2012 Mobile Finance Survey Summary

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Executive Summary Firms across the financial services industry are hard at work developing new mobile platforms and capabilities for their

clients. Since 2011, Corporate Insight has been an expert in the competitive landscape and key trends in mobile finance, first

with our Money on the Move: Mobile Finance Review 2011 study and currently through ongoing Mobile Monitor coverage.

In early 2011, we conducted a survey to inform our initial research into mobile financial services, soliciting responses from

our client contact database of executives across the industry. Our purpose was to understand how firms view the

opportunities presented by the growth of mobile technology and to gauge future mobile trends within the financial services

industry. We conducted a similar survey in 2012 to see what may have changed and to update our expectations going

forward. This year, we received 124 responses representing more than 50 different firms across the financial services.

Our survey posed 16 questions to respondents regarding their firm’s current offering, as well as the goals it seeks to

address and the challenges it faces. We also delved into recent developments, current status and future outlook for

respondents’ firms and the financial industry as a whole. Where relevant, we provide the comparable figures from our 2011

findings.

In many ways, responses in 2012 were similar to what we found in 2011, although some interesting year-over-year

comparisons emerged. Mobile remains a key part of firms’ customer experience strategies. Most respondents are happy with

their firm’s mobile offering, but they cited many familiar names – and some new ones – as mobile finance leaders. Firms

continue to dedicate time and money to improving their mobile services, focusing not only on supporting new devices but

also strengthening current platforms with new features. It’s worth noting, though, that the industry did not achieve all of its

planned additions since our 2011 survey. Significant challenges remain, and most firms still struggle to measure return on

investment (ROI), although some comments indicated that mobile does not need a clear ROI to justify their efforts.

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Methodology

This is our second annual survey of

financial services executives as part of our

ongoing research for Mobile Monitor

We posed 16 questions focusing on firms’

mobile efforts

Does your firm offer a mobile formatted

website or app to clients?

What do you consider to be the primary

objectives of your firm's mobile offering?

How would you describe the impact your

mobile efforts have had on your company's

business?

Survey fielded Q2-3 2012

124 responses from 56 firms

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Respondents are from a mix of retail financial firms

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Annuity/Insurance (Life) 7%

Banking 26%

Brokerage 35%

Credit Card 6%

Mutual Fund/Asset Management

19%

Insurance (P&C) 7%

What industry do you work in?

Annuity/Insurance (Life)

Banking

Brokerage

Credit Card

Mutual Fund/Asset Management

Insurance (P&C)

Respondents are familiar with, and involved in, their

firms’ mobile efforts

89% of respondents know of their firms’ mobile initiatives

78% are directly involved in their company’s mobile efforts

36% lead all or a portion of their company’s mobile efforts

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Yes, I am familiar with our current

offering and/or future plans

89%

Yes, but we are NOT planning initiatives

4%

No, I am unaware of

anything or am not the right

person 7%

Are you familiar with your firm's current or future mobile offering for customers?

I am directly involved with

my company's mobile efforts

42%

I lead a portion of my

company's mobile efforts

25%

I lead my company's

overall mobile efforts 11%

I am not involved with

my company's mobile efforts

22%

Which of the following best describes your involvement with your company's mobile

efforts?

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Yes 77%

No 20%

I don't know 3%

Does your firm offer a mobile formatted website or app to clients?

78% of respondents say their firm already offers their

clients a mobile platform

Even more think their firm should be mobile, though

90% think it’s “definitely” a good idea to provide their clients with a mobile

experience – up from 70% in 2011

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Definitely 90% Probably

8%

Maybe 2%

Probably not 0%

Definitely not 0%

Do you think that your firm should provide a mobile experience to your customers?

98% say mobile is important to customer experience

85% “very” important, 13% “somewhat” important

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Very Important 85%

Somewhat Important

13%

Not Very Important

3%

Not at All Important

0%

How important do you think mobile is to your firm's customer experience strategy?

In their own words…

“Mobile is the wave of the future.”

“We want to be the vanguard –

we don't want to be straggling behind with the dinosaurs.”

“It is an important differentiator.” “Being able to monitor accounts and place trades

from anywhere at anytime is important

to a significant portion of our clients.”

“Active traders want to trade anywhere but many clients,

even those who are long-term investors, want to monitor accounts easily.”

