What will opening an account look like in 10 years?

by. Melanie Friedrichs

Fifty years ago, there was only one way to open an account: head downtown to your local bank, find a clerk, and ask him or her to help you. Today, you can open an account in the branch, over the phone through a call center, through online account opening on your desktop, or through mobile account opening on your smartphone or tablet. In every channel, account opening has gotten faster and easier as institutions have started using data, technology, and design to remove pain points and improve the processes of application, qualification, identity verification, funding, and account creation.

We’ve come a long way, but we still have a ways to go. What will account opening look like in 10 years? In Andera’s latest report, the Future of Account Opening, we explored a few possibilities.

1. Account Opening Will Take Less Time

Fundamentally, almost all technology is about saving time; trains, planes, and automobiles reduce the time it takes to get from place to place; machines and computers reduce the time it takes to make things; phones, video, and the internet reduce the time it takes to communicate. (Of course the great paradox of the modern age is that the more advanced our technology gets, the less time it feels like we have.) Most essentially therefore, the future of account opening will be about reducing the time it takes to open an account.

Mobile device capabilities, including cameras and touch screens, can quickly reduce the time required to capture applicant data. Andera’s own oFlows platform has been enhanced to allow applicants to take a photo of their driver’s license, instead of keying their personal data manually. Photo data capture will allow us to cut the data entry required by applicants in half.

continue reading »