MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Despite a rapidly growing demand for remote deposit capture (RDC) and mobile banking solutions among businesses and consumers, many financial institutions have yet to deliver the right combination of products to satisfy their customers, according to a new study prepared by Cachet Financial Solutions.
Data compiled from the four‐month study of 150 financial institutions nationwide show that as many as half of the survey respondents have yet to offer any RDC solution to either business or retail customers. And the ones that do offer it report low utilization among their customers. Data was collected anonymously at Cachet’s Website as well as at several national financial services tradeshows.
Two‐thirds of respondents that offer RDC reported less than 5% of their business customers are currently utilizing RDC. Similarly, a November 2010 Celent study showed that financial institutions had only 15% to 19% client adoption of RDC services – this despite recent reports showing more Americans are using mobile devices to access bank and brokerage accounts than ever before.
“There seems to be a disconnect between what the public wants in terms of RDC and what is offered at this time,” says Tom Grady, Senior Marketing Director for The BrandBank, a Minneapolis consulting firm which compiled and analyzed the data. “Nearly every study out there shows that mobile deposit and RDC are the hottest things in banking right now. But when you see utilization rates this low, something doesn’t add up.”
Industry experts point to changing regulations and a challenging economic environment as possible reasons for low utilization. But according to Cachet’s Jeffrey Mack, Chairman and CEO, other factors have hindered adoption rates, including the lack of marketing, training and enthusiasm within financial institutions. Mack also believes financial institutions haven’t promoted RDC’s true value to their customers, such as saving time and money.
“It’s pretty clear that RDC Version 1.0 was not the smash hit financial institutions were expecting,” he says. “They are not technology companies. Providing these types of tech solutions in a highly regulated environment is not easy. More and more are finding they need help from RDC experts to really provide a quality solution that their customers will use.”
John Leekley, CEO and Founder of RemoteDepositCapture.com, says that most financial institutions today realize that RDC and mobile banking solutions are here to stay. The challenge for them is to provide a cost-effective, secure solution that meets the industry’s regulatory standards. In fact, survey respondents listed security/fraud and compliance as their top concerns when it comes to RDC.
“Technology is moving very quickly in this industry and the consumers are requesting it just as fast as it can be deployed,” says Leekley. “Financial institutions want to fulfill that demand but they have to be extremely mindful of the security and compliance issues that go along with providing these solutions. It is a very interesting time to be in banking.”
Nonetheless, more than 75% of survey respondents reported offering RDC today or will offer RDC in some form within the next 12 months. According to Cachet’s Mack, financial institutions have an opportunity to get RDC Version 2.0 right.
“The good news is that the RDC technology and risk management solutions available today are much more sophisticated and secure than what was offered even two years ago,” he says. “Our message to them is, ‘It’s not too late to get it right’, but time is of the essence. If you’re not satisfying your customers’ demands, you can be sure your competitors will.”
The full report can be found at www.cachetfinancial.com.