Published: May 01, 2012
The development of tools and software for treasury professionals could be described as a slow evolution, rather than a revolution. Whilst those tools may have migrated from offline to online over recent years, they have still shared the same constraint: tethering the user to a desktop or laptop and thus hindering their mobility.
Trends that occur in the consumer space are inclined to eventually move to the corporate arena. But is that true of the trend towards mobile and could treasury professionals do all they need from such a device, anytime, anywhere?
Some would argue that treasury processes are dependent on the display of high volumes of data across spreadsheets and thus mobile with comparatively small screens is not conducive. Similarly, they might also argue that security is an immense concern. Mobile technology is relatively new, and so unproven from a security perspective.
These are two valid concerns for consideration. From an informational standpoint, one could suggest that mobile tools are perfectly adequate and it’s just a matter of adjusting to a new routine. Just as many content providers on the internet are adjusting to the reality of a huge trend towards consuming that content using mobile devices, so banks and third-party providers in the treasury space will adjust too. Data can be displayed quickly and elegantly in an app, and if the drill-down through that data is fast, intuitive and clear, then detail can quickly be found, even if it isn’t all displayed at once as users are accustomed to with spreadsheets.
In particular, the key data that many treasurers want to rapidly see when they log on to any internet banking software, or treasury management system, is the view of their cash position, and what that is in aggregate, by currency, by bank, by country, by legal entity and so forth. All of that information, and more, can be provided quickly on a mobile device, and then those crucial investments or borrowing decisions can be made on the basis of that information. In fact, the ‘Quick Decision’ feature of J.P. Morgan’s current ACCESS mobile app provides just that functionality today.
Given the current economic environment, knowing a company’s cash position at any point in time, to manage risk is absolutely crucial. For a treasurer to be able to obtain that information any time on a mobile device, as well as on a desktop or laptop, is a significant benefit. Think of it as a contingency channel, for example, if the internet service provider to your office is down, you could still receive your balances on your smart phone or tablet.
The migration to mobile seems to me somewhat inevitable, and so the right question should be; “How do we make it as secure as, or even more secure than online desktop portals?” It is also important to realise that whether using an app, or a browser application on a mobile device, it is essentially accessing the internet so it is misleading to think of it differently in that respect. However, one thing for sure is that a mobile device is even more likely to get lost or stolen than a laptop or desktop.[[[PAGE]]]
At J.P. Morgan, we have approached security very seriously, and conservatively, firstly ensuring that no data is ever stored on the mobile device. It is only ever rendered from secure servers in real time, so that in the event that a device is lost or stolen, even if a hacker were to access the device’s memory and stored data, no balance or transaction information would ever be available to them. In addition, account numbers and bank identifiers are not fully visible, preventing unintentional disclosure of information.
As J.P. Morgan prepares to allow wire payment approvals across our mobile app, from July 2012, we are introducing additional layers of security, including gesture (the ability to log on using a unique swipe password), and voice pattern recognition (yes, it really exists!).
So, if introduced in an ultra-secure and usability-focused fashion, the use of mobile devices in treasury should introduce new freedom, and reduce fear. I learned recently we have around 56 million registered online users in our retail franchise in the US, and 16 million registered mobile users. Of those 16 million, there are 1.7 million who only use mobile now to access their bank account. I expect that number to grow, and I expect the same dynamics to happen sooner or later to many corporate users. Of course other traditional channels will be available and upgraded, allowing clients to make their own choices around if and when they are ready, and some never may be from their own internal audit or security perspective. But my hunch is that the migration from desktop to mobile will be faster, much faster, than it was years ago from dial-up to online. Time will obviously tell…
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