Banking Goes Mobile: Staying Compliant in the World of the Connected Customer

The relationship between retail banks and consumers is changing fast, with interactions occurring more often on mobile devices, in real time, across mobile banking applications and social media channels.

Internet and social media are now often the first choice of the connected consumer. Studies show 45% of bank customers today regularly interact with their institution through a mobile channel, with estimates of 70% within a few years.

The challenge for banks is to develop the channels needed to deliver value, establish trust, and meet the expectations of connected customers—while staying within the bounds of regulatory compliance.

What Can Banks Do to Start Addressing New Regulations?

Retail banking in the U.S. is governed by a group of federal regulators, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The activities of these agencies are coordinated by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, which released official social media guidance in late 2013 designed to help banks and other types of financial services companies reduce their social media risk.

To continue to connect with customers online and meet regulatory obligations, banks need to explore and adopt a risk management program that can identify, measure, monitor, and control risks related to social media use. This should include the development of policies, processes and tools to monitor conversations, collect information, and retain records for social media and mobile communications.

Monitoring of the company website, online advertisements, social media interactions, and other forms of digital communication with customers and prospects is critical.

And, archiving can enable a bank to search, review and produce records of digital conversations and interactions with mobile customers, right when those records are needed.

When a bank supervises and archives its digital records (along with a record of all actions taken against non-compliant messages and mobile transactions), it is better prepared to respond to its customers, regulators, and even an e-discovery or legal event.

While banks work hard to meet the needs of their customers, the smart ones will keep an eye on their mobile interactions and social channels that represent the bank and its brand.

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