Customer Segmentation, Adoption and Risk in Mobile Check Deposit

Mobile remote deposit capture has gone mainstream in the banking world, and is now ready for its next stage of development: customizing solutions for specific customer segments.

New research released today by Mitek, the creator of mobile check deposit, and RemoteDepositCapture.com found that 63% of the 250 banks surveyed already offer mobile check deposit. But 65% of those that offer mobile check deposit only offer it to their retail consumer clients, and only 37% of them provide mobile check deposit to corporate clients.

Banks have a clear opportunity to expand their mobile remote deposit capture solutions to new corporate and small business clients, says John Leekley, CEO and founder of RemoteDepositCapture.com. But that will require tailoring the solutions for the needs of these customer segments.

“Corporate clients require more than just depositing a check. They need the ability to integrate data into their corporate accounting systems… and a lot of solutions and banks are starting to offer that capability to gain corporate adoption,” Leekley remarked.

[To Learn More About Mobile Check Deposit’s Appeal to Different Customer Segments, Check Out: How to Reach the Underbanked with Mobile Check Deposit]

In addition to new features, mobile remote deposit capture solutions for corporate clients will also require tailoring risk management policies and procedures around deposits made via mobile. Banks have already begun to make changes to policies to suit their retail consumers, and that trend will likely extend to the corporate side, Leekley said. Banks are starting to come up with risk ratings for individual deposits based on account size, deposit size, previous fraud incidents and customer segmentation.

“A couple of years ago I think almost every bank had one policy for all of its customers using mobile remote deposit capture. In the study 39% have the same policy for all of their customers,” he added.

Although 80% of the banks in the survey said they haven’t incurred any losses from mobile check deposits, these changes to risk management policies can help banks get ahead of any risk or fraud issues that may arise, Leekley noted.

“We’re seeing a development in the maturity and adoption of best practices,” said Scott Carter, Mitek’s CMO. “One of our key recommendations is get ahead of risk by isolating any risky transactions and adopting these practices.”

Banks can further reduce risk by putting cross-channel reporting in place to help find duplicate deposits that could be made in other channels, Carter suggested. The study found that only 49% of banks surveyed are using a solution to detect duplicates in other channels.

Banks can further customize policies for corporate and small business clients as they encourage adoption in those segments. And even though those segments can be juicy targets for fraudsters, Leekley said banks will be better equipped to handle risk for commercial clients than for retail consumers.

“Financial institutions know more about their small business and corporate clients than about their retail clients. The risk rating will actually go down for deposits from corporate customers because the bank has so much more data about those customers,” he explained.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio