4 digital money management features banks should offer to help clients foster financial wellness

Forty-three percent of Canadian consumers say they’re financially stressed in the wake of the pandemic, and although they’re saving a higher proportion of their income than in the past, only 22% are financially comfortable, according to the Canadian Payroll Association. This gives banks an opportunity to ratchet up their customer satisfaction by offering mobile features that can help clients stay on top of their finances as the pandemic winds down. And they should prioritize features that were the most in-demand among respondents to Insider Intelligence’s Canada Mobile Banking Emerging Features Benchmark 2021.

Here are the four most in-demand digital money management features among Canadian respondents that banks can offer to provide assistance in the mobile channel:

• Account aggregation can bring a customer’s full financial picture into focus, making the app their destination for financial oversight. The most in-demand feature within the category is rated “extremely valuable” by almost a quarter (24.2%) of respondents.
• A financial wellness score is a tangible indication of a customer’s financial health over time. It also provides a cross-selling opportunity for banks: They can showcase credit products that a customer would qualify for alongside their credit score. Respondents express considerable demand for financial wellness scores, with 22.3% calling the feature “extremely valuable.”
• As online subscriptions balloon, a cancellation feature can help customers rein in spending. eMarketer estimates that the number of Canadian subscription OTT video viewers—to services such as Netflix—rose 10.6% to 21.2 million in 2020, and forecasts that it’ll rise to 22.1 million this year. As consumers sort out the services they want to keep, a central location to manage subscriptions could help them keep track of that spending: Just over 20% of respondents rate this feature “extremely valuable.”
• A tool that estimates available discretionary spending can provide more accurate budgeting. Almost half of Canadian adults say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and FIs can help ensure that these customers with cash flow worries have sufficient deposits to cover future expenses. A meaningful 16.7% of respondents call this capability “extremely valuable.”