Optima mobile banking_app_review_2018

MOBILE BANKING APP
REVIEW 2018
A comprehensive benchmark
study of UK mobile banking apps
In partnership with

Optima Consultancy | Mobile Banking App Review 2018
p. 1
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION__________________________________________________ 2
2 ABOUT THE STUDY_______________________________________________ 3
3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ___________________________________________ 4
4 KEEPING UP APPEARANCES _____________________________________ 7
5 RAISING THE BAR _______________________________________________23
6 LEADING THE WAY______________________________________________35
7 LOOKING AHEAD _______________________________________________42
8 METHODOLOGY_________________________________________________44
9 FURTHER INFORMATION _______________________________________46
10 FEATURES _______________________________________________________47
11 TABLE OF FIGURES ______________________________________________53

p. 2
1 INTRODUCTION
Our first edition of the Optima Mobile Banking App Review 2018 is brought to
you in partnership with Visa, a global leader in payments technology who connect
consumers, business and financial institutions in more than 200 countries, whilst
developing innovative solutions for market.
Dear Reader,
We're delighted to lend our support to Optima's comprehensive study into the UK mobile
banking app landscape in 2018. It provides a great insight into the evolving ecosystem and
valuable lessons for both established and new players.
Consumers are demanding better access to and control of their finances. They now expect a
range of features as standard within their banking app. From geo-location to real-time alerts to
spending controls, technology is making it easier than ever for consumers to understand and
manage their funds - with the added benefits of earlier fraud detection and simplified
communication with their banks.
At Visa we are open for all players to leverage the power of our global network - with its brand,
resilience and reach. We are continually investing in our network enabling our clients open
access to an enhanced, and continually evolving, set of products, capabilities and services. These
not only provide an array of ways to pay and be paid, but also enable our clients to give their
customers the best possible user experience and provide value added services that drive
primacy, customer retention, acquisition and greater lifetime value.
To enable our clients to access many of these capabilities and services through our open
network, we have created the Visa Developer Platform (VDP) to facilitate clients to enhance what
they have today or build from scratch as well as offering fully customisable APIs and SDKs that
can dramatically simplify and speed up their integration into our clients' infrastructure.
Our commitment is to be the most responsive and supportive network for both emerging
payment businesses and our long-term partners. For further information on this study or more
inspiration on how our partners can leverage Visa products, services and APIs to create
innovative experiences, visit the Visa developer portal at developer.visa.com or get in touch via
customersupport@visa.com.
Piers Clough
Executive Director, Innovation Platforms

p. 3
2 ABOUT THE STUDY
Welcome to our inaugural mobile banking app study – the most comprehensive study of
its kind.
It is widely accepted that mobile apps are rapidly becoming the channel of banking customer
relationships, certainly in the near-term before we are all embedded with some form of AI
chipset!
The demise of the UK’s branch network is frequently reported with the average customer
expected to only visit a branch 4 times each year by 20221
as consumers turn to online and
particularly mobile banking. With this trend, banks are finally
starting to recognise the importance of delivering enhanced
functionality above that of basic balance and transaction
history, enabling customers to fully service their accounts via
their smartphones. To stay relevant to customers, providers
need to deliver useful and usable mobile banking services
that not only exceed customers' current expectations but also
anticipate their future needs and improve their financial well-
being.
This study’s underlying motivation is to track and measure digital transformation in UK banking
and understand how innovations in technology are being utilised by providers to present a
more exciting and seamless banking experience for customers, as well as acting as a barometer
for market success. It provides a realistic assessment of the UK mobile banking app landscape
by scoring and ranking apps based on quantitative data, user testing and overall evaluation of
mobile apps. This includes an assessment of the customers’ ability to open an account, manage
their account, make payments, interact with their bank and manage their day-to-day spending.
The findings highlight the widening gap between incumbent providers and new challengers,
laying out best practice and delivering lessons learned along the way. We welcome your
feedback and hope you take some insight from our findings. Enjoy!
The study includes;
 Data from 100 UK mobile banking and payments apps from 52 different providers.
 Apps published on both iOS and Android operating systems.
 A host of primary research findings, obtained through extensive user testing to expose
the feature sets and usability of the most popular apps.
 Extensive reporting and tracking of trends, rankings, ratings and features.
 Focus on key features pertinent to the regulatory and technological change.
Mark O’Keefe | Founder, Optima Consultancy | June 2018
1 https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/30756/branch-visits-face-steep-decline-as-mobile-banking-takes-hold
Customers are using
our digital channels at
an unprecedented rate
and increasingly digital
no longer means online,
it’s all about mobile.

p. 4
3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Mobile banking apps have moved
beyond being a digital statement.
Providers are making it easier for customers
to squeeze routine banking activities into
busy lives which has led to a corresponding
steep decline in branch visits. Banks have
had to adjust to this new
reality or risk becoming
pushed out by new mobile-
only challenger banks and
fintechs. Providers must
invest in both iOS and
Android operating systems
to succeed in a competitive
market and those that don’t
become disadvantaged.
Furthermore, from 15th
August this year, service
levels will be exposed by
new requirements
introduced by the Financial Conduct
Authority (FCA)2
whereby banks must
publish specific information about personal
current accounts including how quickly new
customers can access internet banking, as
well as the kinds of services a customer has
access to via the mobile banking channel.
This level of transparency is likely to further
expose weaknesses and allow customers to
better understand the differences in service
levels offered by UK banking providers.
The app is poised to be the ultimate
battleground for customer acquisition.
2 https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-makes-it-easier-people-
compare-bank-accounts
Managing app store ratings is becoming
more of an art than a science.
This is evidenced by the fact that no single
app has managed to maintain a 5-star
rating for longer than a quarter and most
never attain 5-stars at all. This
demonstrates the rate at
which the market is
moving; standing still is
not an option. Providers
must continually be
innovating and driving
their mobile strategy
forward by frequently
updating apps, releasing
new features and
functionality ahead of
competitors, whilst
ensuring that customer
expectations are met by
including those features that are now
considered hygiene factors by users, such
as biometrics.
New entrants are raising the bar.
In a faster moving market, existing players
need to match scale with speed, which is
making it harder to stay competitive. New
players tend to have shorter release times,
update more frequently and consistently act
and respond to customer feedback by
adding features customers love such as
real-time balances and transaction
notifications. These are starting to become
something customers expect from their
bank which exposes incumbents’ limitations
and highlights some of the infrastructure
and legacy constraints of larger players. In
trying to overcome legacy constraints some
incumbents are launching entirely new apps
App functionality is
becoming a key
differentiator
Providers are unable
to maintain a 5-star
rating for more than a
quarter

p. 5
on new platforms. This poses its own
challenges – getting customers to migrate!
And where users are forced to do so, they
are not always happy about it!
Digital growth isn’t slowing down.
Many providers are
continuing to move
through app
download bandings
demonstrating that
mobile banking is
yet to reach full
penetration. Our
study highlights this
evolution – but of
course, installs do
not necessarily translate to active users and
so we also cover customer engagement
within apps.
Account opening is a clear differentiator.
This reflects the true disparity between
incumbent current account providers and
new players. Incumbents rely on desktop
and browser-based application processes,
compared to challenger banks whose
process is entirely
within the mobile
app. The
biggest pain
point however,
is the time it
takes for a
customer to
have a fully
functioning account. A card, PIN and
access to internet and mobile banking,
ranged from 5 minutes to 14 days. Current
account switching has so far been slow,
with CASS reporting only 1 million current
account switches a year and only 4.7 million
switches since the service launched in
20133
, therefore this disparity has not yet
been fully exposed. As customers become
more aware of the benefits of moving
3 Current Account Switch Service Dashboard,
www.bacs.co.uk/factsandfigures 25 April 2018
provider and the ease of account opening,
switching is likely to draw customers to the
players with a better digital experience.
Innovative app features are quickly
becoming hygiene factors.
Last year challenger banks such
as Monzo and Starling Bank were
praised for their innovative
“freeze and unfreeze” card
feature which gives users the
ability to control their card
directly from within the app.
Today 43% of current account
apps offer this feature. The
challengers are leading the way
and in some cases the
incumbents are quickly hot on their heels.
Those that don’t follow start to look old
and dated.
We expect to see a rise in focus on
money management driven in part by
changes brought about by open banking.
Customers increasingly expect help and
tools to assist with personal financial
management and naturally, banks are well
placed to support this. It is likely however,
that this further exposes the legacy
constraints experienced by the incumbents
and we’re likely to see more partnerships
with third parties to help service their
customers with these tools.
Business apps are … not the business.
We see many providers neglecting their
business apps and, in some cases, choosing
to combine business accounts into the
Account opening
with a fully
functioning
product varied
from 5 minutes
to 14 days
We’re going to see
incumbents seek out
fintechs to help them
service customers with
financial management
tools
“…features such as real
time balances show up
where incumbents have
legacy
constraints

p. 6
same app as consumer current accounts.
Whilst this may be logical, in principle,
banks may be failing to appreciate that
business banking is an entirely different
activity. Businesses want to have multiple
user log-ins and current account apps often
don’t support this functionality. Alongside
many others, Starling Bank have now joined
the fray and incumbent banks risk having
another slice of their business exposed,
thereby losing an important group of
dedicated customers. By not investing and
allowing their business apps to age,
incumbents have potentially opened
themselves up to competitors with more
attractive digital propositions.
Credit where credit is due.
Credit card mobile apps are performing well
in our study. This may reflect the fact that a
customer’s needs for managing a credit
card are fewer than that of a current
account, but credit card providers are
successful at serving these needs, or at the
very least customers are satisfied with their
app.
And the winner is…
After hundreds of man hours of research
and user testing over the last two-and-a-
half years, we have arrived at who we think
tops the charts for their mobile current
account app in the UK. The speed of
change is phenomenal however, and no
sooner have we committed this to paper we
may find new services or features displace
the champion. Anyway, we won’t spoil the
surprise but let you find out who topped
the chart and why inside…

