Huntington Hits Annual m-Banking Target in Two Months

Adoption of mobile banking by Huntington Bancshares' customers has been more than ten times higher than hoped, the Columbus, Oh., bank told BS&T, as its second month offering m-banking draws to a close.

Following its June 30 launch of m-banking, Huntington hit 870 percent of its monthly usage goal in July and is on track to exceed that by 40 percent in August, says Brandon McGee, senior product manager for mobile banking with the $56.1 billion-asset regional bank. "The number of users we had after four weeks was our goal after eight months," Mc Gee says, adding that many banks are well ahead of the general industry goal to have 3 percent to 4 percent of online households take up m-banking in the first year it's offered. Banks typically target their online customers first when they introduce m-banking services.

Huntington has 1 million retail banking customers about 50 percent of whom bank online. M-banking, it has, Mc Gee says, "exceeded our wildest expectations."

Asked how much McGee's well known blog, https://brandonmcgee.blogspot.com, spurred m-banking adoption, McGee doubted that. The key to Huntington's success was, rather, he says, "an integrated marketing campaign". "We've ads on our home page, within online banking, on our ATMs and in statement stuffers."

Through his blog, McGee adds, he hears tales of "booming" adoption from other banks. "The Top 25 banks are telling me they're adding 1,000 new users a day; others that they hit their yearly goal in three months.