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I am in phase of researching different approaches for designing saving bank account opening from phone/tablet. It will be a combination of responsive and adaptive layouts.

The challenge we have is the length of the form and given the number of fields we have on the form it will likely be very annoying for the customer do it on the mobile. Maybe using at tablet it might work but for mobiles I was thinking of any other better approach.

One interesting though I got in my mind was: we can get customer postal address details from mobile service provider and fill the form or ask them enter SSO number/drivers license number. (Whether this is even possible from a technical perspective is another matter though).

Is there any research / suggestions into this idea from a UX point-of-view?

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ICICI Bank already has implemented account opening through tablet – Kushal Dec 18 '12 at 9:54
@Kushal Yeah, i have seen that. – Ravi Dec 19 '12 at 5:43

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In a banking application other sign up rules don’t apply. You need to know (from a credible source) that user A can identify herself as user A. This can’t be done by e-mail confirmation. You need a digital identity provider.

Laws in Sweden, and probably also in the US, make sure that accounts and their transactions are validated over a certain amount. It’s impossible to make a deposit of 10 000 USD and not specify where they come from. In order to specify that, the bank needs to know who makes the deposit.

Probably you need some verification, either at a physical bank first, before app users can open up an account. My bank verifies me on mobile through my cell phone number, my social security number and my PIN code. But on the mobile app I can only make transactions between my own accounts and pay bills. I can’t make a deposit to another users account.

On desktop/laptop the bank uses a third party security provider called Bank-ID. When I sign in I use Bank-ID and when that’s correct the bank’s web server sends a password in a message to my mobile phone which I have to enter in the web app – before I can access my bank online.

It works really well and I think that process can be adapted in your app. Use a (by the bank) registered mobile phone number, social security number and a pin code to let the user sign in on a mobile app. Then the user can open a new account, since we know that user A really is user A.

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That's very valid and important question what you have raised. How can i identify a user? Like you said, there should be some credible source who can validate one's identity. May be using SSO number/pin code might work. These regulations will change for country to country, now i am working for a Australian bank. I need to check with my folks down here. But thanks a lot for the insight. – Ravi Oct 12 '12 at 6:33
@Ravi You're very welcome. Hope you find what you need down under and continue to post you bank-app questions. They are important and is one of the challanges of the future. Good Luck! – Benny Skogberg Oct 12 '12 at 6:36
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+1 Totally agree. You need a security model that is secure enough that users can confide in it, but not secure to the point where it becomes unusable. – AndroidHustle Oct 12 '12 at 13:22

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