p. 7
4 KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
4.1 Customer and digital take-up
Mobile banking has been growing
exponentially with UK banks increasingly
focusing on their digital propositions driven
both by changes in customer behaviour and
cost savings. The latest in a raft of bank
closures came from Lloyds Banking Group
(LBG) closing a further 49 bank branches as
part of a three-year programme to close a
total of 4004
.
LBG reported the reason for the continued
branch closure programme as being the
fact that “customers are moving to digital
and mobile channels for their everyday
banking needs”5
. Figure 1 from their
strategic review update conveys a clear
correlation between increasing digital
interactions and a fall in branch visits.
In what is becoming a clear industry trend,
2017 saw further UK branch closures
announced including 117 from HSBC, 240
from RBS and 67 from Barclays6
.
Meanwhile over the last five years,
consumer use of banking apps increased
356%7
. This correlates with several banks
reaching higher download tiers on Android
devices indicating widespread consumer
adoption at the major banks (Figure 2).
4 Lloyds Banking Group, Strategic Update (Q1 2018)
5 Lloyds Banking Group, Strategic Update (Q1 2018)
6 MagnaCarta in Picking Winners: Determining Digital Success in Digital
Finance, Fintech Disruptors Report 2018
It can be argued the UK public has reached
a tipping point in feeling safe conducting
financial transactions via their mobile
device. Recent data from Money
Supermarket showed when selecting a
bank, over half of brits consider digital
services to be a major factor when opening
an account, rising among millennials to 71%
(25-34)8
. This shift in consumer behaviour
has helped new mobile-only and digital
players to enter the banking and payments
space, creating a new competitive
landscape that is likely to get more
populated as Open Banking builds
momentum.
7 Business Insider http://uk.businessinsider.com/mobile-banking-is-on-the-
rise-in-the-uk-2017-6
8 Money Supermarket https://www.moneysupermarket.com/current-
accounts/digital-banking/
Figure 1: LBG customer channel
interactions 2014 - 2017
Customers are
moving to digital and
mobile channels for
their everyday
banking needs

p. 8
4.2 The rise of digital only banks
Digital banks are increasingly on a par with
established providers and quickly gaining
momentum through their alignment with
consumer needs. For example, mobile-only
bank Monzo, renowned for their
transparency and customer engagement,
recently announced 568,000 current
account customers since launching these
accounts in October last year – representing
a migration of 95% of Monzo’s prepaid card
holders9
. Likewise, account information
service provider
(AISP) Yolt hit
100,000 UK users
in less than six
months10
and in
April 2018
announced
250,000 users –
gaining another 150,000 users in just four
months11
. Revolut started out as a currency
exchange app who now offers personal
banking and is
said to have
1.7 million
customers
across
Europe12
. The
speed at which
these new
players have reached these customer
9 http://www.cityam.com/283310/monzo-breathes-sigh-relief-vast-
majority-active-users
10 https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/71789/money-app-yolt-hits-
100000-uk-users-in-less-than-six-months
11 https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/73461/yolt-hits-250000-user-
mark
milestones is impressive (Figure 3),
especially when compared to the digital
milestones discussed prior for incumbents.
Figure 3: Minimum Android downloads,
selected challenger brands
1m
500k
100k
Competition is certainly heating up and it
seems everyone is claiming to be the best.
Mobile-only challenger bank Starling
recently displaced incumbent First Direct as
“best current account provider” in the
British Bank Awards 201813
. Impressively,
Starling Bank also pipped them to the post
for “best customer service” – a title which
First Direct held the prior year but also since
2010 with the Money Saving Expert
customer service poll14
.
This is a real sign of customer behaviour
change – customers are most happy
engaging via their smartphone and prefer
not to phone customer service centres.
12 https://news.sky.com/story/revolut-is-uks-first-digital-bank-unicorn-
11347255, April 2018
13 http://www.britishbankawards.co.uk/previous-winners
14 https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2018/03/first-
direct-tops-our-banking-customer-service-poll-again---check-how-well-
your-bank-did-
Figure 2: Android minimum downloads for selected UK banks
Q2 2016 Q4 2016 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018
1m
5m 5m
500k1m

p. 9
That said, NatWest maintained their
banking app crown in the BBA awards,
despite LBG claiming to be number one
digital UK bank in another study.15
4.3 The best app
So, what determines the “best” app? Mobile
banking apps are increasingly becoming the
face of the relationship between customer
and bank. It is common for customers to
state during app reviews that they are
willing to leave a bank when their mobile
app functionality is poor. App user reviews
and ratings are therefore a good marker for
an apps’ overall performance and one of
the primary measures by which operating
systems rank apps in their stores.
Apple and Android dominate the UK
smartphone market - market share currently
stands at iOS 53% and Android 45%16
–
therefore this review focuses equally on
these two operating systems and their app
stores. Both stores convey certain sets of
data such as app store rating, date of last
update and number of reviews. We tracked
this data over two and a half years and have
found there can be some significant
differences in an app’s performance across
operating systems.
15 Lloyds Banking Group, Strategic Update, 2018
16 https://www.statista.com/statistics/271195/apple-ios-market-share-in-
the-united-kingdom-uk/ and
4.4 App store ratings
Not only do people need to use mobile
banking for everyday activities, replacing a
call or a trip to a branch – they need to
enjoy the experience. Those with the higher
user ratings are the app providers with a
consistently high user rating across both
iOS and Android (Figure 5). Those with
disparate ratings across stores are
performing weaker overall which
emphasises the importance of investing in
both operating systems and delivering
consistent customer experience.
The most significant disparity in rating
across operating system arises in the
current account apps of incumbent banking
providers (Figure 6). Lloyds Banking Group,
Barclays and RBS are performing
consistently. However, HSBC Group (HSBC,
First Direct and M&S) are getting
significantly higher ratings on iOS than their
Android equivalents. Santander, on the
other hand, has a stronger app for Android
with a difference in rating of 2 stars.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/271240/android-market-share-in-the-
united-kingdom-uk/
Mobile banking apps are
increasingly becoming
the face of the
relationship between
customer and bank
Figure 4: British Bank
Awards 2018 winners

p. 10
0
1
2
3
4
5 Android iOS
Figure 6: App store rating for selected apps by operating system | 2018 Q1
1 2 3 4
I’m really
disappointed there’s no
fingerprint log in
1 2 3 4
No biometric
log in on
Android
devices
Nicer UX on
iOS
Fingerprint not
available on all
Android
devices
Technical issues
on Android
Technical issues
across both
operating
systems
Good but still
lacking major
features such as …
edit/delete standing
orders and direct
debits and fingerprint
log in
Very basic
functionality…
No touch ID
Cash point print out
slip has more info
than
this app!
Used to be good.
Recently nothing
works
Source: Google Play
Store (April 2018)
Source: Google Play
Store (April 2018)
Source: iOS App Store
(April 2018)
Source: iOS App
Store (April 2018)
0
1
2
3
4
5
Appstoreuserrating Android iOS Average
Figure 5: App store user rating for all apps by operating system | 2018 Q1

p. 11
4.5 Major movements
The most significant finding to note is that
attaining a 5-star rating is hard and
arguably impossible for Android! No single
app has reached it during the entire two-
and-a-half-year study. Those that have
managed to attain a 5-star rating for their
iOS app have not been able to maintain it
into the following quarter.
B, a digital bank powered by National
Australia Group, was the biggest mover on
iOS improving significantly this quarter,
from 2.5 to 4.5 stars. B have added several
new elements to the app, including digital
cheque imaging, alerts and personalisation
features which may have impacted on user
experience. B also had a 93% hike in
reviews received from users. Santander had
the biggest drop for iOS of 0.9 stars whilst
for Android HSBC had the same 0.9 star
drop.
4.6 Traditional providers
It is also interesting to track how app
ratings have evolved over time. First, let’s
look at app user rating on Android and iOS
devices for traditional players in the
everyday banking space.
We can see that apps from banks in the
same banking groups perform similarly
because in most cases the apps are
identical, aside from branding. This isn’t the
case for HSBC, First Direct and M&S who
have fundamentally different app design
and functionality.
Lloyds Banking Group apps are performing
consistently across both operating systems,
showing slight increases in user rating on
iOS, taking them to 4.6 out of 5 stars.
Lloyds stated in their Q1 2018 results the
ambition to be the number one UK digital
+2
-0.9
-0.9
Figure 7: Largest current account app
store rating change | 2018 Q1 vs 2017 Q4
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 8: Android app store rating for traditional
players | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 9: iOS app store rating for traditional
players | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1

