|Bank of America |
|Mobile Banking |
Table of Contents
The new age of banking 3
Customer characteristics and segmentation 3
Bank of America and mobile banking 5
Competition and benchmarking 5
A broader context 6
Recommendation and implications 6
Exhibit 1 – SWOT 8
Exhibit 2 – Functionality benchmark 9
Exhibit 3 –Characteristics of the new app 10
The new age of banking
The recession in the start of the new millennium changed many things in the financial world. Banks who usually had respected positions suddenly faced new challenges. They were blamed for intentionally inflating the mortgage market that led to a collapse of the US and European economy.
Bank of America is no exception to this. Along with many proclamations from the public, the bank was repeatedly accused of fraud and moral hazard[1] [2]. This certainly shook BofA’s corporate image as a trustworthy entity hence the bank found it increasingly difficult to compete on traditional banking services[3].
Lately, one of the most important assets in BofA’s fight for market share has been mobile banking. As we will see in this paper, the bank has enjoyed a wide range of first mover advantages with their smart phone application and the growing number of smart phones in the market holds even further growth potential. However this has not gone unnoticed. A number of banks are already offering similar applications, and some of them have proven to be more advanced and better targeted than BofA’s app. While this is the biggest challenge that the bank faces in the short run, the long-term issue would be to move away from the rigid model of traditional banking and position...