This requires maximizing strengths and avoiding weaknesses, making use of the bank's multi-dimensional service advantages and expanding more service scenarios to solve the low frequency problem.
How to implement the above strategy?
The upgraded mobile banking has given the answer—focusing on financial scenarios, extending to pan-financial scenarios, and finally integrating into life scenarios to reach users more effectively, increase user stickiness, and improve service levels.
A closer look at mobile banking, revenue and expenditure services, financial knowledge lectures, and bus travel scan codes, basically depicts the evolution path of service scenarios.
"The functions of mobile banking seem to be complicated. In fact, there are three major areas. The first is financial services. This is the bank’s old bank. Take payment and settlement as an example. After the upgrade of China Merchants Bank’s mobile banking, it has been upgraded from simple transaction inquiries before. To transaction analysis." Xu Wenhao said.
On the basis of transaction analysis, users can see their monthly flexible expenditures, fixed expenditures, and effectively manage cash flow.
Furthermore, mobile banking will recommend suitable wealth management products for users based on their cash flow information.
After perfecting the above financial scenarios, pan-financial scenarios will follow.
The reporter found that after this round of upgrades, mobile banking has focused on "content services" and has successively opened a number of "service accounts" covering financial knowledge explanations and financial market analysis.
Pan-financial scenarios increase user stickiness, and life scenarios further retain users.
For example, China Merchants Bank’s new version of mobile banking has introduced China UnionPay’s “travel code” function, which can be used in more than 40 cities across the country.
The new version of ICBC Mobile Banking has launched the "Life" tab, which aggregates payment services, government services, gourmet shopping, points exchange, car buying guides, etc.
There are many highlights in the aging transformation
In November 2020, in order to solve the "digital divide" problem faced by the elderly, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Notice on the Implementation Plan for Practically Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology", which clearly requires the promotion of Internet applications to adapt to aging and encourages enterprises to provide relevant information. The "care mode" and "elder mode" of the application optimize the interface interaction, content reading, operation prompts, voice assistance and other functions.
Subsequently, a number of commercial banks have successively launched the "Senior Edition" of mobile banking, which has been improved in terms of module settings, function recommendations, and font size.
This round of mobile banking upgrades, suitable for aging and transformation highlights frequently.
The above-mentioned person in charge of the Internet Finance Department of ICBC stated that the bank has optimized the two tabs "Home", "My" and "My Account" in accordance with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Mobile Internet Application (APP) Applicable General Design Specification". The font size, line spacing, focus area, and contrast of high-frequency transactions such as "transfer and remittance".
"ICBC has previously launched the "Happy Life" mobile banking, that is, the mobile banking for the elderly. This time, taking into account the needs of parents to access the Internet, the new version of mobile banking has added the function of "children help parents register mobile banking" to reduce the elderly The threshold for people to use mobile financial services.” The person in charge said that at the same time, the “one-click help” function was launched. When the elderly encounter problems in the use of mobile banking, they can quickly take screenshots and consult with their children.
In addition, for juniors and young people, you can set up "family relationship" in ICBC Mobile Banking, and add account information and birthday reminders of parents and elders to family accounts to facilitate quick transactions in the future, such as paying and recharging for parents , Check transfers, etc.
"Next, banks' online services should be more user-friendly, so that they can accurately meet the needs of the elderly. At the same time, offline services need to be continuously optimized, especially face-to-face services, because most elderly people still prefer branches." National Finance and Development Zeng Gang, deputy director of the laboratory and director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, said that helping the elderly to cross the digital divide requires walking on two legs, and there is no partiality between online and offline.
Our reporter Guo Ziyuan