FinTech Issuers Admit to Making Moving Money In and Out of Accounts a Hassle

Money mobility — a measure of how fast and frictionless it is to send and receive money to and from accounts — is becoming common payments parlance as the practice gains greater importance in the financial ecosystem.

The problem is that money mobility faces issues and needs work to meet expectations.

PYMNTS analyzed this in “The 2023 Money Mobility Index,” a collaboration with Ingo Money based on a pair of surveys, one asking consumers about their money mobility experiences and the other asking FinTech executives about customer satisfaction in this area.

The Money Mobility Index measures how easily account issuers can sign and retain customers. The greater the index score, the more likely customers are to use their accounts. Index scores tend to be higher for issuers that offer more instant payment methods, in part because instant payment options provide faster, more seamless payments and deposits.

Generally, the more instant methods an issuer offers, the easier it is for their customers to move money in and out of their accounts. The “money in” component is more problematic.

Account holders PYMNTS surveyed were 51% more likely to report issues receiving funds than when paying them out. This is also reflected in the finding that 67% of FinTech issuers said their customers have problems when receiving funds, with only 45% saying customers have problems when sending funds.

Options and choices are what separate top performers from the rest.

“Issuers offering six or more instant payment methods, either for money in or money out, earn an average Index score of 59.5” versus issuers with three to five instant payment methods — either for money in or money out — averaging Index scores of 52.3 and issuers offering two or fewer methods earning average scores of just 50.6,” the study found.

As the study concluded: “FinTech issuers looking to attract and retain customers must continue to streamline, removing the frictions from money-in operations that frustrate consumers while guaranteeing that all transactions occur in a timely and secure fashion. Instant payment options are also a must-have, but again, FinTechs must ensure that the consumer experience is secure and frictionless if they are going to grow their customer base, and they have a long way to go.”