

Ask HN: How can banks use the Internet to better serve their customers? - sw1205

I work for a bank and recently submitted an idea which landed on the desk of someone fairly high up the organisation. To my surprise he now wants to meet me and discuss how the bank can use the internet in a better way to serve its customers.<p>I am keen to go to him with some ideas of my own but also would love to hear what the community thinks. I would imagine you all have bank accounts and everyone here is certainly passionate about the internet. How can the two marry in a better way? What would you like to see your bank implement that would be of benefit to you?<p>Thanks in advance for the comments.
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jgv
I may be biased as a designer and front end engineer, but almost every banking
website I've seen is designed horribly. Now I know this isn't directly
answering your question, although it is addressing how banks can better serve
their customers.

Look at Mint. My bank _could_ offer what Mint does, since Mint is pulling in
info from my bank– but they dont. A lot of what Mint is doing seems to be
making the information easy to understand. Their UI is beautiful and their UX
is intuitive. For me its hard to even understand why certain design decisions
were made by my bank.

Beyond that, I would say to invest in mobile experiences. A lot of my
interaction with my bank happens on the go as well. And while my banks iphone
app is a better experience than the website, it is a little bit crippled.

You should checkout companies like Venmo and Square, who are really innovating
in the area of mobile payments.

~~~
sw1205
Excellent, thanks. I will check out those companies that you mention.

As you say I think all bank website desginers must have gone to the same
college and been taught by a flawed professer.

I think the biggest challenge for banks is to provide the enormous amounts of
information that they hold on us in a clearer way. People get lost at the
moment, as soon as banks can deliver information in a more straight forward
way the sooner they will convert the traditionalists who insist on doing
things at the branch. I am convinced people still feel they have to bank in a
branch because the internet solution that banks have provided is just not good
enough.

~~~
jgv
Your last point is interesting and I agree. I wonder when the tipping point
for most people will be banking in a browser as opposed to a physical
location. I definitely do not envy those who have to design for banks because
their work is surely cut out for them. Such a large dataset and support for
everything down to IE6 (even futher?) must be a serious challenge.

Also checkout BankSimple, they're gearing up to change online banking as we
know it– so says the hype machine.

~~~
sw1205
BankSimple's founder has hit it on the head:

"If you log in to say Bank of America or Chase, the application is clunky, it
feels very fragile, it breaks all the time, it’s hard to find the information,
it doesn’t work like a machine. If you use Facebook, there’s an expected way
for things to work. It’s a more pleasurable experience"

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NZ_Matt
Recently my local bank (Kiwibank in NZ) launched a free online financial
management service that I've been very impressed with. It automatically
categories all my expenses and makes it easy to see where my money is going
and set a budget. It also has an intuitive interface which is rare for a bank.

This page gives an overview of its features: <http://www.heaps.co.nz>

Aside from that banks should be aiming to make as many of their services as
possible available online. Little things like setting up a new account should
not require me go in to the bank just to fill out a form when the same process
could be done online in only a few simple steps.

~~~
nodata
How does the categorisation work? Say I spend 1000 dollars at Walmart on a TV,
what category does it show up as?

~~~
NZ_Matt
It sets the category based on the name of the company that it recognises. For
example if I buy a tv it would recogise the name of the electronics store and
put it under the Computers and Electronics category.

It's simple to manually categorise purchases from companies that is doesn't
recognise and it remembers the category the next time.

~~~
nodata
So for companies that sell lots of different stuff, like Walmart, the
categories are wrong? i.e. it will list my Walmart TV purchase as groceries?
or my amazon TV purchase as books?

This seems like something that will break as companies diversify...

~~~
NZ_Matt
You can set the categories with the expense manually. It generally works
pretty well.

New Zealand doesn't really have a Walmart type company that sells TVs with
your groceries.

~~~
nodata
The reason I ask is that a bank in the UK also does this: and you can't do
anything useful with the information it produces because you can never be sure
if it got the categories right. Amazon is a good example.