“Important for younger members and those without access to PCs.”

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“All our competitors do. Customers expect it.”

“Fast-growing client segment.”

“Clients are more connected via mobile devices

and expect their banks to provide the information

and services they need no matter

where they are, or what time.” “Absolutely required in this day and age.”

“People are only spending

more and more time on mobile.”

“Alternative way to connect with customers.”

“Convenience is key! And mobile is convenient.”

“Customers are actively requesting it,

and competitors are providing it.”

“It's mandatory and expected today.”

“It's a requirement today!”

“The rest of the industry is playing in the mobile arena.”

Key objectives for mobile are unchanged since 2011

Increasing customer satisfaction remains most important

“Customer retention,” “brand image” and “keep up with the competition” are

cited as important reasons again in 2012

“Acquire new customers,” “lower servicing costs” and “move clients away from

the phone or online channels” are noticeably less important goals

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2.52

3.04

3.66

4.26

4.26

4.44

4.61

0 1 2 3 4 5

Move clients away from the phone or online channels

Lower servicing costs

Acquire new customers

Keep up with the competition

Improve our brand

Increase customer retention

Increase customer satisfaction

Very important

What do you think are the primary objectives for your firm's mobile offering?

Not important

Banks aim to lower costs most, though

Banks rated “lower servicing costs” as a significantly more important objective

than brokerages and other industry segments

Other objectives (see previous slide) were similar across industry segments

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0%

25%

50%

1 2 3 4 5

Very Important

“Lower servicing costs” importance ratings

Banking

Brokerage

Not Important

Bank average:

3.6

Brokerage average:

2.5

Just over half think they are above average or best in industry

An additional 25% say they’re about average

Most respondents are happy with their firm’s mobile offering

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The best in our industry

6%

Considerably above average in

our industry 44%

Average for our industry

25% Slightly below average in our

industry 10%

Considerably below average in

our industry 12%

The worst in our industry

3%

How would you rate the overall mobile experience your company CURRENTLY delivers to clients?

Most respondents see no clear industry leaders at this time

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The firm I work for

13%

There is no clear leader at this

time 55%

None of the firms we compete

with have implemented a mobile platform

4%

A leading company

(see next slide) 28%

Within your industry, who do you feel offers the best mobile experience to customers?

However, other respondents singled out leaders

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Note: Larger font = more mentions

Top-rated firms remain the same as last year

Some firms earn their first mention among leaders in our 2012 survey:

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Respondents saw their firms improve in the last 12

months, but was it enough to keep up?

While most banks and brokerages met expectations, the majority of mutual

fund/asset management firms lagged

Relatively few respondents (17% overall) said their firm exceeded expectations,

but 33% felt the industry as a whole was advancing faster than anticipated

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17% 11%

18%

46% 56%

24%

38% 33%

59%

0%

50%

100%

Bank Brokerage Mutual Fund/Asset Management

How would you rate your firm's mobile development in the last 12 months?

Slower than expected

Met your expectations

Faster than expected

Met your expectations

42%

Faster than expected

33%

Slower than expected

25%

How would you rate the overall financial service industry's mobile development in

the last 12 months?

Nearly every firm plans new mobile initiatives by

mid-2013

Since most firms already offer mobile, over 80% of firms will be adding features

to their existing platforms

Sixty-eight percent also plan to launch new mobile sites or apps for new devices

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68%

82%

39%

3% 0% 0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Add new mobile sites or apps for

new devices

Add new features to

existing platforms

Improve back-end functionality

Stay the same Get worse

Over the next 12 months, how will your firm’s mobile offering change?

Most widely-supported devices set to shift in 2012

Mobile sites and apps for the iPhone, Android and iPad should become nearly

universal – with BlackBerry likely to fall behind

Platforms most targeted for development include mobile sites (37%), Android

tablets (35%), iPad (32%), Kindle Fire (28%) and Windows Mobile (26%)

Projections from 2011 were overly optimistic, though – current numbers are not

as high as predicted

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79% 71%

59% 58% 55%

31% 26%

19% 18%

12% 18%

12%

32% 37%

20% 35%

28% 26%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

iPhone Android phone

BlackBerry iPad Mobile optimized website

SMS/text commands

Android tablet

Amazon Kindle Fire

Windows Mobile

Does your firm support the following platform, or does it plan to add in the next 12 months?

