Amid Big Acquisitions, Capital One Adds Android to its Channel Mix

When the newly acquired card customers from HSBC's U.S. card program and ING's online bank are folded into Capital One's existing base, they'll have a rapidly expanding array of digital transaction and payments channels to choose from.

Capital One, which on Wednesday announced a purchase of HSBC's U.S. card business, following a $9 billion buy of ING's U.S. online bank earlier in the summer, is also upping its overall mobile banking reach. Capital One is adding an Android app that will allow customers to access balances, view card reward programs, make payments, view recent transactions, pay bills and transfer funds between accounts. Mobile users can also find branch and ATM locations by using a built-in GPS or a entering a zip code into the phone. The payment and reward services are available to card customers, while the bill pay and transfer services are available to bank customers.

The Android app will join existing channels, including an iPhone app, mobile web site, SMS, chat, Twitter and Facebook. The institution, which got off to a relatively late start in developing digital channels —it's one of the last major U.S. institutions to offer a native Android app — says it's offering the Android app and ramping up moves in other digital channels in response to consumer feedback that wished for an expansion of digital channels.

While most of the earlier smartphone buzz was focused on iPhones, phones bearing the Android operating system have surpassed the Apple line in market share. A recent ABI Research report said Apple shipped 20.3 million iPhones during the second quarter, while Android took a 46 percent share of the 103 million smartphones sold during the second quarter.

"With mobile becoming an increasingly important channel of choice for our customers, we have an extensive roadmap ahead, including expansion of our mobile offerings to tablet and playing an active role with the mobile payments and commerce ecosystems, such as NFC and RDC," says Tom Poole, a managing vice president of digital mobile and emerging channels, who spoke with BTN this week about Capital One's expanding digital strategy.

Poole says the new smartphone apps, which were developed in partnership with a mobile tech developer [he declined to share the company's name], have the same capabilities as the browser-based apps, but are optimized for their native devices from a performance perspective. "Also, we are building additional improvements that will allow us to tap into the device's functions and features and provide our customer with a richer experience via features like the phone's camera," he says.

The new app will be available via the Android Market, and can be downloaded by visiting the market via a desktop browser and searching for "Capital One." The service is free. The iPhone app is available via the Apple iTunes Store on iPhone or iPod touch. The browser-based service can be accessed through the bank's website.

ING Direct and HSBC already have mobile offerings. ING Direct offers apps for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and mobile web. HSBC offers a browser based and iPhone mobile banking service.