The strategy: Improving mobile banking app functionality and adding tools and resources all in one place offers benefits to financial institutions (FIs) and their customers. These include improved customer retention, cross-marketing opportunities, and more personalized offerings. But a recent Forbes analysis points out that FIs that want to move toward offering a super app should know the risks.

The risks: FIs that understand the risks of super apps as well as concerns that could turn away customers will have the best chance of mitigating these issues and offering the best mobile app experience. The main added risk is becoming a high-value target for fraudsters. If hacked, multiple services and sensitive data could be compromised simultaneously.

And some customers may be turned off by super apps for a variety of reasons:

• Too much information: Supercharged personalization is the goal, but inundating customers with too many options and too much information in one place can be overwhelming. FIs must design multi-functional apps to respond to customer preferences and habits.
• Customers have the data they need already: Some customers—especially younger ones—are already comfortable using specialized apps and might not feel the need to have everything in one place.
• Privacy concerns: Customers may worry about sharing personal and financial data in a single platform that offers so much functionality—especially through partnerships with third parties.

What this means for FIs: A super app should be the potential outcome of a successful, deliberate strategy rather than a blind goal. Banks should incrementally enhance their offerings by integrating useful tools and resources. And they must rigorously prioritize security against high-value cyber threats and address customer privacy concerns with absolute transparency, especially when involving third parties. 

The key is to ensure that any added functionality is personalized and intuitive, preventing the app from becoming overwhelming. This in turn earns customer trust and provides value without forcing an all-in-one platform on users who may prefer specialized apps.