In addition to its Funds Xpress smart phone app, Metropolitan Bank in Memphis also offers this take on "mobile banking," sending their Mini Cooper to pick customer deposits.

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With cutting-edge technology local banks have recently introduced, time-crunched customers have the opportunity to make deposits 24/7 by using their smartphones.

Metropolitan Bank, for example, offers Xpress Deposit, an application (app) launched at the end of May that allows customers to make a deposit by shooting a photo of a check on their iPhone, Android or Blackberry smartphones.

By using Xpress Deposit, customers no longer need to carry a check around before finding the time to run to the bank to make a deposit. Once they make the deposit with their smartphone, from home or work or wherever they are, they can file the check.

“They can take care of their business without having to come to the bank to physically deposit a check inside a branch office,” says Bill Menkel, Metropolitan Bank’s Nashville president. “I think that’s a real benefit. Sometimes you’re traveling, you’re out of town. It’s hard to make a deposit. It’s real handy. It’s a convenient way of doing your banking.”

Paul Jadwin, vice president, Financial Data Technology Corp. (Fi-DATA), a community bank data processing company in Franklin, says there are several reasons banks are offering smartphone apps to their customers. One reason is young people want to use technology as an easier way to access their banking information. Another motivation is more self-serving for banks, he says.

“It’s really to drive the cost from the branches,” says Jadwin, “so they don’t have to build as much brick and mortar branches, and to attract folks into the lower-cost channels for servicing them.”

Metropolitan’s app can be downloaded free from app stores. There is no bank fee associated with the transaction. Customers register with a Metropolitan client services advisor, and a registration confirmation is delivered within one business day.

Deposits usually post on the next business day if a cut-off deadline is met. An e-mail notification alerts customers on the status of their deposit. There is a deposit limit of $3,000 per day and a maximum of three checks per day.

Menkel says the creation of the Xpress Deposit app was customer-driven. The app fits well within the bank’s game plan to eschew branches on every corner but to still make banking a snap for customers through technology.

“It’s not the sole or only option that they have,” Menkel notes. “It’s an add-on feature to what we’re trying to do as a company, which is to bring the bank to the client.”

Metropolitan enlisted FundsXpress Financial Network Inc., a subsidiary of First Data, to help it produce Xpress Deposit. FundsXpress also was involved in the creation of Metropolitan’s mobile banking app, which was launched in August. The bank’s mobile banking through a smartphone with Internet access arrived on the scene in 2008.

Currently, Metropolitan has about 1,000 mobile banking users. In May alone, customers signed in over 8,000 times to mobile banking through its apps, representing 48 percent of the bank’s Internet banking users.

Another mobile phone service Metropolitan offers is text banking or Short Message Service (SMS). Customers can send in a code to retrieve their balance and their transaction history. They can also receive a text alert of their balance is or to see if a certain transaction has cleared their account.

First Tennessee Bank also offers an app for depositing checks that is available on iPhones and Android phones, with a $3,000 deposit limit per month.

“We’re still early in the introduction phase,” says Dan Marks, First Tennessee’s chief marketing officer. “Protecting our customers and maintaining a strong bank is an important part of allowing us to serve our customers.

“So because it’s new and for those reasons, there is a $3,000 limit per month, which we know will allow most of our customers’ deposits. Over time, that will likely be adjusted as we get more experience with the capability.”

The bank started the beta test for its Mobile Deposit app for the iPhone with employee customers about a year ago. The app was available for all of its customers in September. The Android version was introduced earlier this year.

First Tennessee decided not to make the app available for Blackberry devices because, after examining smartphone usage, it found more than 80 percent of the bank’s mobile banking users own an iPhone or an Android phone.

Although technology may change the nature of bank branches, Kevin Karrels, a First Tennessee retail bank technology representative in Nashville, says apps and other technology won’t replace branches altogether.

“From my perspective, it has much to do about offering all the channels that our customers have a desire to utilize, but not directed at one channel or another,” says Karrels. “To that extent, the branch network will change over time, based on customer behavior.

“I wouldn’t say that Mobile Deposit was created to allow us to close financial centers. It’s more about having all the channels that are available that we know that our customers want but then allowing them to choose the channel that they would prefer to use and having consistent, differentiating customer experience in each of those channels that sets us apart from our competition.”

Avenue Bank also is turning to app technology to better serve its customers. Customers opting for online banking can download the Smartphone app, introduced to the public in April, on iPhone, Android or Blackberry.

Customers can view accounts and balances, 90 days of account history, and account detail and transaction details. They can also transfer funds within Avenue Bank accounts, and have access to Text Banking and bill pay.

“The obvious benefits are access and convenience,” says Andy Moats, Avenue Bank executive vice president, “just ease of doing business, which drives a lot of new technology certainly in the banking world. For us the benefit is customer satisfaction, just trying to deliver a better quality product.”

The mobile banking engine is powered by First Data, and the app itself was created by mFoundry.

Moats says it’s really important to choose vendors wisely, particularly in the banking sector, so Avenue Bank thoroughly vets its vendors to ensure information is secure.

Avenue Bank has more than 900 app users. The app is available for consumer accounts, but the bank is looking into adding a commercial component. It may also expand some of the information that’s currently available within the app.

“We’re definitely looking into the photo check deposit for the app,” Moats says. “I suspect that’s something we’ll offer sooner than later. Avenue likes to be on the cutting edge of technology but not at the expense of safety and security.”

All of the banks’ apps can be used on smart tablets, such as an iPad, in a 2x mode, but the smart tablets really need their own specific apps for the best viewing.

Metropolitan is working to expand its apps for smart tablets, as well as adopting other innovative technology. Its next endeavor into smartphone apps probably will be a debit card system for making purchases.

First Tennessee also has on its drawing board a tablet-optimized version of the mobile deposit app for the iPad and the Android tablets. Avenue Bank is coming out with a version of its app that is specifically formatted for a tablet in the first quarter of 2013.

The banks will continue to explore innovative banking technology. Some hints of possibilities for them were suggested at the FinovateSpring conference, an event focused on financial-related technology held in San Francisco last month.

Among advancements on display were credit cards with small buttons that can switch the card from debit to credit.

Jadwin imagines customers will eventually be able to initiate the process of opening an account from a mobile phone.