The mobile banking sector has seen continued growth in the past decade, with 57 million mobile banking users in the United States alone.

With almost all business operations shifting from brick and mortar to virtual due to the ongoing pandemic, the demand for virtual banking soars more than ever now.

Mobile banking has come a long way from its beginnings in the 90s. What
started as a simple text alert for debit and credit notifications has now
transformed into full-fledged, fast, secure, and reliable applications that
perform millions of transactions a day with the power of a few clicks.

From basic transactions such as paying bills to more complex ones such
as investments, gold purchases, and sending money overseas, there is no end to what a virtual banking system can offer you.

To put it simply, a portable bank now resides in your smartphone!

So, what probably can go wrong?

For starters, virtual banking is heavily dependent on the robustness,
dependability, and impregnable security of its applications. Without these, the financial health of its users will be heavily compromised, resulting in
catastrophic losses.

The question that arises then is:

How do we ensure that our mobile banking applications are up to date and highly secure?

The answer lies in two approaches:

First: Stringent quality assurance measures- software testing of your mobile banking app.

Second: Staying abreast and updated with current industry trends.

In this article, we’ll explore the top 8 mobile banking trends for 2021
and beyond, which will shape the future of virtual banking in the coming
decade.

Let’s get started:

The mobile banking market and technology trends in
2021

A survey published by Statista in 2018 shows that millennials constitute 69.3% of all the users in the mobile banking industry in the US. A whopping 760 million global users make mobile payments, persuading sellers and service providers to accept cashless mobile payment services as a standardized form of currency.

The future of banking lies in automation

The onset of the pandemic has coerced banks and other financial institutions to automate routine and repetitive tasks for no-touch customer interactions.

While some of us disagree with cognitive computing and robotic
automation, as it puts many traditional human jobs to dust, its implementation is critical to ensure that banks prepare for a tech-savvy digital transformation.

Manual processing, no matter how skilled, is error-prone and slow and comes at the cost of training and experience.

Cardless ATM transactions

Let’s face it. The possibility of us fumbling for a debit card at the
ATM and then ever so discreetly entering the pin in a public booth is so
archaic. Newer innovations such as mobile pin ATM transactions and QR code scanning, are now eliminating the scene of plastic cards.

Also, cardless ATM withdrawals will finally put an end to Clone Card
frauds. Enabling secure transactions quickly, cardless ATM transactions are a convenient option for customers. Near field communication technology allows apps like PhonePe, Google Pay, Apple Pay to connect with the ATM and allow for safe withdrawals.

AI/ML, Chatbots to the rescue

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence is helping banks scale the speed of
their transactions, thereby pleasing customers. Machine Language is enabling next-level predictive personalization by digging into customer data. AI also aids in early fraud detection, performing KYC checks, and improving anti-money laundering processes.

AI-powered Chatbots are all the rage with technology-driven banks to
eliminate the need for an actual assistant. These smart bots can solve basic
issues and respond to simple, frequently asked queries, providing much-needed help to customers with problems.

The role of Chatbots does not end with helping alone; they are well used
as a marketing tool to promote the bank’s newest product and service offerings, thereby making chatbots a worthy financial advisor.

Voice recognition

Mobile banking applications are getting on the bandwagon of voice
command by incorporating voice search and app navigation into their interfaces.

It makes banking applications user-friendly for the elderly and differently
abled customers.

Elaborate menus can be puzzling to find your way around. Voice commands help get to the required transactions faster by searching precisely what a customer needs, thereby allowing them to have a seamless and swift virtual banking experience. 

Stronger biometrics for your security

Move over Sci-fi movies. Adapting biometric detection for user
authentication and authorization is now a reality. Biometrics such as
fingerprints, facial recognition, voice recognition, eye scanners, etc., are
becoming a part of mobile banking applications to verify users, making app
security fool-proof.

Blockchain

Blockchain is to 2021 what the internet was to 1995. No one knew how
huge it was until it wholly revolutionized and took over.

Blockchain will be a critical competency in the banking sector by
enhancing digital security, enabling swift payments and settlement systems, and simplifying the whole accounting and auditing process.

It is inherently a decentralized platform that aids in scaling efficiency
and accuracy. As a result of reduced human intervention, the processing fees of bank services will be lowered.

Big Data and fraud protection

The data pertaining to a bank’s customers is a goldmine, which can be
tapped into, to design & deliver tailormade financial products &
services.

However, this data also poses the risk of being mishandled and tampered
with. Baby boomers and Gen X find it hard to shift to virtual banking because they find it fishy and fraudulent to deal with. The lack of security notion adopted by many people changes once we harness stringent cybersecurity practices.

Software testing of mobile banking applications is the key to countering such issues. By adopting quality assurance measures, the shift-left testing approach, particularly banking application developers, can embed security into every phase of their development journey, thereby identifying vulnerabilities early on and proactively preventing attacks.

• Banking apps – your fund managers

The presence of numerous financial applications being rolled out by
leading banks and financial service providers, is proof enough that this
industry is ready for its digital transformation.

The emergence of third-party payment gateways in addition to the
in-house mobile banking applications put smartphone owners at the liberty to choose between the faster and more reliable option. Mobile banking applications need to have flawless UX, UI and uninterrupted backend support.

Mobile banking applications in the latter half of the decade will scale
up to provide an umbrella of AI-powered services and operate uninterrupted in any condition.

Summing it up:

There is no doubt that the banking infrastructure is revolutionized with
the emergence of numerous mobile banking applications. But the threat of
cyber-attacks, data breach, and a crashing application always looms.

Software testing of mobile banking applications is an essential element
for virtual banking to counter these issues.

The robustness of mobile banking applications can be increased by
adopting quality assurance, thereby improving performance, functionality and security. Delivering a reliable application can only be ensured when tested by an experienced QA services company like Qualitest, with skilled testing professionals possessing in-depth domain knowledge.