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Banking is being dramatically transformed by digital and mobile technologies. The widespread proliferation of smartphones, with their sophisticated cameras and mobile capture capabilities, creates a valuable opportunity for banks to shift both their retail and commercial customers from the physical banking habits of the past to new, digital channels—which can increase customer loyalty and save banks billions of dollars in operating costs. According to research by Bain & Company, branch visits are expensive for the bank, at an average cost of $4 to complete the same transaction that would cost about 40 cents if done through a mobile channel, and the branch traffic that persists today is dominated by routine transactions that could easily be transitioned to digital. As much as 8 percent of branch visits are simply to check an account balance, and a whopping 31 percent are to deposit checks.

Clearly, U.S. banks have a tremendous opportunity ahead of them if they can migrate more of their consumer and commercial customers from high-cost branches to self-service mobile channels for routine transactions. Mobile deposit technology can provide a strategic advantage by helping banks accelerate this migration. It has long been understood that mobile deposit is one of the most powerful options available to financial institutions for driving increased adoption of all mobile banking services.

Forward-thinking banks, analysts and investors are all recognizing the role that mobile deposit plays as a key indicator of a bank’s readiness for the digital future. That’s why banks like Bank of America Corp. are now reporting their mobile deposit growth rates in their quarterly earnings reports. They understand that demonstrating growing mobile deposit penetration indicates to investors that they are not only on the path to digital transformation, but that they also have the type of mobile-first customer base that every bank wants.

It’s not just consumer banking that can benefit from shifting transactions towards mobile. The commercial side of the business has a major opportunity to increase mobile banking services with mobile deposit as well. Paper checks remain the dominant form of payment for many businesses. A full 97 percent of small businesses still rely on paper checks to make and receive B2B payments, and according to the Federal Reserve, more than 17 billion checks were circulated in 2015. Yet, too many banks continue to rely on outdated practices, providing proprietary hardware to their commercial clients for scanning checks or simply expecting businesses to visit a branch or ATM to make their deposits. By leveraging commercial mobile deposit technology, businesses can batch deposit multiple checks using a mobile device faster than they can via a typical single-feed scanner. As the research firm Celent puts it, “mobile is the new scanner.” Celent also states that banks have an opportunity for 10 percent annual revenue growth over the short term by transitioning more of their commercial customers to mobile deposit.

To help transition both consumer and commercial customers from the physical banking habits of the past to the more mobile, self-service model of the future, banks must provide a superior mobile user experience. The research firm Futurion Digital conducted a thorough analysis of the mobile deposit user experience at 15 of the top U.S. banks and discovered a direct correlation between the quality of the user experience and adoption rates for mobile banking services. Banks that want to increase customer usage of their mobile banking applications would be wise to review the best practices and recommendations identified in the report in order to better position themselves against their peers.

In short, as physical branches become less important to a bank’s consumer or business banking strategy, transitioning customers to digital channels will be critically important to ensure they still have access to the services they need. Doing so can actually help banks increase customer loyalty and save billions of dollars by moving routine transactions to lower-cost, self-service channels. As one of the most popular features among mobile banking services, mobile deposit plays a strategic role in enticing customers to adopt all mobile banking services, and a bank’s mobile deposit penetration rates serve as a key indicator of its readiness for digital transformation. By focusing on delivering a superior mobile user experience and actively engaging with customers to help them make the transition to mobile, banks will be well-positioned for the future.

Michael Diamond