AUSTIN, Texas — “My app” will have a whole new meaning for USAA customers later this summer.
The bank for consumers with ties to US military service members told Bank Innovation yesterday that it will relaunch its mobile app to include “complete personalization.”
The overhaul of the app is part of a wider revolution within USAA over the last year or so to make it a mobile banking-first financial institution, an effort which has noticeably accelerated since Stuart Parker became CEO this year.
Today, when USAA members — as it calls its customers — access the USAA mobile app, they see one iteration of the app, regardless of whether or not that person has bought each product presented within the app. That will change. If the member is a customer of only USAA’s property and casualty business, she will see only property and casualty content, for example.
USAA has 10.9 million members.
As far as we know, USAA will be the first major US financial services institution to incorporate this level of mobile personalization within a single app.
USAA technology teams are working on the upgrade now, Patrick Kelly, executive director of emerging channels at USAA, said. Kelly said here at the Digital Banking Summit that the new version of the app would markedly enhance the customer experience.
USAA’s pivot to a mobile-first company has ushered in an internal rush to build mobile applications. Unit upon unit within USAA is greenlighting budget and projects for mobile apps and services, which is creating some internal friction as it relates to which projects are — and are not — incorporated into the sole USAA mobile app. (USAA has no plans to add apps, at this time.) There are currently nine teams within USAA tasked with just incorporating mobile functionality into the bank’s app.
Something else, beyond the new management team, spurred this change. A recent research study captured internal attention at USAA unlike any in the past. The study essentially said that banks’ young consumers would rather use Google for their banking than a traditional bank. This startled USAA executives, and the onrush to mobile began in earnest.
No longer does the bank view other banks as its benchmark for technology and user experience. Rather, Google, Facebook and others such ventures are setting the high-water mark for USAA. Which is why USAA aggressively jumped to develop an Apple Watch app in April — it’s swimming with a different school of fish now.
This article has been updated to incorporate new information provided by USAA.