Sovereign Bank |Santander Launches Mobile App Featuring One-Touch Customer Service
A new app was seen rocketing to the #1 Most Downloaded App spot earlier this week. Mysteriously called “Personal Banking,” the app turned out to be the recently launched mobile app from Sovereign Bank, the Boston-based Banco Santander subsidiary.
This is Sovereign’s first mobile app.
Sovereign is in the midst of a rebranding effort, due to be completed this fall. The Sovereign name will be replaced by “Santander,” as part of the rebranding of the Spanish-based global bank.
Nuno Matos, managing director of retail banking, told FinAi News, “81% of our customers told us they were interested in having access to a mobile banking application. Top reasons were convenience and feeling connected to their finances. Our research also told us that consumers primarily wanted to use mobile banking to check their balances (77%), get directions to branches (65%), log into their accounts (61%), pay bills and transfer money (51%) and deposit checks (5%.)”
The personal banking app, meanwhile, focuses on the expressed desires of customers the bank polled over its long careful production process. Therefore, customers can use the app to find a nearby ATM or branch, check balance, pay bills, and transfer money. Users are not yet able to deposit checks, but this is in the works for an update, according to Sovereign Bank sources.
The app also features one-touch customer service — a great feature for a mobile app. A single click places a call to the call center. Customer service seems to be a blind spot for many banking mobile app developers. The app is available to online banking customers who use bill pay.
The app launched May 13 for iOS and May 14 for Android devices, and has fared well in reviews so far on iTunes (3.5 starts out of 5) and Google Play (4.5 out of 5.)
It’s certainly late in the game for a major bank to launch a mobile app, but it seems as if Sovereign has put in the work to make this a solid foundation to expand upon.
Sovereign Bank has approximately $86 billion in assets and does business with approximately 1.7 million consumer households.
