The Royal Bank of Canada is giving its app a millennial makeover and branding the new offering RBC Mobile Student Edition. For customers under 22 years of age, they can opt to download a student version of the app with an interface designed for younger customers. The new app features include financial literacy tools and customization options for students.

Rami Thabet, vice president of digital products at RBC, said the bank designed the new app with younger customers in mind, with the goal to build a relationship with them as they enter the financial system. It’s a customer-for-life strategy to lock in customers as early as possible in their financial lives. RBC customers who are under 22 years of age will be able to use Mobile Student Edition features, after which point they are transitioned to RBC’s flagship mobile app.

Users can accomplish in the app what they would normally do in a branch, and it includes additional explanations and tools such as auto-saving for goals, spending insights gleaned from its AI tool NOMI, peer-to-peer payments and more. The look and feel is designed to appeal to a younger audience; users can add contact pictures for friends to whom they make payments, and they can customize colors in the app. Students’ accounts are featured on a carousel, allowing users to swipe through their checking, savings and credit cards. 

Student Edition does omit some features that are available in RBC’s primary app, including international money transfers and direct transfers to other RBC clients. However, customers using Student Edition can still perform these transactions if they log into RBC Online Banking.

Despite the personalized photo capabilities in Student Edition, RBC deliberately avoided making it too much of social media app. “[Young adults] told us loud and clear not to make this too fun because banking is serious business, and they take their money very seriously,” Thabet said.

RBC spent about 15 months developing the app and used the input of about 400 young adults between the ages of 14 and 22 years old, who provided feedback through focus groups, co-creation sessions and reviews provided from late spring and the early summer of this year. Thabet didn’t say how many customers are using Mobile Student Edition so far, but he noted that the bank will monitor user adoption, engagement and financial health through factors like balance growth and expense management. 

In addition to the student version of the banking app, RBC is doubling down on other educational tools for younger users. For example, RBC’s Student Solutions website guides students thinking about financial decisions and offers product recommendations. RBCxMusic is an entertainment arm of the bank that provides concert tickets and does sit-down interviews with popular artists, and RBC’s on-campus branches focus on products and services for younger customers.

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Student Edition is a land grab to get customers into RBC’s platform early, just as they’re beginning their financial lives. As they get older and need more complex financial products, the bank is betting that they’ll turn to it for those as well. RBC said it will market the student version of the app on social media, as well as in branches and events to drum up interest in the product.

RBC isn’t the only Canadian financial institution targeting younger customers. CIBC, Scotiabank and BMO all offer accounts for teens and students. In an April post from Canadian personal finance blog Young and Thrifty, BMO Online was rated the best online banking institution for seniors, students and military. The same post rated RBC as the best for bundling different products, but it said when it comes to online banking features “there’s not much outstanding in their portfolio.”

Lane Martin, a partner at the financial services consultancy Capco, told Bank Innovation that a student banking experience alone isn’t enough to win customers for life. “When developing products and services for younger customers, it is important to consider what happens to the experience for these customers as their needs change,” he said in an email. “Delivering a good experience earlier in customers’ lives sets expectations that will need to be satisfied as they grow in order to align with the tone set by the bank.”