Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Bank of Nova Scotia, both based in Toronto, have come out on top in Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc.’s 2016 ranking of the best Canadian mobile banking websites.

The two banks tied with a score of 81 out of 100 in Forrester’s “2016 Canadian mobile banking functionality benchmark,” pulling ahead of Bank of Montreal (BMO), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Canada Trust), all based in Toronto.

CIBC was recognized for its product marketing features, such as pre-approved offers and pre-filled forms, which make it easy for clients to purchase products from within the firm’s mobile application. The bank was also commended for its inclusion of money management tools, such as budgeting calculators, within its app.

Scotiabank was acknowledged for its strong account management features as well as a comprehensive “help” feature that allows clients to search from within the app.

TD Canada Trust came in third place with a score of 68. Like Scotiabank, TD’s help functionality helped boost its score. The report declares that TD Canada Trust’s texting service, which allows clients to ask questions and receive customer service by text, is “interesting.”

BMO received a score of 66. The Forrester report declared the firm to be a leader in offering branch appointment scheduling across devices.

RBC received a score of 62. Although the bank is at the bottom of the ranking, the report states that RBC is a leader in providing transactional features, which was a key area of improvement for all Big Five banks. RBC, in particular, was commended for providing access to upcoming bills and a payment history of bills.

The Forrester report states that the key area of improvement for most of the banks is related to their service features, which would include a variety of “help” options and alerts. The report notes that Scotiabank actually fared well in this category.

“Functionality that lets customers notify the bank when they are going to be traveling abroad, report fraud, or easily tell the bank when their card has been lost or stolen is not widely available on banks’ mobile banking apps,” the report states.

Features that help clients with their money management should also be an area of focus for the banks, according to the report. Although CIBC and BMO offer money management tools, none of the banks group transactions into categories or provide visualizations to help clients with their budgeting and spending.

The report also provides insight into the future direction of mobile banking apps, which Forester believes should be more interconnected with local retail offers.

“By making intelligent use of data about customers’ spending patterns and integrating that with other data, smartphone-based digital wallets can deliver relevant offers from nearby merchants to customers’ mobile phones, creating new value for both customer and merchant,” the report states.

Photo copyright: Bloomberg