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sw1205
A really simple thing that banks could add is that in Englan when I login to
my banks website and I then have a question, I have to pick up the phone, go
through 100s of security questions and then I get to speak to someone and I
get to ask my question. For the life of me I don't understand why there is not
a live web chat on the page. I have already gone through security, I should be
able to ping a question to someone online who then responds instantly. It
would save an awful lot of hassle.

~~~
nodata
Some websites give you a security code that is valid for 15 minutes when you
want to call them. The code allows you to skip telephone verification.

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KoZeN
I've lived & worked in Ireland, New Zealand and the UK and I can categorically
say that the UK online banking system is by far the worst.

My biggest issue is the time delay between making a purchase and that purchase
reflecting on your account. The EFTPOS system in NZ is incredible. Almost all
transactions are reflected within an hour on your account.

I think a lot of my issues are probably specific to my current bank so forgive
me if this doesn't apply to the company you work for but one thing that really
winds me up is that I have to physically attend a branch if I want to print of
an official statement. On my online account I can print off a list of
transactions but only after the transactions have been exported to an excel
worksheet. How hard is it to pop up a PDF document with the banks header &
footer and my transactions in between that I can print off on the spot?

/rant

~~~
sw1205
It is the same over here - I can print off Statements but they are not
'official' instead they are a list of transactions with the bank logo but they
can not be used as a means of identification which is sometimes needed. I used
to work in a call centre and this greatly frustrated people.

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mping
I don't know from where you are typing, but there's an excellent service here
in Portugal called mbnet. It allows you to create a "virtual credit card"
where you define a limit and the bank generates a credit card number for you
with the amount you specify and with the validity of one month. I wouldn't
make so much online purchases if it wasn't for this service.

Another service that would be great would be something like mint. I imagine it
shouldn't be hard for a bank to at least categorize the expenses so clients
could have a better picture on how they spend their money.

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grandalf
The things that would get me to switch banks would be:

\- A system that helps me strategically save, pay off debt, etc., all
integrated with the bank's online banking system.

\- The ability to deposit checks by submitting a photo of the front of the
check via a website or iphone app.

\- No fees. Period.

\- A high interest savings account designed to get me to save more. Perhaps by
adding extra interest if I reach a predefined goal and roll some of it into a
CD.

\- A built-in line of credit to prevent overdrafts/fees and to encourage a
more aggressive savings strategy.

\- Electronic signatures

\- Credit coaching. Help me take steps to get that 800 credit score. I think
people value their relationship with a bank very highly, and this sort of
thing would build tremendous trust/loyalty.

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cperciva
Allow me to transfer money between bank accounts via online banking without
crazy fees.

I currently transfer money between bank accounts by _writing myself checks_ ,
because my bank allows me to do that for free but electronic transfers cost
money. This wastes my time and waste my bank's money since it results in
needless paper shuffling.

~~~
infinite8s
A lot of banks (I'm assuming you are in the US) don't charge for initiating
pull requests (or receiving them from another institution). While it seems a
bit counterintuitive, I've always moved money between banks by setting up the
transfer from the receiving end.

~~~
cperciva
I'm in Canada. Initiating a pull request is basically what I do (for free)
when I deposit a check, but there's no way to do it electronically (at least,
not through the online banking website).

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moxiemk1
Easy ways to open and close new accounts using the web interface.

Operations like closing out an old savings account, opening a new one, etc.
are simple to describe operationally, but aren't possible/are very hard
online.

Also, detailed explanations of bank-initiated charges in the transaction list.
I'd like to know why my account has started charging me $4 a month, and
"Maintenance Fee" isn't very descriptive. Especially since it seems to be new.

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maxklein
\- Send me emails when any amount arrives or is removed from the account

\- Based off my age, give me recommendations on how I could potentially grow
the money I have, or what I should stick the money in (medical?)

\- Allow me check my current balance using the *<pin># code of mobile
providers

\- Setup one-click transfers to some pre-approved accounts so I don't need to
go through the security hassle with those particular accounts

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amalcon
I would love some useful charts. Let me see a histogram of how much enters and
leaves my account on a particular day of the week or a particular week of the
month. Give me a visualization of how much money from my debit card goes
where. Line items are not great at giving me a sense of where I could trim my
budget.