p. 12
bank17
and their app ratings support good
digital performance – although the
differential is slight when compared to
peers. Barclays also has a strong and stable
performance.
App ratings in the past three quarters have
experienced more significant changes on
iOS, which is likely to be a result of the iOS
app store overhaul made in September
201718
which allowed developers to reset
ratings on release of an updated version19
.
RBS and NatWest ratings have been erratic
on iOS (Figure 9); however, they have
climbed since last quarter and seem to be
on their way back up.
TSB has had a huge fall from grace since
launching a “new” app in Q4 2017, from 4
stars to 1.5, despite users being able to “log
in with their eyes”20
. At the time of writing,
we see significant press coverage of the
troublesome migration off the LBG
platform, but it is important to note that the
customer rating of the app was prior to this.
It will be interesting to watch how this plays
out.
HSBC also launched a new core mobile
banking app, for the UK only, with
“improved features and functionality” in
October 2017 first on iOS and Android
shortly after. They noted in their press
release at the time a 20% increase in mobile
banking users since 201621
. Conversely to
TSB, the HSBC mobile app has been much
better received, particularly by Apple users.
HSBC’s overall rating improved 2-stars since
launching the new app to 4.5. Perhaps even
more impressively, they went up six places
to be the number one ranked finance app,
demonstrating the impact that download
numbers can also have on store ratings.
The new app has had much less of a
reaction from Android users, which may
have a lot to do with the fact HSBC are the
only bank still not supporting biometric
log in. First Direct have also had an
impressive climb on iOS to 5 stars in Q4
2017, but they haven’t been able to quite
maintain it into Q1 2018.
4.7 “Non-traditional” players
The “non-traditional” benchmark group are made up of UK challenger banks, mobile only
everyday banking providers and selected fintech providers.
The average rating across both operating systems is higher for non-traditional players by
~0.5 stars. Traditional players have an average rating of 3.7, whilst non-traditional players22
have an average rating of 4.2, indicating that digital players’ apps are resonating with customers.
17 Lloyds Banking Group, Strategic Update, 2018
18 https://developer.apple.com/app-store/ratings-and-reviews/
19 http://uk.businessinsider.com/new-app-store-features-changes-ios-11-
2017-7
20 https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/09/biometric-banking-how-to-log-
into-your-bank-account-with-your-eyes/
21 HSBC Press Release 24 October 2017
22 Average rating of non-traditional providers with both iOS and Android
apps
0
1
2
3
4
5
First Direct HSBC TSB
Figure 10: iOS app store rating for selected apps |
2016 Q4 to 2018 Q1

p. 13
Figure 11: Average app store rating for non traditional players | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1
This is not universal however, Tandem and Atom are poor performers across both operating
systems. Fidor is the worst rated app tracked in the study on iOS (with no Android equivalent
app) with very limited functionality. Their success in Germany and the rest of Europe does not
appear to have continued into the UK. The app hasn’t been updated since 2016 which indicates
a lack of investment or priority here.
4.8 iOS app store changes
We have seen in Figure 9 the wider
variations in iOS ratings during the last 6
months, this is largely to do with app store
changes made by Apple. Apple launched a
redesign of their app store (Figure 12) in Q4
2017 which saw some significant changes.
Apple now provides app developers with
the option to reset their reviews and
ratings when an updated version is
released. Apple discourages developers
from resetting their metrics23
but despite
this, in Q1 2018 a total of 28 apps (out of
the 48 iOS apps tracked) reset their review
totals which suggests many developers are
certainly experimenting with their new
autonomy. Whether this is a continuing
trend will be one to watch!
Significantly, Apple now allows developers
to prompt users to leave reviews and
ratings without leaving the app itself (three
times in a 365-day period) and users can
23 https://developer.apple.com/app-store/ratings-and-reviews/
leave a star rating without a written review
describing the reasons for their rating. This
has removed some of the friction;
customers can now express how they feel
about an app much more easily and quickly.
In some instances, apps in this quarter have
seen a huge surge in the number of ratings
left by users (Figure 13). Barclays had the
largest number of reviews added, seeing a
1926%. This also suggests that these apps
have better user engagement.
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 12: iOS App store changes

p. 14
On Android devices we established how
many reviews an app received per 1,000
downloads to assess engagement. In this
instance, account information service
provider Emma and fintech Revolut came
out top, with two to five times the level of
reviews.
These apps have much fewer downloads
than some of the large incumbent banking
providers yet are gaining traction through
users engaging with these brands. Amex
and Co-op Bank lead the pack for the
traditional players.
4.9 App updates
Receiving feedback on app releases is an important aspect of development. It is abundantly
clear from our experience and analysis, that challenger banks and fintechs have shorter
development cycles than incumbent banks.
Based on the number of updates recorded so far, we expect that TransferWise, Revolut and
Emma will release one update every week in 2018 on average. The incumbent banks on the
other hand in 2017, were releasing updates, on average, more like once every 6 weeks.
However, if they continue to update at the same rate they have started to in the first quarter,
most of the incumbents will have reduced their development time and significantly so for HSBC,
TSB and Barclays.
Figure 13: iOS average quarterly app store reviews added for selected apps | 2016 Q1 to 2017 Q3
vs 2017 Q4 onwards
0.2k
6.2k
0.3k 1.3k 0.2k 0.0k 2.4k
20k
39k
20k
7k
27k
8k
84k
Capital One First Direct HSBC Lloyds Bank Nationwide Vanquis Barclays
Q1 2016 to Q3 2017 Q4 2017 onwards
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Figure 14: Android app store reviews per 1,000 downloads for selected apps | 2018 Q1

p. 15
But is this improvement enough? To be developing and deploying updates at a median level last
year, a provider needed to be releasing 12 updates a year and 19 updates to appear in the
upper-quartile. In 2018, the pace of change has stepped up and 18 updates is the median
position with one a fortnight (24 per annum) to be in the top 25%. Overall, across all
participants in the study, the average number of updates released has increased 32% year
on year.
Lloyds Banking Group, in their most recent strategic update, discussed their plans to become
more agile with over half of their change activity being delivered in less than 6 months, with
monthly releases24
. Our data shows Lloyds have released just one app update in the first 3
months of 2018. Even if they release 12 updates in 2018, they will be in the bottom 25%. This is
out of kilter with Lloyds proclamation and ambition to be the no.1 digital bank in the UK.
In Figure 16, we can see that some providers are prioritising which operating system they
update first. Most providers are updating their iOS and Android apps concurrently however,
Lloyds Banking Group are updating their Android apps before their iOS, whilst B and N26 are
prioritising iOS updates. Providers should be cognisant of this approach as users can become
frustrated when one operating system isn’t able to make use of an app feature that is available
on the other operating system e.g. HSBC and biometric log in.
24 Lloyds Banking Group, Strategic Update, 2018 p 31
* 2017 is annualised where 4 quarters were not available
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2018 Q1 2018E 2017* 2018 Median 2018 Upper quartile
Figure 15: iOS number of updates per year for selected apps | 2018 Q1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60 Android iOS
Figure 16: Age in days of selected apps by operating system | 2018 Q1

p. 16
4.10 Architecture
According to the commentator Chris
Skinner in a recent blog, “digital is a massive
cultural, business and organisational
transformation based upon a wholly new
business model”25
. It is well recognised that
incumbent banks face challenges in
adapting to the speed of digital change.
CGI found that 80% of big-bank decision-
makers believe they
have already done
digital26
. While
many banks have a
digital strategy, few
have embarked on a
true digital business
transformation.
Legacy systems
cannot handle customer’s needs. To keep
up, incumbent banks have limited options,
the only way to truly go digital is to rebuild
the entire back end infrastructure.
A recent example of this challenge is TSB
who have built a new mobile app and
25 The Finanser https://thefinanser.com/2018/04/digital-banking-isnt-just-app.html/
26 CGI in The Finanser https://thefinanser.com/2018/04/digital-banking-isnt-just-app.html/
27 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43877667
28 Lafferty daily briefing 24th April 2018
platform. This is not easy or cheap and has
been painstaking for TSB. In addition to the
new mobile app, TSB migrated their core
systems at the end of April 2018 which went
so badly wrong it resulted in the bank’s CEO
having to make a public apology to
customers for their failings27
. Customers
were locked out of accounts, shown
incorrect balances
and some displayed
other people’s
account numbers and
sort codes in a data
protection nightmare.
TSB may lose out
significantly from this
incident as customers
declare their
intention, via social media, to end their ties
with the high-street bank28
.
Putting aside the core systems replacement,
replacing an app completely presents an
added challenge of getting customers to
switch to the new one. We can see in
Figure 18 less than 20% of users from the
old TSB app have so far migrated by
choice to the new one.
HSBC who have created a specific UK
version of their app, have also had very few
customers proactively migrate. Their old
mobile app had a minimum of 5 million
downloads (albeit a global version), whilst
their new app currently has approximately
100k downloads – only a small proportion
of their user base has migrated in the 6
months post launch on Android, despite the
app having “improved functionality and
features”.
Figure 17: BBC News reporting on TSB
technical issues
Banks are run by bankers,
not by technologists, except
the new digital banks need
also to be technologists,
otherwise they are just a
bank, not a digital bank –
The Finanser

p. 17
4.11 Product categories
This study primarily focuses on everyday banking mobile apps; however, it is worth comparing
the performance of these against monoline apps designed to service a product segment such as
business and credit.
4.11.1 Credit
The best performing credit card apps on
both Android and iOS for app store user
rating are Amex and Barclaycard which
have both performed consistently well
throughout the study, with averages of 4.3
and 4.2 stars respectively. The poorest
performing app is the Post Office with an
average user rating of just 1.8. The app
store reviews written by frustrated
customers make clear the technical issues
inherent in this app, and with only three
“bug fix” updates since November 2015, the
apparent lack of investment is clear to see.
500k 500k
50k
100k 100k 100k
400k+ users
still to go!
Figure 18: TSB android minimum app downloads | 2016 Q4 to 2018 Q1
5,000k 5,000k 5,000k 5,000k
10k 100k
Millions of
users still to
go!
Figure 19: HSBC android minimum app downloads | 2016 Q4 to 2018 Q1
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 20:Android app store rating for credit
card apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1

