CFOs embrace benefits of mobile banking world

HONG KONG — Chief Financial Officers and Treasurers are increasingly willing to go mobile in their professional lives, discarding decades-old methods of transferring funds —such as banker’s drafts and cheques — in favour of payments executed on smartphones and tablets. Corporate customers have used HSBC’s mobile corporate banking platform, HSBCnet Mobile, to make a staggering US$50 billion in payments.
Since the launch of the first mobile banking app, banks have primarily invested in mobile innovations focussed on retail banking customers. HSBC says the process of checking a balance or transferring cash has become increasingly intuitive — in some instances, another person’s mobile number is all that is needed to make a payment.

While consumers in many countries have become proficient in buying a coffee or sending money to a friend using a mobile device, business-to-business (B2B) adoption has been
slower to take off, HSBC says.
Globally, 12 per cent of HSBCnet customers are active HSBCnet Mobile users. In comparison, 34 per cent of UK adults are estimated to use mobile banking, showing the huge potential for growth in corporate adoption.
Kee Joo Wong, HSBC’s Regional Head of Global Payments and Cash Management,
believes the world is on the brink of a new era in mobile payments which will revolutionise the way businesses operate.
“Since the launch of the HSBCnet Mobile app, we’ve seen a marked increase in the use of smartphones and tablets by our corporate customers. At the current rate of growth, we expect to reach US$100 billion in global payments in the next 18 months,” he says.
HSBC says innovation in consumer technologies and personal banking is increasingly
driving change in professional behaviour.
Beyond the convenience of being able to check account balances, authorise payments and receive payment alerts on the go, mobile banking has the potential to introduce entirely new ways of doing business — and to generate vast quantities of valuable information about a company’s operations that were previously
unattainable.  
Diane Reyes, Group General Manager and Global Head of Payments and Cash Management at HSBC, says mobile payments can
improve the financial health of a business.
Being paid faster improves a company’s
liquidity and cash-flow by extending ïts ability to pay its own creditors faster.
Improving cash-flow enables opportunities to improve credit ratings, improve credit terms and elevate a company’s reputation — all of which enable growth. She says the digitisation of payments also enhances visibility over the workings of a business.
“More comprehensive, accurate payments
information can be captured and retained.
Finance Directors can, at a glance, better gauge the financial position of their subsidiaries, trading partners and contractors, enabling them to make more informed buying or credit decisions.” Reyes says that in emerging economies, entire markets are leaping from cash and coins to mobile payments.
The State of the Industry 2014 report by the mobile networks association, GSMA, shows 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers worldwide and 103 million active mobile money accounts.

Paperwork out as
payments go mobile

n 3.6 billion unique mobile subscriptions globally
n 2.6 billion smartphones globally
n US$29.2 billion in mobile payments made in 2014, up from US$18 billion in 2013
n US$53.3 billion in payments have been authorised by HSBC customers globally since launch of HSBCnet Mobile
n US$1.17 billion is the largest amount transacted in a single mobile session
n HSBCnet Mobile is available in 54 countries in 21 languages
n There are 26,537 active HSBCnet Mobile customers globally
n At 46 per cent, New Zealand has the highest HSBCnet Mobile app penetration (iOS and Android)