In a sign of support for technology startup Banno, established core banking vendor Jack Henry (JKHY) is partnering with it to offer joint mobile banking services. Jack Henry's ProfitStars subsidiary will offer integrated bill pay and mobile RDC through Banno's financial decision support tool, Grip. The Grip app provides financial institutions with a way to offer a PFM-like app that helps consumers decide whether to make purchases or not, without requiring integration with the bank's core system.
Banno (formerly T8 Webware) provides custom-branded mobile applications, websites and personalized payment card services. The company will offer ProfitStars' iPay Solutions integrated bill pay and Remote Deposit Anywhere mobile RDC solution through Grip.
Grip analyzes and accesses the best price, place to buy, time to buy and payment method. It provides real-time forecasting to replace all of the manual estimates that people tend to make when considering an on-the-go purchase.
"Grip already satisfies the real-time purchasing ability that consumers demand in mobile services, and now it enables financial institutions to cost effectively extend competitive funding and payment options through a single, turnkey solution," Wade Arnold, CEO of Banno, stated in a press release. "Mobile banking and mobile PFM solutions have not previously been aligned with how the masses intend to use their smartphones and tablets. We can help people answer questions like 'Where did my money go, and how much can I spend?' and provide the power (and funding) to execute transactions."
Celent reported in October that 49 percent of financial institutions have, are piloting or are planning for mobile RDC, compared to just 8 percent in 2009. The number of institutions with no plans for mobile dropped from 72 to just 18 percent in the last three years. A recent Aite Group study also found that the greatest anticipated growth for bill payment transaction volumes was for mobile channels.
According to Arnold, "The industry has yet to see the full adoption, and thus the full potential, of mobile RDC and bill pay. Integrating proven solutions into platforms that provide consumers with an end-to-end financial picture will help drive the future of all our efforts."
Grip uses pre-transaction insights derived from location, historical spending outliers and upcoming bills to provide consumers with information as they're about to make a purchase. The app aggregates users' balance and transactional data across institutions and analyzes the greatest changes in monthly spending with upcoming bills and scheduled payments to present an accurate, holistic view of their money. The tool's predictive analytics also reveal a potential purchase's impact on finances, including variable outcomes from interest rate and cash/debit purchases.