p. 18
On a more positive note, both MBNA and
Vanquis have seen a marked
improvement in their app ratings across
both operating systems during the latter
part of this study and the same is true for
Capital One and Tesco Bank’s iOS apps
(Figure 20 and Figure 21).
MBNA was purchased by Lloyds Banking
Group in 2016, taking LBG’s credit card
market share from 15% to 26%29
. This
change might help explain the significant
rise in ratings from Q2 2017 for their iOS
app and Q3 2017 for the Android version
with the completed purchase releasing
investment back into the unit.
The MBNA app has impressively gone from
a 2-star rating in Q4 2016 to 4.5 today. The
app only had 7 updates in 4 years prior to
2016 on iOS, all of which were bug fixes.
From September 2016, MBNA added new
features and functionality enabling users to
properly service their credit card accounts,
such as “order a replacement card” and “set
up and amend direct debits”, as well as
working to make the app faster. These
changes have really helped change
customer opinion.
A similar story is true of Vanquis and Capital
One, who have had a marked improvement
over the past two quarters. Vanquis have
29 https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-
finance/2016/dec/21/lloyds-mbna-deal-competition-nils-Pratley
added new functionality including push
notifications, pending transactions and
balance transfers, and along the way have
received more than 8,000 reviews, an
increase of 1,324%.
Over 61,000 ratings for the iOS tracked
apps have been added since Q4 2017
following the store rating changes we
discussed earlier (Figure 22). This could
also help explain why we have seen
improvements with users being able to rate
the app without leaving a written review.
It is worth noting that Tesco Bank have
been included in both the analysis of
everyday banking providers and monoline
credit, as their customer base is
predominantly made up of credit card
customers. Some of the app functionality
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 21: iOS app store rating for credit card
apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1
157 721 214 297 10 27 32507
3,429
20,358
1,397
41
30,820
8,107
Q1 2016 to Q3 2017 Q4 2017 onwards
Figure 22: iOS average quarterly app store rating reviews added for credit card apps | 2016 Q1 to
2017 Q3 vs 2017 Q4 onwards

p. 19
that Tesco Bank offer within their combined
app is only available to credit card
customers such as “freeze and unfreeze
card” and “report card lost and stolen”,
which is important to note when discussing
their user rating.
Our data shows (Figure 23) that the average
time between updates, what we have
deemed to be the ‘development cycle’, has
reduced significantly over the study period.
The average development cycle across
operating systems back in Q4 2016 peaked
at 84 days between updates, this has
reduced by 84% to Q1 2018 with the
average now being a 30-day development
cycle.
4.11.2 Business
Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank are the
consistent high performers in the
business category, both with average user
ratings of 4.4 stars for Android and iOS,
shown in Figure 24 and Figure 25.
NatWest and RBS migrated digital banking
for business accounts into their primary
(consumer) banking apps in Q4 2017 for
iOS and Q1 2018 for Android. This explains
the steady decline in rating on Android as
investment and updates were neglected in
the business app. Upon switching
customers, the group experienced several
negative customer reviews as initially the
new app didn’t allow for multiple users – a
key requirement for business accounts but
not for personal current accounts.
However, reviews in Q1 2018 suggest
business customers are now happier with
the change.
HSBC’s business app user rating has
steadily declined across both platforms
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 25: iOS app store rating for business
apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 24: Android app store rating for business
apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1
85
31
83
30
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Android iOS
Figure 23: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of credit card apps by operating system | 2015 Q4
to 2018 Q1

p. 20
and is not popular with customers. Even
a ‘new look and feel’ and the introduction
of Touch ID during 2017 the average rating
for Q1,2018 on iOS is just 2.4 stars. Also
languishing with a rating at 2.4 is
Santander’s business app, which was
criticised by one Android user as “having an
interface like a 2004 app”30
– ouch!
Looking at the development cycles of
dedicated business apps we can see the
same trend emerge as in the credit card
category. The average age of business apps
throughout our study period peaked at 276
days, however the withdrawal of NatWest
and RBS’s business specific apps has
reduced the average age of the remaining
business apps to 75 days across operating
systems.
Whilst historically there has been little
competition from outside of the traditional
banks for business accounts, challenge is
coming from the mobile-only players as
well as the other challenger brands.
Starling bank have recently launched UK
business accounts, for small businesses and
entrepreneurs, that can be set up in
minutes. CEO Anne Boden commented:
“in a market with almost no
meaningful competition,
entrepreneurs and small business
owners have for too long been
marginalised and taken advantage
of by big banks”31
30 Play Store, Google user 12 February 2018
So, it looks like big banks risk having
another slice of their customer base taken
by the agile mobile challengers offering
uncomplicated, frictionless mobile business
banking solutions.
31 https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/73280/starling-bank-moves-into-
business-banking
Figure 27: Starling launch business accounts
282
66
270
84
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Android iOS
Figure 26: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days
of business apps by operating system | 2015 Q4 to
2018 Q1

p. 21
4.12 Development cycles
Having discussed the development cycles of credit card and business apps it is interesting to
discuss these in contrast to the other apps in our study. Figure 28 below shows the moving
average development cycle of each app type. Whilst business apps have reduced the age of
their apps by 73% from Q4 2016, our data shows that they are only updating apps less than half
as frequently as credit providers and three times less than current account providers.
The most recent data collection in Figure 29 clearly shows how much more active the
challenger non-traditional apps are in their development cycle with one update every 2
weeks. The slower release cycles evident in the credit card and business apps could in part be
due to the lack of non-traditional players operating in these segments.
If we focus on comparing non-traditional
players including payment apps such as PayPal
and AIS’s such as Yolt and Tandem the average
age is down at just 12 days half the level of the
traditional apps at 26 (Figure 30).
30
75
22
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Credit Card Business Current Account
Figure 28: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of app by category | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1
14
17
20
39
50
Non traditional Average current
account
Traditional
current account
Credit card Business
Figure 29: Average age in days of app by product type | 2018 Q1
A more agile development
cycle with frequent releases of
new and improved
functionality is the new
standard in mobile banking
apps

p. 22
With the likes of Revolut, Monzo and Starling joining the current account market there has been
a significant increase in the frequency of updates such that the moving average has dropped
from an update every 47 days at the start of our study to 22 days in the most recent (Figure 31).
A more agile development cycle with frequent releases of new and improved functionality is the
new standard in mobile banking apps. In the next chapter, we will look at the evolution of these
features.
45
52 54
46 47
33
26
22
33
28 27 27
11 12
Traditional Non traditional
Figure 30: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of app by type of player | 2016 Q3 to 2018 Q1
47
53 54
45 44
28
22
Both Android iOS
Figure 31: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of app by operating system | 2016 Q3 to 2018 Q1

p. 23
5 RAISING THE BAR
5.1 Feature testing
During the study we analysed and tested feature sets which were categorised by establishing
seven core functions (for a detailed list and description see page 47):
 Account management: features that enable a user to manage their account such as,
update contact details, amend standing orders and view statements.

 Enquiries and interaction: how the app allows a user to communicate, including
applying for new products e.g. in app chat, calling customer services from within the
app.

 Money management: capabilities that help the user to manage their money or budget
more effectively such as categorise spending, set budgets and real time balances.

 Payments: features that enable a user to make payments e.g. Apple Pay support or
making person to person payments.

 Technology: how the app integrates and utilises new technologies such as wearables
and voice assistants.

 Security & control: features that exist to enhance the security of the account or enable
a user to control how their card is used e.g. biometric login or ability to report card lost
or stolen.

 Speed: The time taken to log in and access the app.

The features we have captured are defined in the features methodology. Availability of a feature
within each app was collected primarily using the apps themselves and otherwise provider
websites, communications with company representatives and the app store descriptions to
determine the availability of features.
5.2 Points mean prizes
The report is intended to provide a useful at-a-glance snapshot of the current UK banking
landscape, along with insightful commentary based on the knowledge and extensive experience
of the authors. We have created an Optima score and benchmark to facilitate this – it ranks, and
weights app features based on several factors including:
 how important the feature is to enable a user to perform everyday banking;

p. 24
 the extent to which the inclusion of the feature removes friction in the customer
journey (i.e. the user would have to visit a branch / call customer services if the
feature was unavailable);
 how digital first or innovative the feature is (e.g. who else has it?); and
 the log-in and performance times
5.3 What is in a ‘typical’ banking app?
The British Bankers’ Association’s key members reported in their latest ‘the way we bank now’
study that 61% of current account interactions are now done in app. Given this direction of
travel, it’s important to look at how successfully apps cover the necessary features to interact
with your current account without having to resort to a branch, telephone or internet banking.
Figure 32: Banking apps' share of current account interactions, 2012-201732
32 BBA’s “The way we bank now IV”, 2018
Banking apps’ share of channel
interactions to access current account
services rose meteorically from 21%
in 2012 to 61% in 2017.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Face ID
Make P2P payments
Apple Pay
Set up standing orders
Amend standing orders
Delete Direct Debits
Call customer services
Google Pay
Pay someone new
Touch ID
Pay existing payees
View balances
View transactions
Android iOS
Figure 33: Most supported features by current account apps by OS | 2018 Q1

p. 25
Figure 33 charts the key features supported by current account banking apps. Every provider
allows the user to view balances and transactions although, as we will discover later, only a
handful show this in real-time. The ability to manage regular payments is surprisingly not
universally supported and we see customers voice their disappointment in app reviews.
Biometrics feature heavily and are now supported universally on iOS. The absence of this
feature on Android makes an app stand out from the crowd – in a bad way!
This is also somewhat true of the feature “pay someone new” and the “pays” (Google Pay, Apple
Pay) – both of which are now offered by most apps.
Moving beyond the top supported features, we see
that there is a diverse and disparate set of app
functionality. The differences in number of features
offered by traditional and non-traditional providers
is noticeable and - as discussed earlier – new
players are deploying new features at a much
faster pace. This is illustrated in Figure 34.
Significantly, non-traditional apps offer 45% more features than traditional apps. This is
common across each category except for Payments where they are 12% behind. However, they
are adding features each quarter in this category, so we expect them to be on a par very soon.
It is important to remember that the number of features does not necessarily make a “good”
app or a satisfied customer. It is the value placed on each of the features by customers and the
overall user experience and interface design that is important. For example, is the feature
“ATM/Branch finder” really of added value to the customer? Is Google maps not a better, faster
and more insightful method? Contrast this with the ability to use the app to report a card lost
or stolen. With this context, let’s now explore the trends and leading providers for each
category.
A quarter of current account
apps still don’t support the
management of regular
payments in-app
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Account
management
Enquiries /
Interaction
Money
management
Payments Technology Security & control
Traditional Non traditional
Figure 34: Average number of supported current account features by category by provider | 2018 Q1
+32%
+123%
-12%
+110%
+22%
+55%
+0.4 +0.1 +0.0 +1.4 +0.4 +0.1 +0.4 +0.1
Number of features added since last quarter
+0.3+0.1

