Credit unions ruled in a new ranking of the top mobile banking apps.
Eight out of 10 of the best mobile apps of 2014 came from CUs, according to a study by MagnifyMoney, a New York-based educational and financial product comparison website founded by two former bankers turned consumer advocates.
MagnifyMoney evaluated iOS and Android banking apps from more than 100 banks and CUs, including the 50 largest banks and CUs, as well as some online direct banks. The data was then converted into a composite rating between 1 and 5 — weighted by reviews on both iOS and Android platforms.
With a rating of 4.7, the five top mobile banking apps were all credit unions: Eastman Credit Union; ESL Credit Union; Redstone Federal Credit Union; SEFCU (State Employees Federal Credit Union) and Vystar Credit Union.
With $3 billion in assets, Eastman is based in Kingsport, Tenn.; Rochester, N.Y.-based ESL has nearly $5 billion in assets; Redstone is based in Huntsville, Ala. and has $3.7 billion; Albany, N.Y.-based SEFCU boasts $2.8 billion; and Vystar, of Jacksonville, Fla., has $5.2 billion.
The other three CUs in the top 10 were Tower Federal Credit Union (rating: 4.6), Wright-Patt Credit Union (4.6) and Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union (4.6).
Laurel, Md.-based Tower has $2.7-billion in assets; Wright-Patt of Beavercreek, Ohio., has $2.9 billion; and Poughkeepsie,. N.Y.-based Hudson has $4 billion.
Only one traditional banking company, East-West Bank (4.5), a regional institution that primarily caters to Chinese-Americans, made the top 10, while the other was Simple (4.6), an online direct bank.
In addition, of the 10 lowest ranked apps, only two were from credit unions and seven from traditional banks. Those two credit unions were Oklahoma City-based Tinker Federal Credit Union (3.1) and Endwell, N.Y.-based Visions Federal Credit Union (3.1). (Tinker and Visions have $3.2 billion and $3.4 billion in assets, respectively).
On the whole, apps from credit unions received an average rating of 3.9, edging out the 3.7 score for banks. (Online direct banks, however, came out on top with an average score of 4.0).
"Bank apps have room for improvement," MagnifyMoney advised.
MagnifyMoney noted that of the 10 highest rated apps, nine used an interface from Digital Insight, an external app developer.
"This is in contrast to internal development favored by larger banks," MagnifyMoney commented. "The un-flashy Digital Insight interface was cited for [its] simplicity and reliability by users."
Across all financial institutions, Android users were more satisfied (average rating 4.0) over iOS users (3.1). MagnifyMoney suggested that iOS users tend to have more complaints about apps "not leveraging the latest hardware capabilities."
In an interview with Credit Union Journal, Nick Clements, co-founder of MagnifyMoney said while the average rating for credit union apps (3.9) wasn't that much higher than the corresponding figure for banks (3.7), the most striking element of the survey rests with the sheer domination of credit union-related apps among the highest ranked apps.
"I think this shows that credit unions have done an exceptional job in committing to their mobile banking devices," he said. "Credit unions, especially the ones using Digital Insight, have outsourced their mobile banking app activities to companies that look closely after customer needs."
Leslie Zornow, manager of brand and advertising at ESL Federal Credit Union, one of the CUs whose app landed in MagnifyMoney's top 10 rankings, said that due to the rising popularity of mobile banking and, mobile technology in general, smart financial institutions know that they must focus on providing the best consumer mobile experience possible.
"At ESL Federal Credit Union, our priority is to provide personalized service and straightforward, reliable financial solutions. The quality of our mobile application is an outcome of that focus," Zornow added.
