Financial Alerts Forecast 2013: Security + Personal Finance = ROI

The march of technology has made banking transactions and customer service interaction increasingly digital and distant, but there is no turning back the clock to a time when banking was primarily a face-to-face experience. Instead, the industry must rely on technology itself – like financial alerts – to proactively initiate contact with customers. Alerts have reached an evolutionary turning point that requires rethinking how to broaden their role, with adoption of email and text alerts on course to rise only 6.5% annually through 2018, and about two-thirds of consumers effectively unserved. To counter these trends FIs must expand the content of alerts with a “security + personal finance” approach that can provide relevant and timely information, insight, and recommendations that empowers and emboldens high-value consumers on a daily basis as they bank, shop, buy, borrow, save, and invest. This report:

• Analyzes current and future adoption of financial alerts through 2018.
• Javelin’s hierarchy of three categories of personal finance alerts.
• Ranks 20 alerts dealing with security, personal finance, or deals and rewards.
• Evaluates 11 consumer segments and maps out alerts strategies for those who value alerts the most: Moneyhawks, Digital Drifters, Online Banking Loyalists, Gen Y, and women.

Primary Questions

• How many U.S. banking customers receive alerts by email, text, or push notification – and how fast will adoption increase?
• Which type of alert do consumers favor: email, text, or push notification?
• How can FIs expand the range of alerts to increase the ROI by initiating relevant and timely digital “conversations” that deepen customer engagement in cost-effective digital channels and build trust and loyalty?
• Which FIs are setting the benchmark for financial alerts?
• What specific alerts do U.S. consumers value most?
• How can FIs tailor the menu of alerts to satisfy consumers based on factors such as age, gender, and usage of banking services such online banking, mobile banking, and bill payments through their primary FI?

Companies Mentioned

Bank of America

PNC

BB&T

SunTrust

Capital One

USAA

Citibank

U.S. Bank

JPMorgan Chase

Wells Fargo

• The consumer data in this report is based primarily on information collected online from 5,641 consumers in March 2013.