p. 26
5.4 Account management
5.4.1 Trends
There are 11 features we categorise as
helping a customer to manage their
account (page 47).
One might consider it surprising that some
apps do not allow customers to amend,
delete or set up direct debits and standing
orders, which 76% of apps currently
support. The apps that do not offer
customers this functionality such as HSBC
and Tesco Bank really stand out.
Several apps added account management
features this quarter including Barclays
who now allows users to “view PIN” within
the app.
Monzo began rolling out overdrafts to their
current account customers after extensive
testing since August 201733
. Monzo also
send notifications to customers to alert
them when there are reaching their limit to
help them better manage their money.
Starling Bank has offered similar
functionality since launch. Interestingly,
none of the incumbent banks offer the
functionality to manage overdrafts
despite this being a core offering for them.
5.4.2 Category leader
Barclays comes out top for account
management features due in part the
support of some interesting features that
few other banks support. For example,
Barclays offers customers the option to
upload and store documents to the app. It
also enables them to view and download
monthly statements and is one of three
providers whose customers can get cash
from an ATM using just their mobile phone.
Starling and Monzo were very close in
score, but the top three were way ahead of
the rest.
33 https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/73418/monzo-introduces-
overdrafts
5%
14%
16%
32%
32%
38%
43%
54%
76%
76%
76%
Upload & store documents
Get cash from ATM using app
Manage overdraft
View monthly statements
View PIN
Personalise content
Download statements
Update contact details
Set up standing orders
Amend standing orders
Delete Direct Debits
Figure 35: Supported account management features by
current account apps | 2018 Q1
Figure 37: Barclays – upload and store
documents feature
Figure 36: Category leader: account
management
Grey indicates
where apps have
added new
features in Q1
2018

p. 27
5.5 Enquiries and interaction
5.5.1 Trends
There are 8 features that fall under
enquiries and interaction (Figure 38).
Being able to call customer services direct
from within the app is supported by most
providers, although those that do not
support it are the digital players including
Monese, Revolut, Fidor and Monzo. These
tend to place more focus on directing
customers to in-app chat which in most
cases is available 24/7. HSBC are the only
incumbent whose users are unable to call
customer service from within the app - in
fact, at the time of writing this study, HSBC
have no features in this category!
Although some apps may appear to allow
customers to apply for other products, we
have discounted these where it is simply an
unpopulated re-direct to a browser page.
We awarded additional scores to those
providers that offered users the ability to
open an account from entirely within the
mobile app. None of the established
players provided this and all had to be
opened from within a browser.
Those apps with a higher score for this
category correlate with user rating in the
app store (Figure 39). This is particularly
true for Android with a correlation co-
efficient of 0.57 (0.46 on iOS).
Considering that all major banks signpost
the move towards mobile banking when
they announce the next wave of branch
closures, it is disappointing - although not
surprising given the legacy issues - that the
customer is not able to do more
interactively in the app.
Starling Bank comes out on top for
enquiries and interaction features, not
least because of their outstanding account
opening process – users can open an
account within 5 minutes. Starling and
Monzo use location services to determine
when users are abroad – so no need to
contact the bank! Revolut, Monese, Halifax
and Lloyds all came joint 3rd place. Halifax
and Lloyds added the ability for users to
apply for an overdraft and other products
via the app this quarter.
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Optimascore
User rating
Figure 39: Optima scoring of enquiries &
interaction features vs. app user rating | 2018
Q1 (Android)
0%
22%
27%
32%
32%
32%
38%
76%
Book appointments
Live chat
Apply for an overdraft
ATM / branch locator
Apply for other products
Account opening
Travel notification
Call customer services
Figure 38: Supported enquiries and interaction features
by current account apps | 2018 Q1
Figure 40: Category leader: enquiries and
interaction

p. 28
5.6 Money management
5.6.1 Trends
Fintechs and broader tech firms are
changing the way customers want to use
financial products and banking apps by
raising expectations. A notable example of
this is “real time balances” whereby a
banking app is immediately updated to
reflect a customer’s transactions. Currently,
not one of the traditional banks offer
this feature. This is a pain point for users,
as one customer complained in a recent
app store review for an incumbent provider:
“transactions don't show
immediately, it takes 3-4 days for
full details to show. In the
meantime, you have to remember
them and work it out using the
account balance against available.
Other banks app update
transactions and update account
balance instantly.”
Another customer voiced:
“There can be hundreds of pounds
difference between my balance and
my available balance for up to a
week before the transactions
actually appear!”.
This is a key point
of difference and
advantage for the
challenger banks
and fintechs and
shows how they
are meeting
customer needs.
It is not good
enough to ‘fudge’
the system as
many of the
established
players have done
with “pending
balances” to
sticky-tape a
solution in the interim (see example in
Figure 41).
It is not just real-time balances where the
incumbents are falling short, a typical
customer review for a provider states:
“good app but could be better,
allowing people to set savings goals
and customise their accounts
…would be much more useful”.
Savings goals are a
good example of where
challengers are starting
to integrate personal
financial management
tools that really help
customers to manage
their spending and
meet short term and
long term financial
goals such as saving for
a holiday (Figure 42).
Challenger banks and
other fintech providers
such as Monzo, Starling
Bank, Revolut and
TransferWise were
Figure 41: TSB pending transactions partially included within the app
Balance does not include the
pending transactions listed in the
sub-menu of the transaction list but
the available to spend balance does
Figure 42: Starling Bank
savings goals

p. 29
found to be more progressive in using technology to give customers more control over their
spending through personal financial management (PFM) tools. This is also a category where
providers have been adding new features throughout the quarter (Figure 43). In particular,
“account sweeping” was a new feature added by Monzo, B and Revolut.
Monzo tops the table by some distance
having added four features in this category
in the last quarter alone (budgets, receipts,
customisation and account sweeping). Revolut
and B make up the podium, with a good
coverage of analytical tools and views. All three
support real-time balances.
11%
11%
16%
22%
22%
24%
24%
24%
27%
32%
38%
54%
54%
100%
100%
PFM: budgets /…
PFM: receipts
Account sweeping
Fast balance
PFM: aggregation &…
PFM: presentation
Savings goals
Customise notifications
PFM: customisation
Push notifications
Currency converter
Real time balances
Search transactions
View balances
View transactions
Figure 43: Supported money management features by current account apps | 2018 Q1
Figure 44: Category leader: money
management

p. 30
5.7 Payments
5.7.1 Trends
Payments is the only feature
category better supported by
traditional players compared to
their challenger rivals. The ability to
make a payment in the app is almost
universally supported with the
exception being First Direct and
Nationwide who require a phone
payment for the first set up and a
card reader respectively. The Pays (i.e.
Apple Pay and Google Pay) are well
supported and arguably, becoming a
hygiene factor for customers. Only
Starling Bank allows a user to provision
their card directly into Apple Pay before
the physical card arrives.
Starling Bank added a new “settle up”
feature this quarter which aims to make
IOUs between family and friends easier
and more streamlined. It is worth noting
however, that Starling are one of the few
providers not supporting person to person
payment via mobile number. We also
began to see the first signs of roll out for digital cheque imaging this quarter, a feature designed
to make paying in cheques much easier and branchless.
As stated, this category is dominated by the
traditional players. Halifax leads due to
being one of the first banks to support
digital cheque imaging in the app, they also
partially support international payments.
3%
6%
5%
11%
11%
22%
26%
62%
74%
78%
92%
97%
Add to wallet
HCE (payments)
FitBit Pay
Digital cheque imaging
Payment request
Samsung Pay
Send money abroad
Make P2P payments
Apple Pay
Google Pay
Pay someone new
Pay existing payees
Figure 45: Supported payments features by current account
apps | 2018 Q1
Figure 47: Halifax digital cheque imaging
Figure 46: Category leader: payments

p. 31
5.8 Technology
5.8.1 Trends
This category represents the innovative
aspects of mobile and digital banking and
assesses the app integration with new
technology. As might be expected, there is
little universal support aside from a third of
providers supporting the Apple watch with a
bespoke app (although Barclays removed this
functionality in the last quarter). First Direct
are the sole supporter of voice functionality
with Pay by Siri. The new players are
increasingly expanding products and services
via “marketplace” functionality that intergrates
with third parties via APIs to offer users more
products, features and fucntionality within the
app. The aim is to create a financial ecosystem
for users and put them more in control of their
finances.
Starling and Monzo top the leader board
due to their marketplace offering with
Revolut’s chatbot functionality and
Nationwide’s Apple Watch/wear OS support
bringing them onto the podium. This is a
category we expect to rapidly evolve during
the next two quarters.
Figure 50: Category leader: technology
0%
3%
5%
6%
11%
32%
Samsung Gear
Voice assistants
Chatbots
Wear OS
Marketplace
Apple Watch
Figure 48: Supported technology features by
current account apps | 2018 Q1
Figure 49: Starling Bank marketplace
example

