When it comes to account opening, digital challenger banks generally offer a great customer experience. For bricks-and-mortar banks the words that spring to mind are slow, cumbersome, manual, branch visit – in a word, bad. But Metro Bank is claiming a first, reports Douglas Blakey
Metro Bank has become the first UK high street retail bank to roll out selfie technology to open current accounts online.
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The launch represents the seamless integration of digital and physical with debit cards available to collect in store. Just like Metro Bank’s in-store account opening process, customers can use their account right away, with account details provided immediately at the end of a successful application.
Customers have the option of receiving their new debit card by first class post, normally arriving within two working days, or calling into their nearest store and having their Mastercard debit card printed on the spot.
According to Metro Bank, the entire account-opening process, with verification and authentication taking place in real time, means that accounts can be opened in less than 10 minutes, including setting up internet banking.
Craig Donaldson, CEO at Metro Bank, comments: “We promised to revolutionise UK banking and today we’re bringing our revolution nationwide, with the launch of our online current account opening platform.
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By GlobalData“Now wherever customers are, they can experience the great service and convenience that everyone’s been talking about. The process is fast, simple and convenient, and gets customers -wherever they are and whatever they’re doing – up and running in a matter of minutes.
Donaldson adds: “When it comes to physical versus digital, it’s not ‘either or’; customers should be able to benefit from the best of both worlds. Opening an account from the convenience of your own home, then being able to use the account straight away, with a card ready to be printed in your local store, is a great example of the seamless integration of bricks and clicks.
“With nine in ten people (92%) wanting the choice to bank however, wherever and whenever they choose, we’re continuing to invest across all our channels, whether that’s our physical stores on the high street, the great tech that sits behind our app and internet banking, or our telephony systems that mean customers get through to a colleague straight away. Welcome to the banking revolution.”
Proof of ID
Metro Bank partnered with US-headquartered identity verification outfit Jurnio to offer the digital onboarding facility. Of the traditional incumbent banks, RBS NatWest is the only lender to enable new customers to submit proof of ID electronically, but unlike Metro, not via mobile or tablet.
Barclays and HSBC do not require a formal ID from applicants but do require a credit history or details from an existing account. Unsurprisingly, of the new digital challengers, Monzo and Starling offer complete mobile-first digital account opening.
In December 2017, a report by P.A.ID Strategies, UK Bank Accounts: A Survey oJTrue Digital Capabilities in Customer On-boarding, scored the digital bank account-opening process of 10 UK banks, and found that most still require consumers to go through manual steps, such as visiting the branch, rather than onboarding them via digital identity technology.
The report reviewed Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and RBS (including NatWest) as well as challengers Atom Bank, Monzo, Revolut, Starling Bank and Virgin Money.
Mobile-first bank Starling scored highest for its identity verification and account activation process, while HSBC scored the lowest.
“We were surprised to see [that] so few traditional banks had made progress towards a 100% digital experience through the mobile channel,” says P.A.ID principal John Devlin. The report measured account-opening time to determine how quickly a new applicant could begin transacting once signed up. The report found that the majority of banks fail to use digital technologies such as biometrics that can enable KYC- and AML-compliant mobile onboarding.
”Any customer will prefer taking a selfie and snapping a photo of an ID credential using their mobile, over a manual process that means taking documentation to a branch.
“The banks who are succeeding are offering identity capture and biometrics that allow customers to verify their identity remotely. Banks that don’t adapt now risk new customers abandoning the application process altogether in favour of a challenger bank using this technology’; adds Devlin.
On a positive note, according to a report last September from Deloitte, the majority of consumers (73%) found that account opening at banks compares favourably compared to other industries.
