As consumers are flocking to digital banking channels during the COVID-19 pandemic, banks are rethinking how they handle customer interactions. For Citibank, this has meant tweaking its mobile app to help customers easily self-serve. 

“We’ve accelerated a lot of the things that we identified weren’t working or that we wanted to tweak,” said Mike Naggar, chief digital officer for Citi’s U.S. consumer bank. He added that the bank wanted to make its mobile solutions more accessible, even those that were working well for consumers. “How we’re handling it internally is looking at what our customers are dealing with and struggling with the most, and adapting accordingly.” 

Citi has seen mobile user growth of 13% year over year, and mobile and online logins have increased 25% since the start of the pandemic. To meet the increased customer demand, the bank rethought some of its mobile banking solutions, including its mobile check deposit feature and one-time password authentication. 

In the past, new Citi customers had a lower limit for mobile check deposits than existing customers because new customers pose a higher fraud risk. Naggar said his team worked with the fraud team to increase the limit for new customers to that of existing customers, a help to new Citi customers eager to start putting money into a savings account. The bank also launched one-time password authentication for international numbers, previously only available for domestic numbers, driving a 12% increase in one-time passwords Citi delivered. As stay-at-home orders forced consumers to cancel travel plans, the bank added a cancellation function for trips booked with Citi points.  

New York-based Citi, which has $1.95 trillion in assets, now handles 75% of credit card disputes through digital channels according to Naggar. He added that at its peak during the pandemic, mobile messaging was up 180% from normal levels, and remains up 50% from normal levels. According to the bank, customers deposited more checks in May than any month prior, with the number of checks deposited up 30% from February. Customers deposited more checks via mobile deposit in May than in branches or ATMs, a first for the bank. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic peaked, Naggar said the bank looked to colleagues in Asia to understand how to prepare for changes in how customers would do their banking. The bank increased its server volume capacity by about 200% to prepare for the increase in digital logins and bought about 40,000 pieces of equipment to help bankers work from home. Ninety-five percent of traders were able to work online, according to Naggar. 

See also: How Citi scored 270K new online accounts in May

He added that Citi predicts there will be three long-term adoption trends resulting from COVID-19: contactless payments, peer-to-peer payments and mobile check deposits. 

Jordan McKee, research director at 451 research, said in a recent Forbes article that the COVID-19 pandemic could accelerate consumer adoption of contactless payments. “Card marketers at U.S. financial institutions should look to COVID-19 as a uniquely simple and effective messaging opportunity to drive tap-to-pay adoption,” he wrote. “Educating cardholders on the security mechanisms in place for contactless transactions — and the safeguards used to prevent things like double billing — is essential to dispel misconceptions.”

Bank Innovation Build, which takes place Sept. 9-10 as a virtual experience, is a must-attend industry event for professionals overseeing financial technologies, product experiences and services. Register here.