p. 32
5.9 Security and control
5.9.1 Trends
This quarter saw Santander finally add
touch ID to both apps on iOS and
Android. Monzo switched from “magic
link via email” to touch ID on Android.
This now leaves just HSBC and
Barclays not supporting biometric
login for Android. Barclays would
appear to be a strategic choice given
their app’s wider functionality such as
HCE payments and ATM withdrawals,
but HSBC appears to be a laggard
having introduced it for Apple in 2016.
The ability to report cards lost or stolen
and freeze/unfreeze has also been a
popular addition during the last quarter
with HSBC and Nationwide adding this
function.
Starling Bank comes out top again for its
recent addition of Face ID for Android together
with its full card and transaction controls and a
consent dashboard (for open banking). Monzo
and Barclays have strong offerings across most
of the features.
0%
19%
22%
22%
27%
27%
32%
43%
54%
57%
95%
Voice ID
Consent dashboard
Customise alerts
Log out settings
Activate card
Transaction controls
Manage devices
(Un)freeze card
Report lost and stolen
Face ID
Touch ID
Figure 51: Supported security and control features by
Figure 53: Nationwide card security
controls
Figure 52: Category leader: security and
control

p. 33
5.10 Speed
5.10.1 Login time
The ability to quickly and seamlessly access
the banking app is a key aspect of customer
satisfaction and slow or unstable apps and
those without ‘expected’ login methods
such as biometrics are savagely reviewed
in the app stores. Consumer expectations
are set by apps such as Facebook, Google,
Amazon and Uber. It is their speed and
frictionless user experience that customers
compare with their banking app.
As part of our extensive testing of the
features and capability of the banking apps
in the user-testing group, we have been
monitoring the app speed and log in times
(Figure 54).
The upper quartile login time was just 6.1
seconds, with a median login time of 8.1
seconds. A login time of more than 10.3
seconds put you in the bottom quarter of
the benchmark group. Login times were
similar for both operating systems although
there were notable exceptions for instance
HSBC was 7.9 seconds slower to log in on
Android due to not supporting biometric
log in, whereas IOS users can log in using
touch ID or Face ID depending on their
device. The average log in time for
incumbents was a sluggish 11.6 seconds,
nearly twice that of the quickest top
25%.
Surprisingly, however, the challenger bank
Atom was the worst offender. Making use
of bespoke ‘face’ and ‘voice’ biometrics (or
traditional passcode) appears to be
compromised by the need to validate the
credentials online and takes an enormously
frustrating half-a-minute to simply reach
the home screen!
Many of the challengers are in the lower
quartile with logins under 6 seconds
suggesting their cloud-based non-legacy
infrastructure (and perhaps smaller
customer numbers) gives them a clear
advantage.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Logintime(seconds)
Android iOS Average
Figure 54: Average login times by OS | 2018 Q1

p. 34
5.10.2 The need for speed
Time to log in correlates well to app user
rating - the higher rated apps have quicker
log in times and slower apps are poorly
rated by users. There is a correlation co-
efficient of -0.61, which is stronger still for
iOS, with a correlation co-efficient of -0.68.
Although, there is clearly other factors that
determine an app’s rating (such as features)
this is significant as it indicates that the
speed of an app, particularly time to log in,
should be a key consideration for providers.
It is unfair to single out specific providers
based on a sample of login tests but these
providers all consistently deliver upper-
quartile performance of less than 6
seconds!
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Timetologin(seconds)
App store user rating
Figure 55: Log in time correlated with app store user
rating | 2018 Q1

p. 35
6 LEADING THE WAY
6.1 Account opening
Account opening is a key user journey that needs to be made as seamless and frictionless as
possible if a provider wants to encourage switching. So far, the current account switch service
has had little real success with only approximately 1m switches taking place each year.
In testing the account opening journey, we compared some key metrics including:
 Time to complete the online application
 Time to receive debit card
 Time to receive PIN
 Provision into HCE wallets
 How long before the account could be accessed via the mobile app; and
 The total time for a customer to have full use of their account.
One of the stand out differences in account opening was the channel in which a customer
had to open an account. We opened accounts with over a dozen current account providers
and only five could be opened via the mobile app rather than a browser. The amount of
information captured or requested during the application process was diverse and this
reflected accordingly in the time taken to complete the application, illustrated in Figure 56.
Based on the end to end journey, Starling and Monzo lead the pack in UX for account
opening. We could open a Starling Bank current account within 5 minutes, entirely on the
mobile device requiring only a passport or driving licence. The process was intuitive and user
friendly. You could set your own PIN and provision straight into the Pays, with the actual card
arriving only 2 days after application. The embedding of the account opening into the app
download made these processes far superior for getting the customer up and running with a
fully functioning product.
Figure 57 shows where the legacy banks struggle to integrate back-office processes for card
and PIN mailers and some still insisting on paper internet banking login credentials (Nationwide,
RBS, TSB). All these dependent on the timing of the traditional postal service. Inconveniently, to
be fully functioning, Barclays required the mobile app to be activated at a Barclays ATM which
required waiting for the Card and PIN mailers to arrive before then making a special trip.
05:00 05:30 05:30 05:30 06:00
08:00 08:00
10:00 10:00 10:00
12:30 13:00
30:00
Figure 56: Time take to complete current account application (nearest half minute)
*RBS account opening resulted in
error page and ended the
process. It required a 23-minute
chat with an agent to resolve.

p. 36
So, we witnessed a best-in-class
current account app set up in just 5
minutes to one that took a snail-like
14 days! There is clearly some major
room for improvement if the
established players want to match
their challenger rivals. It’s no surprise
that current account switching has
been a damp squib when it takes so
long to get up and running. This is
an area we will explore in more detail
in our next study.
6.2 The minimum viable
product (MVP)
We have seen an explosion in new features in the past couple of years and a transition from
one quite basic in functionality (transaction history, a balance and in a few cases, make
payments) to one now designed to serve as the main customer interface to the bank. The
recent example of TSB’s digital disruption following the migration off LBG’s platform and the
ensuing PR disaster, political enquiry and customer outrage, demonstrates how fundamental
online banking has become to a consumer.
Consumers want an appealing design, ease of use and navigation, the ability to personalise the
experience and real-time alerts for important updates. Companies like Uber, Amazon and
Spotify have disrupted whole industries with their digital-first approaches, using technology to
remove boundaries, present a frictionless experience and make processes seamless or invisible.
This is the standard now demanded from banking apps.
It is apparent from our study that there are a specific set of features that can now be
considered hygiene factors and part of a minimum viable product (MVP). We have
determined these based on how well they are supported by providers, customer ratings and
store feedback.
We see a minimum expectation in the consumer’s eyes that a banking app should allow them
to:
1. Login easily with touch-ID
2. See balances in real-time
3. View transaction data through different lenses
4. Stop and control spending on the card instantaneously
5. Pay easily using Google or Apple Pay
Based on this MVP, we can see which providers fully satisfy consumer needs and which are
lagging behind in (Figure 58) for Android and (Figure 59) for iOS. The top performers may not
surprise you.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Card PIN Mobile app Full
Figure 57: Current account opening process (days)

p. 37
Whilst it is not surprising to see
the challenger brands at the
top, it is interesting to note
the position of Barclays and
Tesco Bank. The absence of
Google Pay support is strategic
for both parties. Barclays
provide their own HCE solution
on Android and Tesco Bank
have their retail business
operating the Pay+ wallet which
competes with a mobile wallet
such as Google.
Barclays also appear to make a
conscious decision not to
support touch ID for Android.
Only time will tell if their
confidence and delivery of other
features overcome customer
perception of this lack of a
‘core’ feature.
In contrast, Barclays iOS app
only lacks real time balances
and aggregated views which
stops them joining Starling at
the top. This further reinforces
the strategic direction taken
with Android. Where a choice
exists, they favour providing
their own solutions for
customers. However, the same
choice doesn’t exist on Apple
devices. Apple maintain control
of their environments and
therefore Barclays have had to
support Apple Pay and touch ID
or risk appearing like a laggard
to their app users. This is also
true for Tesco Bank who, like
many other app developers
have little choice but to
respond to the clamour for
functionality Apple deem
necessary.
Figure 58: Android features supported: MVP
Figure 59: iOS features supported: MVP

p. 38
6.3 The new MVP in 2018
The established players are recognising that they need to quickly adapt to these nimbler
challengers and enhance their product offering. In fact, RBS group are clear that their mobile
proposition must develop and do so quickly:
“We do expect more customers to move to mobile as we increase the apps
functionality. Today 68% of every day banking [functions] are available via the app.
That’s up from 50% just 12 months ago and we plan to increase close to 85% by the
end of 2018”.34
The real challenge for all these traditional players however, is not just to close the gap to today’s
MVP but to gain sufficient momentum to keep up with the ever-evolving proposition and
customer requirements.
We have discussed in this paper that the fastest players in 2018 are releasing an app update at
least once a week. This presents an enormous challenge for those behind them to simply stay in
touching distance.
When we review customer feedback in the app stores and assess which innovative features are
well-received, we can determine what are likely to become the hygiene factors moving forward
for banking apps. Given the pace of change established by the leading players in releasing new
features, it is not unrealistic to describe this as the effective MVP in the very near future!
We see a minimum expectation forming that to be perceived as a ‘good’ mobile banking app (or
at least better than average) customers need to be able to do most of the following:
1. Login easily with touch-ID
2. Chat to the bank instantly
3. See balances in real-time
4. View transaction data through different lenses
5. Set, track and manage budgets and spend projections
6. Easily set money aside into savings pots
7. Stop and control the spending on the card instantaneously
8. Pay easily using Google or Apple Pay
9. Have access to a marketplace of financial and non-financial
providers
10. Use their preferred voice assistant instead of or with their
phone
34 RBS press release

p. 39
Figure 60: Android features supported: MVP+
Figure 61: iOS features supported: MVP+

