When it comes to mobile apps, banks have struggled to keep up with the exponential growth rate of technology and enticing a millennial audience.

A generation that demands superior service in conjunction with convenience and accessibility, millennials expect more than simply having access to a mobile banking platform.

Here are a few features banks can adopt to reel in a millennial audience:

1. Budgeting Capabilities – With student loans, low paying jobs and high living costs, it’s no secret that millennials struggle with money. Because of this, savings accounts often get pushed to the wayside. That’s where apps like Mint come in. They easily connect to the user’s bank account and allow them to create a detailed monthly budget, giving users a bird’s eye view of exactly where their money is spent. Banks should streamline this process and create a similar system within their own apps by giving users the option to set aside money for necessities like rent, food, gas etc. and budget out a fixed rate for perks like dining out or shopping.
2. Investing Capabilities – Often a fleeting priority for millennials, investing is a difficult landscape to navigate without any knowledge. Banks should show millennials the ropes on how to invest on their own terms. In addition to providing simple, step-by-step instructions, banks should also provide a service that rounds up purchases to the next dollar and moves that amount into a savings account to be reinvested. While a form of this feature is available at most on-site banks, many mobile banking apps lack the seamlessness made available by some third party developers. The Acorn app, for example, effortlessly invests the user’s extra change by rounding up purchases to the nearest dollar, making saving and investing painless, user friendly and millennial approved.
3. Money Sharing – Millennials may not be experts at saving or investing money, but they are experts at talking about it, especially if it’s within a social setting. This generation has flipped online media on its head in order to accommodate their desire to communicate with peers. Apps like Venmo, CashApp and SnapMoney have already beaten banks to the punch with this one. These apps integrate a social community with a simple necessity – transferring money. If you’ve ever gone out to dinner with a group of millennials, you understand just how significant it is to virtually transfer funds. Banks should integrate a system into their mobile app that allows users to send money amongst themselves with the press of a button. A partnership with these apps would be a quick and cost effective solution. No need to recreate the proverbial wheel!

In the end, consumers want to bank with a financial institution that is willing to help them reach their financial goals in an effortless, enjoyable way – so why not help them by integrating user-friendly features within your mobile banking app?

In a world where technology advances every day, banks must keep up with the trends in order to keep their largest target market, millennials, intrigued.

David Lester, Managing Director, leads Brightworks’ digital financial services out of New York. Lester is a professional financial coach with over thirteen years of experience in finance, advertising and communications.