Case study: KeyBank – treasure the moment

Written by FinTech Futures
30th November 2016

KeyBank’s Melissa Zajac encourages treasurers to embrace mobile banking

Treasury professionals are finally adopting mobile cash management, says Melissa Zajac, vice-president and senior product manager, Key Total Treasury, KeyBank’s corporate online channel. Slowly but steadily. So what are the best practices?

Roughly nine-in-ten adults in the US own a mobile phone of some kind, 68% of which have a smartphone, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Centre. This widespread adoption of smartphone technology is altering the way people communicate, interact and, of course, manage their finances.

Face-to-face conversations are morphing into text messages and five-second videos. Emotions are converting to emojis. Trips to deposit a cheque are becoming a photograph transmitted via an app. In fact, 57% of people with smartphones have used their phone to do online banking.

Slowly, but steadily corporate treasurers are also adopting mobile banking technologies. 30% of large corporate and middle-market entities are currently using corporate mobile banking. Driving this shift is a growing list of documented benefits and alleviated concerns about security.

Corporate mobile banking gives treasurers more ways to track payments and receipts and more time to make important decisions on suspect positive pay items. It allows movement of funds between accounts to maximise investments or avoid overdrafts and empowers treasurers to make wire and ACH approvals in a timely manner and beat cut-off times.

One of our early adopters of mobile banking was a commercial real estate firm. The president was typically the wire approver and in many cases was in the meetings negotiating transactions. Once a deal closed, he immediately wanted to release funds. Mobile gave him the ability to do that quickly and accurately from the conference room table.

Another client was experiencing unexpected staff turnover that resulted in a lack of support for key treasury functions. Mobile technology allowed him to keep the workflow moving even when he was away from the office and travelling internationally.

So what should corporate treasures look for when they are considering mobile banking solutions? The user interface needs to be simple, intuitive and easy to use. It has to provide treasurers with the applications they need to operate – approval workflows, timely processing, reporting, money movement, and – most importantly – it has to be secure.

No two platforms are created equal. When reviewing mobile banking applications treasurers and financial professionals should require the following security features: