Citigroup announced on Wednesday that its app update, released today, will let users access basic banking information for their accounts without having to log in or input any information. The new feature, rolled out to both iOS and Android devices, is called Snapshot and will show deposits, account and credit card balances, as well as up to 15 recent transactions when users launch the Citi Mobile app.
The feature has been in beta among users in California for the past three months and is an opt-in service, meaning Snapshot won’t work unless users choose to activate it. During the testing period, more than half of users decided to opt-in. In a release from the bank, Melissa Stevens, head of internet and mobile banking, spoke about the bank’s decision to beta test this feature before rolling it out to the public:
“Technology companies have long used beta testing to refine offerings, but it’s far less common among banks. We used this method to learn directly from customers who would be using the feature in the real world, and we’re glad we did. While we found users were extremely positive about the feature itself, we also learned some important things about how to make the enrollment process both more informative and streamlined.”
In February, Stevens told Bank Innovation that Snapshot would “definitely be rolled out [to the rest of the country] this year, and relatively quickly.”
The ability to easily access basic account data is one of the biggest requests from mobile bank users, and it makes a lot of sense. Other banks have implemented similar features into its mobile apps as well, most recently Huntington Bank’s Quick Balance feature. Bank of the West was also early out of the gate with this feature, but Citi is the first top 5 bank in the U.S. to launch this feature to its mobile app.
It doesn’t take a prophet to see other big banks following suit, especially if the feature proves to be popular among customers.