p. 40
Based on this new MVP, we can see that the six digital challenger brands are already well on
their way to this proposition. A scary thought for those established players with millions of
customers who may grow tired of them playing catch up!
If there is a glimmer of hope for the
laggards, then it is the current lack of
awareness or perception of the challenger
brands. According to research by
comparison site Money Supermarket35
,
awareness of the digital banks tops out at
19% for Atom and 10% or less for those
operating current accounts today. The
regulators however, are pushing for more
competition, comparisons and switching
under open-banking so expect this
awareness to grow – along with the
valuations of these fintechs!
6.4 Benchmarking the best
In compiling this study, it often surprised us to find positive comments about poorly executed
apps or features we consider to be hygiene factors. Each consumer has their own assessment of
‘good’ or ‘best’ – one customer
might like a convoluted login
process because it makes them
feel the app is secure and yet
another may find this
cumbersome and outdated.
To conclude this report, we
strive to bring all these
complex and interrelated
elements together, so we can
provide an objective and
comparable score. We believe
this provides an accurate
picture of which are the best
mobile banking apps in the UK
market today.
We have summarised the
results for the top 10 in the
following structure.
35 https://www.moneysupermarket.com/current-accounts/digital-banking/
Figure 62: British awareness of digital only banks

p. 41
Congratulations to Starling Bank who top our inaugural list for
2018 with an impressive 8.8 out of 10!
Hot on their heels are Monzo and Revolut with 8.5 and 7.4.
Starling has upper quartile performance in every category and leads in
3 of the 6 for interaction, technology and security. They do not score
the maximum 10 points as they lag behind in money management, a
category which second-place Monzo excel at. The fact that Monzo are
missing Apple Pay and Samsung Pay support may have cost them the
top spot in our ranking!
The top 3 mobile banking apps are dominated by the challenger
brands with Barclays leading the charge for the traditional players in
4th spot. Challengers make up 60% of the places and despite Lloyds
Banking Group claiming to be the no.1 digital banking app we only
place them 10th. Despite NatWest winning the British Bank Awards
best app (voted for by their customers) we don’t see them feature at all
in our top 10.
1 8.8
432
765
1098
8.5 7.4 6.4
5.8 5.7 4.9
4.8 4.6 4.4

p. 42
7 LOOKING AHEAD
So, after our comprehensive benchmark and user-testing we’ve crowned Starling the best UK
mobile banking app in 2018.
One key theme that has run throughout
the report however, is the accelerating
pace of change. The challengers
frequently innovate and release new
features and the decline in score on
some of the established players clearly
illustrates that standing still will send
you backwards.
Some of the successful ideas deployed
by these apps are not new – card
controls have been around a long time
but have never been deployed with the
thoughtful design and UX we see from
the likes of Revolut.
One of the future MVP features we discussed: savings pots and account sweeping was first
launched in the USA by Bank of America in 2005!36
Lloyds in the UK followed with a similar
product in 200637
. Whilst innovative at the time of launch, Lloyds have failed to capitalise on the
proposition and currently the feature is not available in their mobile app. Monzo’s more
intuitive, flexible and refined proposition (Coin Jar) has made this work and accessible to
customers – and they love it! Other challengers like Revolut have quickly followed with their
equivalent called Vault.
It is this agile approach to
launch, test, refine, test,
refine…that really drives the
usability and success of the
leading banking apps.
36 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-06-18/case-study-bank-of-america
37 https://www.lloydsbank.com/savings/save-the-change.asp#collapse1-1455621277828
Figure 63: Revolut card controls
Figure 64: Monzo's Coin Jar

p. 43
So, what does the future hold? We’ll update the study in Q4 2018 and will continue to track and
test features and scores as the year progresses. But what do we see as the upcoming trends
and what are we looking out for in the next study? Here’s our watch list for the remainder of
the year:
 The increasing number of partnerships developing with fintechs and traditional banks.
o Will First Direct’s Artha perform as well as a challenger-only brand?
o How fast will progress be made on RBSG’s and Santander’s new digital brands?
 The increasing expansion and speed of deployment of new features.
o The adoption of new technology like voice and wearables
o How many of the features in our MVP+ will become commonly supported?
o Will the traditional players be able to move their legacy systems to support real-
time balances information?
 Open Banking (OB) will start to gain momentum and we will be tracking the use of
consent dashboards, account aggregation and 3rd
-party integrations.
o How will HSBC’s Beta “Connected Money” app be received by customers? Will
we see the app go live on Android?
o How will the traditional players integrate OB functionality into their apps?
o Which third-party AISPs will gain the most traction?
o Will the marketplace model become a hygiene factor?
 The FCA’s publication of ‘Information about current account services’38
from August
2018.
o Will the published operational performance correlate with app ratings and
customer feedback?
o How will TSB fare in the aftermath of their migration issues?
It’s going to be a fascinating watch as the open banking landscape evolves. As early
as 1994, Bill Gates made the provocative and still controversially discussed statement
that in the future, banking would be needed, but banks themselves would not. This
might be true of the digital world we are now living in – banking apps will be needed
but perhaps not provided for by the banks? We’ll see if they can prove otherwise.
38 https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/policy-statements/ps17-26-information-about-current-account-services

p. 44
8 METHODOLOGY
8.1 Who is included in the study?
The data presented in this report is the result of a two-and-a-half-year study on the mobile apps
of 52 financial service providers in the UK. The data sample of service providers is listed in
section 8.3 and is intended to be representative of the UK banking and payments landscape
including those providing current accounts, business accounts, credit cards and account
information services, as well as account aggregators and other payment services such as money
transfer services. These services are provided by a myriad of incumbent banks, high street
banks, challenger banks and fintechs. Data was collected for apps on both IOS and Android
operating systems to represent the majority of UK smartphone [users].
8.2 What data was collected?
We collected data from the Google Play store and the Apple App store for each individual
mobile application, for example app store user rating, number of reviews and date of last
update. This data was collected each quarter for each mobile app, on both operating systems.
Further to this, we completed user testing for a select group of 45 mobile apps across both
operating systems (where available) whereby we collected data on features and capabilities
within the apps including the account opening processes. This user testing group was chosen
primarily on those aimed at providing consumers with everyday banking services and what we
consider to be ‘ones to watch’ as we look ahead at what’s coming down the line for banking and
mobile.
The features we have captured are defined on page 47. Availability of a feature within each app
was collected primarily using the apps themselves and otherwise relying on bank websites,
communications with company representatives and the app store descriptions to determine the
availability and support.
Mobile app log in times were collected several times within each data collection period at
various times of the day. Where biometric log in was available, this was the log-in method used.
Log-in times were tested on the latest IOS and Android devices available at the time of
collection (Samsung S8, Samsung S9, iPhone 7S and iPhone X).
As stated, this report has been compiled from our proprietary primary research. Some
secondary data sources such as industry reports and authoritative third-party vendor data has
also been used where it helps to enhance or support our findings; these are referenced
throughout.

p. 45
8.3 Provider list
Bold indicates part of the user-testing group.
Account Information
Service Providers
Tandem
Yolt
Emma
Bud
Comparison Services
Money Supermarket
uSwitch
Credit Card Providers
Amex
PO Credit
Barclaycard
Capital One
MBNA
Vanquis
Business Account
Providers
HSBC Business
Bank of Scotland Business
Lloyds Bank Business
Santander Business
RBS Business
NatWest Business
Tide
Current Account
Providers
Post Office
Barclays
Yorkshire Bank
Co-op Bank
First Direct
Bank of Scotland
Halifax
Lloyds Bank
M&S
Metro Bank
Nationwide
Santander
Tesco Bank
RBS
NatWest
TSB
Monzo
Starling Bank
Fidor
N26
Monese
Revolut
HSBC
TransferWise
B
Loot
Other Payment Service
Providers
Pingit
PayPal
Android Pay
Samsung Pay
Curve
goHenry
Other
Atom Bank (savings)

p. 46
9 FURTHER INFORMATION
9.1 About the report
If you enjoyed reading this report and would like to
know more then please get in touch. A full set of
the benchmarking analysis and individual app results
are available to purchase as a download from
www.optima-consultancy.com/bankapp18 for just
£395 +VAT.
9.2 About Optima
Established in 2007, Optima Consultancy has grown
as a specialist payments consultancy practice, based
in Manchester, UK but working across the globe.
We have a deep understanding of the payment ecosystem and are fortunate to work with some
of the biggest brands in the value chain, including: Issuers, Acquirers, Payment networks, PSPs,
Retailers and Mobile operators.
Mark O’Keefe
Founding director of Optima
Consultancy, operating across
commercial finance, strategic
change and business
transformation. 20+ years in
the payments industry and a
fellow of the Chartered
Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Corporate experience with M&S Money and
Capital One.
Matt Simester
Director of Cards and
Payments at PCL, his
expertise covers payments
strategy, regulatory
management, partnership
development, value
proposition development,
retail payments and benchmarking.
Karen Dodd
Qualified CIMA accountant
with 13 years client-side
experience. Specialist in
business case modelling,
commercial analysis and
pricing and proposition
development. Previously at
TalkTalk, M&S Money and British Airways.
Janine Fowles
Law and MBA graduate,
passionate about digital
technology with experience in
digital commerce, commercial
analysis and project
management. Previously at JD
Williams as Conversion Rate
Optimisation Executive for Simplybe.com.

