Citibank was found to have the best overall mobile site in a new report that compares mobile offerings among leading banks based on the features that consumers most value.

Citibank moved up from second place in a similar report a year ago to replace Chase as the leader on the mobile Web, according to the Mobile Banking Competitive Review report from Key Lime Interactive. The bank’s success is attributed to its best-in-class features in viewing and paying bills, one of the strongest sets of security features and the large number of features most valued by customers.

“The leaders are taking the extra step,” said David Hoberman, user experience consultant at Key Lime Interactive, Miami, FL. “It is not just about what features they have or don’t have but what features they have that our customer survey reports back are the really important ones versus that’s nice but I would never use it.

“Sites that have those extras that customers really value, those are going to score higher overall,” he said.

Easy navigation
This year’s report goes beyond the basic core capabilities that all financial apps should have, such as being able to view their bills or find an ATM, to get a sense of what are the extras in the space that consumers really value and prioritize.

The reports used consumer preferences to grade features, options and experiences that consumers encounter in available mobile retail banking solutions.

The results point to the need for banks to provide features such as easy navigation and search, with customers prioritizing the ability to quickly and effectively search and filter their transaction history over most social media elements in their mobile banking solutions.

Another area of importance for consumers is security.

“All the core basics are covered but I think there is room for improvement in the area of security,”  Mr. Hoberman said.

“There aren’t that many apps that let you cancel your debit card or report a lost card from the app itself as opposed to here’s a phone number for it,” he said.

“That is something that customers said was really critical. Who wants to fumble around when they could click a couple of buttons and the problem is taken care of.”

Mobile wallets
Key Lime also took a look at some of the more up and coming features such as mobile wallets and found customers are looking for these as well.

Citi has been moving full steam ahead into mobile and seeing strong results.  An executive recently said that the company’s mobile users have doubled during the comparable first quarters of 2011 and 2012 (see story).

Citi is also seeing strength in its  mobile services for institutional online bankers, with its CitiDirect BE Mobile banking application recently surpassing more than $10 billion in total transaction value since its launch (see story).

“We found basically that easy payment and better security were big drivers both in terms of current features and future ones,” Mr. Hoberman said.

“Consumers really rates security features highly – that might be an area where a lot of banks could do more,” he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York