Planning to add

Currently using

Significant challenges remain for mobile efforts

“Other competing priorities,” “Too many platforms/devices,” “Budget” are all still

highest on the list

“Low adoption by customers” now ranks as the least challenging

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2.28

2.38

2.81

2.97

3.43

3.60

3.79

0 1 2 3 4 5

Low adoption by customers

Executive/Sr. Management support

Lack of important skills in the organization

Confusion about how to develop strategy

Too many platforms/devices to support

Budget

Other competing priorities

Very Challenging

To what extent are each of these issues a challenge in your firm's/department's mobile efforts?

But many already see a positive impact from their efforts

Even if they aren’t “industry leaders,” 60% of firms have seen a somewhat to

very positive impact on their company’s business, courtesy of mobile

More than a quarter (26%) think it’s still too early to gauge the impact

Very few (3%) think their mobile efforts have negatively impacted their company

Figures are comparable to 2011

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It's too early to tell 26%

Very positive impact 39%

Somewhat positive impact

22%

Minimal or no impact

3%

Somewhat negative impact

3%

Very negative impact

0%

I don't know 7%

How would you describe the impact your mobile efforts has had on your company's business?

Impact varies by industry segment

Brokerage execs were most pleased overall, with 78% seeing a “very” or

“somewhat positive impact”

More bank execs were “very positive” (52%), though – up from 29% in 2011

The mutual fund/asset management industry still awaits mobile’s impact, with

40% not sure yet

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48%

30%

0%

4% 13%

52%

15% 4% 0%

26%

13% 20%

7% 0%

40%

0%

25%

50%

75%

Very positive impact

Somewhat positive impact

Minimal impact Negative impact Too early to tell

How would you describe the impact your mobile efforts had on your company's business?

Brokerage Banking Mutual Fund/Asset Management

ROI metrics are still elusive

Only 16% say they currently measure the success of their mobile efforts

For some respondents, mobile doesn’t need a clear ROI

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We do not currently

measure ROI of our mobile

efforts 31%

We are currently building metrics

to measure mobile ROI

30%

We are actively measuring ROI

16%

I don't know 23%

Does your company measure the return on investment (ROI) of your mobile efforts? “It's a service to clients; hard to

monetize and thus measure ROI.”

“We don’t look at mobile as a

separate investment from the rest of

the bank infrastructure.”

“Did not do it for ROI.”

“Motivation was not ROI-driven, but rather

a play to remain competitive and improve

retention & satisfaction.”

About Corporate Insight

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No one understands the intersection of technology and financial services like Corporate Insight. For two decades, we have

tracked new developments in the retail financial services industry through our syndicated Monitor research and consulting

services. We pride ourselves on identifying best practices in online banking and investing, online insurance, mobile finance,

active trading platforms, social media and other emerging areas. In the process, we have helped clients across the entire

spectrum of the financial services industry stay on top of industry trends and improve their competitive position.

Why Choose Corporate Insight?

Expertise – For 20 years, Corporate Insight has focused exclusively on tracking and evaluating the online and offline user

experience offered by financial service firms to prospects, clients and advisors. Our expertise in this area is unmatched.

We become the customer – Rather than rely on third-party data as a basis for our research, we hold live accounts at all

major financial firms. This provides us with unparalleled knowledge of the true customer experience and gives our research

an unmatched level of detail.

Objective and granular approach – All of our services go into a very granular level of detail with the objectivity that only an

experienced third-party can provide. Clients use our research because they want to eliminate assumptions and gain a better

understanding of industry trends and best practices.

Company-wide value – Our deliverables have great value not only for the more obvious functional areas—C-level

management, market research, product management and development, customer experience, e-commerce, strategic

planning—but also for areas such as pricing, information technology, operations, distribution, marketing and compliance.

Accessibility – We impose no distribution restrictions or seat licenses on our clients. All of our products and services are

available on a company-wide basis to all employees for a single fee. Furthermore, our executives and experienced industry

analysts are always available to clients at no additional charge.

For more information, please visit www.corporateinsight.com.

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Ben Pousty

Marketing Manager

(212) 832-2002 x134

bpousty@corporateinsight.com

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Daniel J. Wiegand

Senior Analyst, Consulting & Mobile Research

(212) 832-2002 x118

dwiegand@corporateinsight.com

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