PYMNTS: Account Opening at the Speed of Customer Expectations

Mastercard’s Jess Turner, EVP New Digital Infrastructure and Fintech, was featured in PYMNTS The Way Payments Are Now Done eBook discussing how account opening needs to follow customer expectations to provide the best experience possible. You can read the full report at PYMNTS, but here’s what she had to say: 

As we contend with in-person restrictions, the demand for and use of digital financial services has grown. Mobile banking, account opening or making real-time payments are now not only our first reflex but often a necessity. Mastercard’s 2020 Global State of Pay study found 73% percent of consumers and 67% of small businesses had used mobile banking apps to manage their finances and make payments in the past 12 months, and 53% of consumers said they were using them more now than they had before.

Consumers want flexibility in how they manage their finances, and true financial services innovators are delivering experiences that provide this choice. Opening checking accounts online is increasingly part of a consumer’s normal payments routine, and it is powered by open banking, which has also seen significant acceleration during COVID-19 and is expanding globally. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the checking accounts opened during the height of the pandemic were submitted either online or on a mobile device with more than eight in ten banking app users reporting the experience was “easier than they thought.” That’s largely due to open banking.

Digital account opening is here to stay, and consumers expect to open an account in seconds. But issues like manual uploads and micro-deposits add delays. Open banking introduces new ways for financial institutions and apps to verify account ownership and authenticate credentials for opening and funding accounts. The balance of risk, compliance and customer experience is delicate – efficiency can’t compromise fraud prevention. Trust is critical in our hyper-connected digital environment and the consumer must be at the center of control, ensuring greater transparency.

That’s why we have a solution that provides secure, lightning-fast account verification. Mastercard’s open banking network is removing friction points in the account setup, onboarding and funding process. Open banking introduces new ways for financial institutions to verify account ownership and authenticate credentials for opening and funding that include account owners, account details, and balances that boost sign-ups and reduce abandonment. The connectivity is also useful when customers have an existing relationship with a financial institution but want to move money or add services. Data services help financial institutions verify account details and balances in milliseconds while moving money accurately and securely.  

With the rapid emergence and global expansion of open banking, the money experience will never be the same. At Mastercard, we are redesigning our network to power the future of payments and services. A global open banking network, coupled with our existing multi-rail expertise, empowers our partners to better serve consumers and their changing expectations with digital experiences.