Fifth Third Bancorp is enhancing its mobile-banking service using technology from ClairMail Inc. designed to improve customers’ ability to access and manage their accounts from smartphones, San Rafael, Calif.-based ClairMail announced Feb. 24.
The Cincinnati-based bank, which has supported mobile-banking services since the first quarter of 2009, initially only allowed users to view their account summaries, see pending and posted transactions, transfer funds, and find bank and ATM locations, a spokesperson says. Customers also could receive text-message alerts when their balance was below or above a preset limit, but the alerts were not necessarily immediate, she adds.
Using ClairMail’s technology, Fifth Third customers still receive the same features but also may receive the personalized alerts immediately. Right now, consumers cannot pay bills but may be able to later on with ClairMail's technology, the spokesperson says.
Customers may access the mobile-banking site by entering 53.mobi into a smartphone’s Web browser and by logging in using their online banking user name and password.
Because mobile-based financial services are in high demand, it makes sense that Fifth Third would want to enhance its mobile-banking capabilities, says Ron Shevlin, a senior analyst at Boston-based Aite Group LLC. As with many banks, Fifth Third seemingly is moving to make mobile services more prominent, he adds.
Selecting ClairMail is important because the bank needs a “solid provider that can meet the scale and growth of mobile-banking capabilities,” Shevlin says. ClairMail has been building out various mobile-based capabilities beyond banking, such as mobile-based fraud-management services, he notes.
ClairMail in February launched a mobile-based fraud-management system to help financial institutions mitigate card, direct-deposit and online-banking fraud by alerting consumers of suspicious activity via text-message or e-mail alerts to their mobile phones (
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