Google Glass: your wearable bank

Guest blog post by David Webber, managing director, Intelligent Environments 

Imagine walking into your favourite clothes shop and as you do so a simple screen, which only you can see, appears inside your peripheral vision. As you step across the shop’s threshold, several options pop-up on the screen. These vary from the shop’s new clothing range, items on sale and your bank balance. Whilst browsing the clothes rack, you spot an item you’d like. You wink to access your online bank account and check your current account balance. This allows you to instantly decide whether you can afford the item, or wait until next month…

This isn’t some ‘minority report’ style look at the future: it’s a snapshot of how we will be interacting with our banks within 12 months. The ground-breaking wearable technology, Google Glass, a computer integrated into a pair of spectacles, promises to re-define our relationship with the digital world. Using touch controls and voice recognition, it will allow users to capture photos and videos, view emails, use apps and surf the web on the move. It marks a fundamental shift towards a more digitally connected future. And it has big implications for financial service providers.

New research by Intelligent Environments reveals that 16 per cent of British consumers are already interested in using Google Glass to manage their finances, without even seeing or testing a working prototype. This figure rises to 26 per cent for 18 to 24 year olds; which means once the technology is available to buy banks will need to ensure they have a clear idea of how to extend their digital banking experience to wearable technology. We’re already seeing an increase in multi-channel banking with mobile banking apps for smartphones and tablets, alongside online web browser banking. The challenge for the financial services industry will be to ensure the experience between all platforms from web browser to smart TV and Google Glass, is seamless.

Of course, security will be a big issue. A debate, still raging among mainstream commentators, focuses on the security and privacy implications of Google Glass. Similarly, financial sector firms will need to consider how privacy of financial transactions can be maintained if they’re taking place on a wearable technology platform, on the move. Providers will need to have a sophisticated security system in place which works across all banking platforms and can deal with the potential vulnerabilities presented by Google Glass. However, what’s clear is that it and the products it will inevitably inspire will open up a new and thrilling world for digital banking. I can’t wait to own the UK’s first pair and explore the possibilities for financial institutions and their customers.

Oi, Bank of England, keep a woman on English banknotes!

So, Winston Churchill is set to replace social reformer Elizabeth Fry as the face of £5 notes. This means that, other than the Queen, there will be no women featuring on our English bank notes.

There's a petition against this at Change.org, which can be found here. It notes that, "An all-male line-up on our banknotes sends out the damaging message that no woman has done anything important enough to appear...People will perhaps say that the Queen appears on all the notes. But the Queen would be there whatever she achieved - she was born into her position. The men on the banknotes - Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Matthew Boulton, James Watt, and soon, Winston Churchill - are all there because of what they have done, not because of who their parents were."

Quite right, I say. You know what to do, good people. 

Taking the current account plunge

Research issued by first direct shows that 44 per cent of UK adults have never switched their current account and a further 27 per cent have only moved their banking once. Also, only four per cent said they will definitely change their current account provider in the next two years.

When asked what would prompt them to switch, two thirds flagged up the introduction of charges by their current provider and 54 per cent poor customer service. However, only 15 per cent stated they were extremely satisfied with their current account provider.

Just been asking people what I work with and their feedback backs up this survey. Sample comment: "I've been with Barclays for years and see no reason why I would change now."

It's the same with me. I've been a NatWest customer since my teens. I remain with them not because I think they provide an amazing service (overall it's OK and there have been times when I've felt badly treated), but because I consider switching, then put it off, telling myself it's too much hassle. Will this change with the emergence of new entrants and the launch of the new seven-day account switching service in September? Meh. I dunno. Maybe...

Sainsbury's banks on LBG buyout

Here's an interesting one...Sainsbury's is closing in on full ownership of Sainsbury's Bank. The supermarket giant confirmed this morning that it will take control of the bank by buying the 50 per cent held by partner Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) in a £248 million deal.

Sainsbury's was the first major British supermarket to open a bank, launching in 1997 in a 50/50 joint venture with Bank of Scotland, later subsumed by Lloyds. It says that this latest move gives it the opportunity to increase its number of customers and enhance loyalty by offering accessible, high quality and tailored products which reward customers who bank and shop with it...But will it become a major player? Probably not. It currently has just over one million customers and has been making a decent profit for Sainsbury's and LBG. But that's unlikely to worry retail banking's 'big five' (Lloyds, RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Santander UK) who still (rather depressingly) control the majority of UK current accounts. The government is keen to encourage greater competition but customers remain reluctant to switch.

Technology wise, over a 42 month period the bank will transition support and back office services away from Lloyds Banking Group. Call centre services will be provided in-house by the bank and banking platforms will be delivered by FIS. All parties have been working together for a number of months to agree a detailed transition plan.

According to a statement issued by Sainsbury's: "The transition will involve the transfer of data from legacy Lloyds Banking Group systems to the latest generation banking platform. This platform will allow a greater degree of flexibility, enabling new product launches and facilitating a much improved digital offer to customers."

Certainly, all involved will be hoping to tread a different path to that of Tesco Bank, which experienced various problems resulting in a raft of negative headlines when it broke with RBS and set up its own core banking system. Ugh. Who'd be a retail banker, eh?

Contactless works when handled with care

Shock horror! A contactless story which is not just a case of all hype and no substance. I still say that lots more work needs to be done to sell this way of paying to the general public, but Marks & Spencer is a good example of how it should be done. The retailer has completed a roll-out to 644 of its UK stores, including its railway and airport franchise stores. It is processing over 230,000 contactless transactions every week. Fourteen per cent of M&S card transactions under £20 are now completed by this method and a quarter are processed at self-checkout points in the Food Halls. 

The roll-out followed a trial in 25 London stores last summer. Although London continues to have the highest levels of contactless transactions, M&S is seeing increasing use of these cards in other busy urban centres including Manchester, Croydon and Reading. Richard Cooke, store manager at M&S Finsbury Pavement, which completes around one in three of its card transactions under £20 by contactless, comments: "In busy central stores that receive a huge lunch time rush, contactless payment is helping to revolutionise the customer experience. Self- check out tills are already very popular, but contactless helps reduce queue times even further, giving customers a payment option that’s even quicker than cash."

Now, all we need is more retailers getting onboard in similarly enthusiastic fashion and more British banks rolling out cards to all their customers and, hey presto, we've got momentum, baby (as someone once sang). Simples.