As Windows 8 Launches, Banks Ready Mobile Banking Apps

First in a series

Financial institutions are readying apps for Microsoft's new, radically different Windows 8 operating system for desktop, laptop and tablet devices, which officially launches today.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, is one. "We're developing an app for Windows 8 that will provide another convenient way for our customers to interact with Bank of America," said a BofA spokesperson in a statement emailed to BTN. BofA's app is for PCs and tablets.

USAA is also working on adjusting its digital banking applications to run on Windows 8.

"USAA is committed to being there for our members in the channel and platform they choose," wrote USAA in a statement to BTN. "We are working to adapt the affected functions for compatibility with Windows 8 and IE 10 [Internet Explorer 10] and will continue to make adjustments as needed."

ING Direct in Canada, meanwhile, had an app ready for customers to download in the Windows Store on Windows 8 launch day. The Windows Store is Microsoft's download center for Windows 8 apps.

Other banks are taking their time. "In the short term, I see a lot of testing going on and making sure that the user interface will behave correctly so users can perform banking functions," says David Albertazzi, senior analyst with Aite Group LLC.

Windows 8 is a touch-enabled, "reimagined" version of Microsoft's old PC operating system. Watch a demo of the technology here.

Along with Windows 8, Microsoft also launched the "lite" version of its new operating system, called Windows RT, on Friday. Only new, Windows 8 apps will run on RT, not older Windows applications. (Windows 8 runs legacy Windows apps.)

Microsoft also made the RT version of its new tablet, Surface, widely available Friday. This series of mobile devices are powered by ARM-based chips and again, don't support older versions of Microsoft. Surface tablets that will run Windows 8 Pro are expected to arrive in January.

Windows Phone 8, the version of Windows 8 created for Windows smartphones, is expected to hit the market Monday.

ING Direct's new app for the RT tablet and Windows 8 for PCs lets bank customers check their account transactions and find ATMs, among other actions. The bank will also have an app ready for mobile on Monday, when Microsoft releases Windows Phone 8.

"It comes down to a fairly nontechnical point: It's all about giving our customers choice," says Charaka Kithulegoda, chief information officer. Customers "use a multitude of different devices. … From a bank standpoint, we want to give users a compelling native experience on whatever platform they are."

The journey to developing the app was relatively smooth, he says.

The user interface was an "interesting" design to get used to, he says. "It's a different paradigm to some of the other touch-based UIs that we are used to, like iOS and Android."

Part of the new look is Windows 8's start screen, which displays a mosaic of icons. The live tiles, as they are called, stream content from third parties to widgets on the home screen.

Though Kithulegoda says he couldn't point to how many current customers use Windows, he says the number of Web users remains steady. Translation: Under the assumption that a large percentage of those Web users are operating from a Windows-based platform and they upgrade to Windows 8, that's not a small amount.