Smartphone Finance Apps – What are they really capable of?

This year, Capital Magazin analyzed and published an extensive study on the functionality of financial apps. To this end, the study asked a very important question: What can these apps really do? We asked our Chief Commercial Officer, Andreas Reuß, this very question. 

It’s hard to imagine a time before mobile banking apps. But with so many different apps available on the German market alone, it’s easy to lose track of what benefits they actually offer end customers. In addition, the competition for the “best” banking app in the financial services market is highly competitive – fortunately, this competition leads to constant optimization of existing products and further innovations. But what do these apps do? Will the successful financial services apps of the future really be “just” mobile banking apps?

Capital Magazin tested over 33 different financial services apps, ranging from traditional to mobile and non-bank apps, and evaluated them based on different categories. These categories included app functionality, privacy security, transaction approval requirements, overall ease of use and variety of services. Apps with special features, such as budgeting, sales push notifications and branch / ATM locators, received bonus points. 

We are very pleased that our customers, Deutsche Bank, Telefonica/O2 and comdirect, were rated particularly positively in the study. Above all, the study shows that the companies operating in this market are constantly optimizing their current offering. 

This study and ranking reflect very well the increasing competition and demand for banking apps with multiple functionalities. End users’ expectations of online banking and financial services apps are rising. They want to be actively, quickly and promptly informed about what is happening on their own account. They want to get a holistic overview of their financial situation while using their app intuitively, which includes connecting multiple bank accounts and payment partner recognition. 

Smartphone financial apps can be all-in-one

So the question arises: should mobile finance apps be all-in-one?

Maybe not completely all-in-one, but financial services app providers need to recognize the increasing demand and competition for high-quality, full-stack offerings. In our opinion, the most successful smartphone apps in this industry will be mobile apps that leverage and take full advantage of Open Banking opportunities. Specifically, this means apps that provide a holistic, real-time overview of a customer’s financial situation (by linking all of the user’s bank accounts) and offer insights into either potential lines of credit, savings opportunities, or even ways to build an investment portfolio.

In addition, account aggregation services enable a holistic and aggregated view of all transaction data de end customers. Such services enable companies, such as financial app providers, to obtain a 360° financial analysis of their customers and offer holistic solutions with context. Collaboration with BaFin-licensed open banking providers such as finleap connect enables companies to create new PSD2-compliant banking apps including complex authentication workflows and various Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) methods.

In addition to open banking features, finleap connect’s full-stack open banking platform provides analytics on this aggregated data. finleap connect’s white-label banking app “DigiBank” meets all requirements in terms of security and functionality and enables our partners to quickly go-to-market at the highest level. 

At finleap connect, we are bringing financial transactions to life via our full-stack Open Banking platform. Interested in learning more our getting to know us better? Drop us a message here or contact us directly via iinbound-connect@finleap.com!