The financial industry is seeing the growth of bring your own device (BYOD) just like other industries. However, with the additional security concerns of the financial industry, mobile application management (MAM®) becomes even more critical. In order to be successful, the financial industry has to balance the needs of their employees and customers with mobile app security. In the report “The Changing Mobile Landscape and Financial Services”, over 400 financial services IT professionals were surveyed about the growth of BYOD in the financial sector. Roughly half of the respondents said that a majority of their employees would use mobile devices for email and apps within the next 12 months. According to David Saul, chief scientist at State Street, mobility for the financial industry is a data management challenge, not a hardware problem. While bank employees and customers both want the latest apps for their phones, the challenge is protecting the critical financial data from harm. “I believe the world has already voted on mobile applications. Literally thousands of new applications are being written daily and uploaded to the various application stores. That is what the world expects, and so that’s what we’re going to have to deliver,” Saul said. “We’ll be sitting here a year from now and marveling at the new devices that we couldn’t have conceived of today. We really need to put the focus on how to take that data, protect it as an asset and make sure it’s delivered to our clients.”

Bankers hours no more

The term “bankers hours” used to mean that customers only had access to their financial institution during regular business hours. In order to have a financial transaction, you had to go to the bank to make it happen. Today, things have changed. Banks are expected to provide 24/7 banking and be able to conduct various type of transactions from anywhere in the world using mobile devices. In order to stay competitive, financial institutions must support mobile devices for both employees and customers. According to Shane Schick at expertIP, “Banks, obviously, have had to learn to accept their customers’ demands for increased choice of transaction channel — they no longer expect (or would want) them all to walk into a branch. Perhaps BYOD policies are a way for banks to recognize the value of choice for their employees, as well as investing in collaboration technologies that will help them connect with customers in every possible way.”

The Solution

While the financial industry has a need to protect their data, they also need to keep their employees productive and their customers happy. If the financial industry does not provide a method of managing mobile applications, it increases risk to both the employees and the organization. The solution for financial institutions to use a mobile application management strategy. For employees, this will allow financial institutions to provide quality apps that meet the security policies of the business. For customers, it will allow the financial institution to supply secure applications while providing a branded, professional solution at the same time.