American Express has been voted the best financial services brand for mobile experiences in a study commissioned by Episerver and conducted by ResearchNow. The study questioned 1,000 smartphone and tablet owners in the UK and the US about their experience on mobile with the top 40 financial services brands in the UK and US according to IMRG across their mobile sites and iOS and Android smartphone an tablet apps.

Each retailer was scored on 75 mobile ranking factors, covering aspects such as personalised content, in-app customer support and the inclusion of clearly-labelled security certificates. A percentage score was awarded to each company based on performance against the criteria with a total of 810 points available.

American Express received the highest scores, benefiting from a responsive design, intuitive interface and TouchID security login. The company was followed by The AA in second place, Hargreaves Lansdown in third, PayPal (fourth) and Barclaycard (fifth).

GoCompare ranked as the highest scoring mobile website across both the UK and US, but despite the quality of its responsive site, the company lost out in the overall benchmark due to a lack of mobile and tablet apps. UK brands that scored poorly include LSE, MoneySavingExpert and CreditExpert. Overall, the mobile experience scores were lower for the financial sector than they were in Episerver’s cross-market retail benchmark, launched in November 2015.

“For traditional bricks and mortar retailers, a mobile-first approach has generally been welcomed with open arms,” said Episerver CMO, James Norwood. “Within the financial services sector however, the move is much more challenging. Given the complex nature of financial purchasing decisions, as well as the significant values involved, many financial retailers have struggled to convert their services into a mobile-friendly format. At the same time, customer security concerns have traditionally slowed the adoption of mobile banking and financial servicing apps.

“The top-performing retailers in our financial services benchmark have demonstrated their ability to address these concerns, maintaining an intuitive interface while still managing to incorporate the very latest security features. As these technologies evolve and customers become more open to managing their finances on the go, these businesses have the opportunity to plant their flag early in the mobile finance marketplace.”
You can download the full report here.