p. 47
10 FEATURES
10.1 Account Management
Feature Description
Set up standing orders The user can add and save the details of a new recurring
payment for a specific amount to a new or existing payee
Amend standing orders The user can change the details (such as the payment amount)
of a standing order or alternatively cancel the standing order
completely
Delete direct debits The user can cancel a direct debit mandate
View monthly statements An electronic version of a monthly statement can be viewed
within the app by the user. This is not just a list of transactions
but a replica of the paper statement
Download statements An electronic version of a monthly statement can be
downloaded to the user’s device as a printable document (e.g.
PDF, CSV)
Manage overdraft The user can request to increase or decrease their overdraft limit
Update contact details The user can update the contact information of the account
holder such as address & contact details
View PIN The user can view the PIN for the payment card connected to
the account
Personalise content Aspects of the mobile experience can be “personalised” by the
user such as uploading a profile picture, changing the account
name or adding a greeting message
Get cash from ATM using
app
The user is provided with functionality within the app enabling
them to get cash from an ATM without using their card
Upload & store documents The user can upload files within the app to a secure cloud
environment

p. 48
10.2 Enquiries / Interaction
Feature Description
ATM / branch locator The user can find information on the location of their nearest
bank branch and / or cash machine
Apply for an overdraft The user can apply for an overdraft within the app without being
redirected to a web browser
Apply for other products The user can apply for other products offered by the provider
within the app without being redirected to a web browser
Call customer services The user can find the contact details for the provider and call
them directly from within the app, without having to type the
number into their handset
Live chat The user can contact the provider via an instant messaging
service hosted within the app
Travel notification The user can notify the provider of travel plans, allow location
based services or informs the user that no action is necessary to
travel abroad
Book appointments The user can book an appointment and confirm to visit a bank
branch
Account opening A user can apply and open a new current account or sign up to
the service entirely from within the mobile application

p. 49
10.3 Money Management
Feature Description
View balances The user can view their account balance
Real time balances The user can view their balance which is updated in real-time for
all transactions including card payments
View transactions The user can see a description of their payment transactions
including information such as the date, type and amount
Search transactions The user can search their transaction history using defined
criteria
Fast balance The app provides the user with the ability to find out their
balance without logging in to the app
PFM: aggregation & views The user can view their transaction data through different lenses
such as aggregated by category of spend (groceries, lifestyle) or
by retailer
PFM: customisation The user can customise their transactions for example by adding
more information or reassigning / creating categories
PFM: presentation The user can view insights on their spending in the form of
graphs, charts or imagery. Transactions are presented with
merchant logos, google maps data or category icons
PFM: budgets / projections The app provided projections and predicted bill expenditure and
income and allows the user to set and track budgets
PFM: receipts The user can add information to individual transactions such as
attaching a digital or photographed receipt
Savings goals The user can save money by putting specified amounts into
“pots” within their current account. Once in a “pot” that money
is protected from daily spending. Money can be moved easily in
and out by the user or scheduled
Account sweeping This feature applies rules to automatically move money between
accounts / pots such as rounding up users spend to save the
extra money in a savings pot
Push notifications The app provider sends the user notifications to their devices
(i.e. a pop-up message) at any time (users do not need to be in
the app or using the device to receive them)
Customise notifications The user can turn on or off push notifications (described above)
or choose to only receive certain types or category of push
notifications
Currency converter The app provides a function whereby users can calculate live
currency and foreign exchange rates

p. 50
10.4 Payments
Feature Description
Pay someone new The user can add and save the details of a payee to enable them
to “pay someone new” or make a one-off payment to a new
payee
Make P2P payments The user can make person-to-person payments using the
payee's mobile number
Digital cheque imaging This function enables the user to pay in cheques using their
mobile app. The user typically takes a photo of the cheque and
submits it using the app, along with the amount and the details
of the payee
Send money abroad The user can send money to the most popular foreign countries
in the domestic currency of that country (e.g. China, India, USA,
Canada & Australia)
Pay existing payees The user can transfer money to a payee whose details have
already been added and saved to the account. The user
therefore typically only needs to state the amount and a
transaction reference
Payment request Allows the user to request money using a unique personal link
that can be sent to friends / family allowing them to make a
payment to the user's account
Add to wallet The user can provision directly to an external payment wallet
without having to enter any card details
Apple Pay The issuer of the account / the service provider allows the user
to add their card into the Apply Pay wallet
Google Pay The issuer of the account / the service provider allows the user
to add their card into the Google Pay wallet
Samsung Pay The issuer of the account / the service provider allows the user
to add their card into the Samsung Pay wallet
HCE (payments) The app has a proprietary mobile payments functionality that
allows the user to pay using the app at an NFC terminal
FitBit Pay The issuer of the account / the service provider allows the user
to add their card into the FitBit Pay wallet

p. 51
10.5 Technology
Feature Description
Apple Watch The mobile app is supported on Apple watch and thereby a user
can use certain banking app functionality on their Apple Watch
such as view balances and transactions
Wear OS The mobile app is supported on Android wearable devices and
thereby a user can use certain banking app functionality on their
Android device such as view balances and transactions
Samsung Gear The mobile app is supported on Samsung wearable devices and
thereby a user can use certain banking app functionality on their
Samsung device such as view balances and transactions
Voice assistants The user can perform some app functionality using a voice
assistant such as Siri or Amazon Alexa such as make a payment,
ask for balance
Chatbots The user can engage with the bank via a chatbot which simulates
human conversation, or chat, through artificial intelligence
thereby responding to customer queries
Marketplace The app has marketplace functionality allowing the user to
experience a wider financial ecosystem by integrating with a
range of products and services from other providers

p. 52
10.6 Security & control
Feature Description
Activate card The user can activate a new or replacement card within the app
(Un)freeze card The user can put a temporary block on their card which prevents
payments being made using the card details
Manage devices The user can authorise / register additional devices or deactivate
/ switch to new devices
Report lost and stolen The user can report to their issuer that their card has been lost
or stolen and order a replacement
Customise alerts The user can set up alerts that notify them via SMS or email of
aspects of their account they want to be in control / aware of
such as reaching overdraft limits etc
Touch ID The user can log in using touch ID i.e. authentication using their
fingerprint biometrics stored on the device
Face ID The user can log in using Face ID i.e. authentication using
facial/iris recognition technology
Voice ID The user can log in using their voice biometrics
Consent dashboard The user can review, authorise, manage and revoke consent for
third party access to their account
Transaction controls The user can control (by switching on or off) the transaction
types that their card can be used for such as card not present
and ATM transactions
Log out settings The user can define / control the log out settings e.g. log out
after 1 minute of inactivity

p. 53
11 TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: LBG customer channel interactions 2014 - 2017 ______________________________________________ 7
Figure 2: Android minimum downloads for selected UK banks _________________________________________ 8
Figure 3: Minimum Android downloads, selected challenger brands ___________________________________ 8
Figure 4: British Bank Awards 2018 winners_____________________________________________________________ 9
Figure 5: App store user rating for all apps by operating system | 2018 Q1 ___________________________ 10
Figure 6: App store rating for selected apps by operating system | 2018 Q1 __________________________ 10
Figure 7: Largest current account app store rating change | 2018 Q1 vs 2017 Q4_____________________ 11
Figure 8: Android app store rating for traditional players | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1 ______________________ 11
Figure 9: iOS app store rating for traditional players | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1 ___________________________ 11
Figure 10: iOS app store rating for selected apps | 2016 Q4 to 2018 Q1 ______________________________ 12
Figure 11: Average app store rating for non traditional players | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1 ________________ 13
Figure 12: iOS App store changes______________________________________________________________________ 13
Figure 13: iOS average quarterly app store reviews added for selected apps | 2016 Q1 to 2017 Q3 vs
2017 Q4 onwards ______________________________________________________________________________________ 14
Figure 14: Android app store reviews per 1,000 downloads for selected apps | 2018 Q1 _____________ 14
Figure 15: iOS number of updates per year for selected apps | 2018 Q1 ______________________________ 15
Figure 16: Age in days of selected apps by operating system | 2018 Q1 ______________________________ 15
Figure 17: BBC News reporting on TSB technical issues________________________________________________ 16
Figure 18:TSB android minimum app downloads | 2016 Q4 to 2018 Q1_______________________________ 17
Figure 19: HSBC android minimum app downloads | 2016 Q4 to 2018 Q1 ____________________________ 17
Figure 20:Android app store rating for credit card apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1________________________ 17
Figure 21: iOS app store rating for credit card apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1____________________________ 18
Figure 22: iOS average quarterly app store rating reviews added for credit card apps | 2016 Q1 to 2017
Q3 vs 2017 Q4 onwards________________________________________________________________________________ 18
Figure 23: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of credit card apps by operating system | 2015 Q4
to 2018 Q1 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 19
Figure 24: Android app store rating for business apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1 _________________________ 19
Figure 25: iOS app store rating for business apps | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1 ______________________________ 19
Figure 26: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of business apps by operating system | 2015 Q4 to
2018 Q1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________ 20
Figure 27: Starling launch business accounts __________________________________________________________ 20
Figure 28: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of app by category | 2015 Q4 to 2018 Q1 ________ 21
Figure 29: Average age in days of app by product type | 2018 Q1 ____________________________________ 21
Figure 30: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of app by type of player | 2016 Q3 to 2018 Q1___ 22
Figure 31: Average age (12m moving avg.) in days of app by operating system | 2016 Q3 to 2018 Q122
Figure 32: Banking apps' share of current account interactions, 2012-2017___________________________ 24
Figure 33: Most supported features by current account apps by OS | 2018 Q1 _______________________ 24
Figure 34: Average number of supported current account features by category by provider | 2018 Q1
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 25
Figure 35: Supported account management features by current account apps | 2018 Q1 ____________ 26
Figure 36: Category leader: account management_____________________________________________________ 26
Figure 37: Barclays – upload and store documents feature ____________________________________________ 26
Figure 38: Supported enquiries and interaction features by current account apps | 2018 Q1 _________ 27
Figure 39: Optima scoring of enquiries & interaction features vs. app user rating | 2018 Q1 (Android)27
Figure 40: Category leader: enquiries and interaction _________________________________________________ 27

Optima mobile banking_app_review_2018

Optima mobile banking_app_review_2018

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