Banks Roll Out New App for Generation Z

Lauren Krause
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Millennials represent a generation of people who does not engage in traditional banking activities as much as previous generations. The advent of PayPal, prepaid debit cards and other pay-as-you-go services have contributed to lower rates of millennials with bank accounts, but a new banking app looks to reverse the trend with a younger demographic.

Mobile banking, unlike traditional banks, is a huge hit for people 18 to 34. To reach a younger audience, Infosys Finacle created a banking app for financial institutions to offer their customers. The Indian tech firm launched its mobile Finacle Youth Banking smartphone app in 2015 to target teenagers from ages 12 to 18. The aim is to make banking fun, while also teaching older children financial responsibility.

This app includes three crucial steps to get teenagers involved in mobile banking. Users must register, submit various bits of personal information and agree to set transaction limits. Any increase in transaction limits must be approved by a parent or guardian. The idea is to give children a taste of what adults do in their everyday banking activities.

Interactive features on the banking app range from goals management with respect to saving, payment transactions, money transfers and online shopping. A few programs use games and infotainment to teach children various aspects of money management. The simple interface may be a bit elementary, but the firm wants to make banking easy, fun and interactive. When children of millennials get on board for banking, hopefully the parents follow suit.

Financial institutions can sign up for the banking app, customize it according to their needs and have it running within a few weeks. This software is available only for smartphones or tablets as opposed to other web-based accessibility. Use in the United States may not catch on as quickly, because tools like those available in this system already exist for kids who use banking platforms.

The key to this app revolves around how well Infosys engages with customers. By 2017, as much as 50 percent of e-commerce revenue may come from customers who use mobile devices to shop. Clearly, millennials and their children love to use mobile devices versus traditional Internet access points. The more banks create customer interactions on mobile devices with apps, the better chance these children have to become future bankers with solid financial accounts.

Mobile engagement continues to be one of the crucial technology trends moving forward as contemporary society moves toward more mobility and better access to services using apps on faster and smaller devices. Children are a perfect demographic to try to win over now as consumers of the future who have money to spend when they enter the workforce.

The banking app from Infosys offers another option for younger bankers to use mobile options for managing finances. If the engagement trends move forward, those younger bankers become more savvy spenders as they grow older.


Photo courtesy of bplanet at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

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