City Bank’s Mobile On/Off Card Switch
- City Bank (Texas) makes its m-banking services evolve now proposes a mobile on/off switch allowing customers to disable their means of payment.
- As the former version of its app has been a success (1,000 to 1,500 downloads per weeks), the bank now counts on this new feature to attract even more customers. Available options include: account balance and transaction history consultations, funds transfers, customer rewards as well as an on/off card switch, etc.
- The player then uses the mobile channel to enhance its security offers: when necessary, cardholders can themselves disable their cards using the dedicated tool. They simply move the toggle on the app’s My Cards page – once disabled, the card is no longer highlighted; the app instantly communicates with the banks’ servers to pass on this information.
- This SmartApp designed by Malauzai Software (for iPhone or Android), also enables the users to authenticate via their mobile phone.
- City Bank trusts that the notions of convenience and security should favour customers’ adoption of this app, described as easy to use.
- Last August, Diebold launched “card lock”, a mobile website also designed to enable the users to disable their cards (see August 2011 Insight). These launches assert cardholders’ interest in these control tools and further fuel the debates on whether banks (and others) should propose native apps or mobile (HTML5) websites for m-banking services. City Bank has opted for a mobile app and now enhances it with new added value security features.
- However, the opportunities and portability offered by HTML5 format websites should soon make them especially successful to the detriment of native apps.
- Finally, we may wonder whether this solution might not by bypassed through using a picture of the legitimate user for instance.