Give me an interactive budget "wizard" for reaching particular goals and
identifying major cost centers. For an example that's almost wholly not
applicable to me, "If you cancel cable and bring lunch to work every day, you
can pay off your student loans two years sooner." With this sort of thing,
it's easier to make the case for thrift to others.

------
zaphar
there are two things that immediately come to mind:

1\. APIs. 2\. Authorization/Authentication

I should be able to get my data out and do things with it. I should be able to
do so without fear.

My current banks online security its mostly theatre and the API is a csv
download. Must banks I know just need to catch up.

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TamDenholm
For a long time i've wanted to disrupt[1] the UK banking industry and i even
came up with a rough plan on what i'd do. While searching around i came across
banksimple.com which are pretty much doing a similar thing but in the US, i
know a good few people on HN are aware of them.

Unfortunately its highly unlikely i'll ever get to do what i'd like to because
i'm simply not in a position to do it, nor have any experience in the banking
industry. It'll have to be one of those dreams that never happens.

To me the number one benefit of internet banking is the convenience and less
bureaucracy but even then the actual banking industry itself imposes limits on
internet banking because of this and stifles innovation. I'd like to see API's
for banks and i believe theres ways to do it safely and securely but i really
cant see something like that happening in the next 10 years because of the
industry behind the online fascia.

[1] i detest using that word in this context

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Retric
Predict spending. If I pay my rent, student loans, etc. every month I should
be able to flag that as an expected expense and see what’s left over.
Basically show current both the current account balance and how much I can
probably spend before I overdraw the account.

Also you are not limited to showing numbers there are plenty of ways to show
account information graphically. A line chart of account balance that allows
you to hover over and find transactions is innovative (for a bank) if
minimally useful. How about a chart of how much money you had in your account
on this day over the past year. etc.

PS: The bank may might lose out on fees but they can gain a lot of customer
loyalty and some good publicity.

------
mfowler
The difficult thing that you're going to run into is that most banks (outside
of the big guys (Wells Fargo, Citi, BoA, etc) you're going to be utilizing an
"off the shelf" system for all of your online banking. There's only a handfull
of these vendors out there controlling the market, so little to no incentive
for them to innovate and make things easier so requesting new features,
updated UI/UX and so on are very slow to be added. In this space "mobile
banking" still very much means SMS messages.

Now "in front" of the loggin theres many ways you can utilize the web to make
things better. Look at how any receptacle consumer service is using the tools
available to market and communicate with their customers, general great
customer service through email, twitter and so on are all good options but
will require some due-diligence brought on by compliance regulations.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

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joeybaker
• I require my bank to be secure, but for the love of god, stop going through
ridiculous hoops to convince me that you're secure. Keep reminding me, and I
get more convinced that I have something to worry about. Part of the genius of
Mint was that they only reminded you about security when you needed to worry
about it. • Make transferring, sending, and allotting money easy. It's my
money, allow me to do things like set a minimum balance with alerts when I get
near it, auto-bill pay should be simple, transferring money to a friend ought
to be simpler than writing a check. • Focus on UX and not features. I'd rather
have a bank website that simple to use than one that's loaded with features
and is unnavigable.

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nhebb
For U.S. banks, add better protection for wire transfers. I had to set up a
separate account to accept wire transfers from international customers. After
the wire transfer is complete, I shift the money to my main account to ensure
no unauthorized withdrawals are made.

I would like a provision that all outbound wire transfers must be authorized
by the account holder (me). I don't currently do outbound wire transfers, but
if I did, the bank could send out an email notification when one was
requested. I could then log onto my account and approve/disapprove it.

