While a number of banks haven’t even offered mobile banking options to their customers at this time, Citibank (NYSE:C) is moving beyond general mobile banking service to target their customers who prefer or must do their banking in Spanish via their new Citi Mobile en Espanol service for their Hispanic customers using smartphones.
Struggling to gain momentum, Citibank is attempting to innovate and jump into new areas before their competitors, with their Citi Mobile en Espanol service being a significant initiative to not only get their first, but to establish deep inroads into the Hispanic community.
Citibank is the first major bank in the U.S. to offer Hispanic customer mobile banking in Spanish, so should have a good chance of drawing new customers and deposits through this strategy.
The new service will primarily be marketed through Web sites of Citibank, SEO tactics and flyers offered at local Citi branches. Citi is also in the midst of training its workers so they can understand the service and let targeted customers know it’s available to them.
Why this is important is Hispanics are extremely active in mobile phone usage, and represent a strong demographic that can generate significant growth for a banking business.
Citibank already has a strong Hispanic customer base, which accounts for almost 25 percent of their overall customers at this time. So it’s not only a growth opportunity, but also a service which could help them retain customers while growing out their base.
Pew Research has revealed that close to 50 percent of all Hispanics who speak English use a mobile device to access the Internet so far in 2009. Many of them are bi-lingual and prefer doing business in Spanish, depending on the specific task or situation is. Almost 30 percent go online daily through their mobile phones.
The service is compatible with any mobile device, including Palm, iPhone and Blackberry.
