Intuit Financial Services is “actively” working to allow its bank customers to white-label the ability for FIs’ users to open accounts through its tablet and smartphone apps, Bank Innovation has learned.

“There are folks who don’t own computers,” Deepti  Sahi, senior product development, tells Bank Innovation. “There is a need to meet both mobile registration and account opening.”

Intuit first publicly announced its iPad banking app in February. Existing functionality includes the ability to view account balances and account transaction history; transfer funds between eligible accounts; pay bills; locate nearby ATMs and branches; and access a FI’s mobile website. To date, almost 200 of its FI clients offer the tablet app to their customers.

Before debuting account opening functionality, though, the vendor must first ensure that the feature requires little work of the end user because iPad consumers — or, for that matter, its iPhone and Android customers — won’t wait to complete tasks.

“The attention span on mobile and tablet is shorter,” Deepti  Sahi, senior product development,  tells Bank Innovation. As such, Intuit wants to make sure that consumers can complete tasks  –  including for account openings – within three to four clicks.

“That’s a challenge,” Sahi says. “How much risk does a FI take on and what is the bare number of steps to take on to create a new membership?”

That’s a question the vendor is still trying to answer with help from customer input. About 1,500 U.S. banks and credit unions outsource their online banking to Intuit Financial Services.

“What does a FI absolutely need to mitigate risk? Do they need 25 fields or 15 fields? We haven’t figured out the answers,” she says. “We’ll collaborate with the risk appetite of our partners.”

Though discussions are still early and plans may change, Sahi says Intuit is initially more focused on exploring  “more basic” tablet and mobile account openings, like savings or checking.

“There’s so much sheer demand for tablets,” Sahi tells Bank Innovation. “Moving forward, Intuit only expects mobile, tablet and online worlds to converge more.”

Intuit is in good company with its tablet trajectory. Among the major banks already offering  tablet apps are USAA, Citi and Bank of America.

“All banks are working on getting into a tablet,” Kevin Travis, partner at consultancy Novantas LLC, tells Bank Innovation. “Everyone is in the process of working on a tablet app.”