------
stonemetal
The internet is good for one thing information. Providing tools to make that
information available and easy to understand is pretty much the best you can
do. There are several businesses in the make sense of my bank's information
category aping them might be a first step(mint and the like.) Budgeting and
getting alerts when certain budget limits are met say a text when 90% of my
monthly entertainment budget is gone, or better yet be able to check my
entertainment budget balance by web enabled phone so I can decide if I really
need that new gizmo.

~~~
sw1205
That's a great idea. My housemates all use a notepad and pen to write their
weekly/monthly budget out and like you say they seperate that into different
categories. Their bank should provide a form for them to write in their budget
and then like you say they should then get alerted when they are about to go
over their budget.

This is partiuclarly the case when someone approaches their overdraft limit.
In England if you go past this limit you get charged £38 even if you a few
pence past the limit. This has been heavily in the news over here and banks
should help customers by alerting them when they get near to that limit.

~~~
ErrantX
Yes, absolutely this.

And add in the ability to add various types of payments, track direct debits
and other regular payments.

I just moved into my own place and keeping track of budget/bills is a
nightmare :) it would be excellent to replace my current manual spreadsheet
with a more automated online system.

------
eru
One more thing: Please make sure that with the websites navigation doesn't
have any server side state. To be more precise: After the overhaul of Deutsche
Bank's online banking I can no longer, say, review my balances in one window
and prepare a transfer in the next, because the bank assumes that I only have
one window open and has some awful server side state that pretends to know
what I am looking at.

(So I can open two windows, but whatever I navigated to most recently, decides
where I can go to from both windows.)

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henry81
I've lost faith in banks. Part of why I'm even here is because I love the
internet and how it gives "power to the people"

Me, I want to see modernized banks (inspired by P2P-lending like Prosper and
LendingClub) that give people more control and risk/reward. Ideally, a better
cut of the profits. In my opinion much of this subprime lending crap could've
been avoided if it's people putting their own money at risk vs bankers putting
it at risk for us.

Maybe I'm dreaming.

~~~
eru
Apropos pipedreams: If there was no deposit insurance, people would watch
their banks much closer, and banks would be more conserative and open, because
they need to convince deposit holders you that they won't go bust.

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mike-cardwell
This is almost certainly a pipe dream, but I would love it if my bank started
PGP signing (and encrypting if I provide my public key) all of their email
correspondance with me.

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soci
I do work for moneyStrands and we do banking stuff in a similar way Mint does.
We also license our technology to banks because they lack a modern and
graphical way to digest their customers financial data. eg: how much did I
spend on restaurants in the latest 6 months? And if it's too much and I want
to save, why not setup a budget that allows me to know when I reached it ? Or
setting up alerts depending on configurable parameters in an easy way.

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stevengg
It has always bugged me that my world of warcraft account and poker accounts
have and encourage the use of a rsa tokens and my bank doesn't even offer it

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cromulent
The local bank here has a nifty iPhone/Android app that lets you check all
your balances and transfer funds to other people. I have no idea if every
country has those.

[http://www.sampopankki.fi/fi-
fi/Henkiloasiakkaat/mobiilipalv...](http://www.sampopankki.fi/fi-
fi/Henkiloasiakkaat/mobiilipalvelut/iphone/Pages/default.aspx)

------
sw1205
Could Twitter be of any use to banks? I have noticed that very few, if any,
banks use Twitter. If they used it in a Dell like fashion to promote banks
products at a reduced price or if they used it in a purely customer help way
would this be of benefit?

~~~
itcmcgrath
In Australia, the major banks already do, such as Westpac, nab and ANZ.

I'm guessing the potential to provide a public focus point for negative
sentiment towards the banks could scare quite a few away from it perhaps?

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ascuttlefish
Take a look at <http://www.mint.com> for some ideas about providing useful
account use and budgeting information to users.

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sambeau
I would like to be able to split my account into virtual ones with set budgets
and then issue myself cards (and limits) for each: savings, food, bills, fun
etc.

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eru
Please keep us on informed on HN of how your meeting went.

~~~
sw1205
Yes I definitely will. There is so much great stuff here that I can use. The
quality of discussion within Hacker News never ceases to amaze me. I don't
think big company execs realise this community exists, if they did and they
asked the appropriate questions they could really do some great things which
would then in turn benefit all it's customers (a lot of us in this community)
greatly. Will report back in two weeks on how it went.

Thanks again.

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jgh-
Banks seem to encourage people to make really terrible passwords. Why does my
password have to be 6 characters and only alphanumeric?

