TD Bank is one of the top 15 banks in the USA – serving mostly the North East. It has announced a new free-to-download mobile application for both Android and iPhone – with a Blackberry app to follow in the near future.
What does it do?
The TD Bank app is one of those nice banking applications that gives you access to the kind of features you’d expect from your on-line portal. You can check your balances, transfer funds, make bill and loan payments, etc. Because it’s a mobile application it also builds in a certain amount of location data, so that you can locate the nearest TD Bank or ATM.
What we think?
There’s a strong argument to suggest that while this kind of banking application is a very nice touch, it’s not quite where banks and other financial institutions should be looking. TD Bank has 1,100 branches, and a lot of customers to go along with that. But while the number of smartphones in the market is certainly growing, the vast majority of devices in the field are still mid-range phones that handle voice and SMS a lot better than they do applications. Even with Androids, iPhones and (soon) Blackberries being able to run their app, TD Bank would probably see a lot more customer interaction if they created a thorough, easy-to-use SMS system for accessing account information and making transfers.
