EXCLUSIVE – U.S. Bank added a location service to its mobile service that will include all the bank’s credit, debit, prepaid and digital cards.

The new feature is part of the bank’s larger strategy of creating a mobile banking app that is comprehensive and in tune with the customer needs and demands, Jason Tinurelli, senior vice president of retail payment solutions at U.S. Bank, told Bank Innovation. 

The service is built on Visa technology called mobile location confirmation, introduced several years ago (note the iPhone 5c on its product page) but slow to find adoption, until now. Given the amount of card fraud and retailers slow to implement EMV, it’s not clear why the service has not proven more popular. In any case, it is just one of a suite of services U.S> Bank is rolling out to enhance its mobile offerings.

“What we are looking to do for the bank in general is to add as many new technologies and capabilities to our mobile banking app to give the customer the most convenient experience,” Tinurelli said. Of its most recently added capabilities, the opt-in location is the most successful, he said.

The Minneapolis-based bank made the feature live two months ago, but chose to make the announcement during the holiday season, when there is typically an uptick in retail and travel activity (and card fraud).

A user can opt in for the feature through their banking app. The feature is available on both Android and Apple devices.

“Security and fraud are the main concerns of our customers,” Tinurelli said. “This feature adds an extra layer of protection.” Not only does the feature serve this purpose, but it also gives the bank additional insight on where and how their customers are using their cards, he said.

So far, a significant number of U.S. Bank customers have opted for the feature, he said. Tinurelli declined to provide a specific number but said the number has been “growing faster than we expected.”

Around this time last year, the bank added the geo-location feature for its U.S. Bank FlexPerks Visa credit card brand. This time the feature includes all the bank’s card products.

U.S. Bancorp, the holding company for U.S. Bank, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol USB with market capitalization of $87.78 billion. The bank has $459 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2017.