CHAPTER 3: MOVE FAST BUT DON’T BREAK THINGS
We are shortly to release the 6th edition of the mobile banking app review. In this article, we share an extract of Chapter 3. To find out more and get exclusive material visit our website.
Don’t break it!
We have reported many times on the agile pace shown by the fintechs, especially when delivering new features. Seemingly they are able to move this fast without breaking the existing service? This is the biggest quandary facing incumbents; how can they transform their digital offering whilst maintaining a stable service?
TSB made progress adding several features during the last two quarters, although have received some bad press again for their app being down recently, leaving some customers unable to access their accounts on payday[1]. They report three incidents affecting mobile banking in the last six months and HSBC and First Direct suffered four incidents in the previous three months. Bank of Scotland remains the worst offender however, whereas Nationwide, Metro Bank, M&S Bank and Starling Bank show consistently good stability suffering no incidents in the last 12 months.
In fact, M&S and Nationwide have reported no incidents affecting the app since 2018 Q2 and Starling Bank have no reported incidents since the requirements came into force. It is perhaps noticeable however, the incumbents showing very stable apps have released very few features in the last six months. For instance, Metro Bank and Nationwide report no incidents but have also only added one new feature to their app. There is a moderate correlation between features added and incidents (0.47).
Industry view
Mobile incidents at a total level began coming down in Q1 and Q2 of this year, after a peak in Q4 2019, however the most recent reports show that incidents were again on the rise, primarily driven by the four incidents each suffered by First Direct and HSBC.
Move fast and BE FAST
The more time we spend as individuals in a plethora of digital tools, the more aware we become of what ‘good’ looks like. This is especially true of the responsiveness of an app and it is fascinating to see the spread of log-in times.
App log-in times remain consistent with those previously reported, with a median time to log-in of 6.1 seconds.
There is a still a notable difference between the top and bottom 25%, with the quickest an average of 4.2 seconds to log-in and slowest double that at 8.3 seconds.
The fintechs remain the faster apps, with a median log-in time of 5 seconds compared to 8 seconds for traditional banking providers.
When we look at the individual providers, Monzo remains the fastest app to log-in and despite HSBC making progress with feature support, their app remains one of the slowest to load.
Too much to ask?
Is to too much to ask for your banking app to be stable, reliable and quick to use? On the face of it, it doesn’t seem an unreasonable request for a customer to make. Underneath the surface for those with legacy systems and millions of customers, it might be too hard to deliver?
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