Mobile adoption is important to the banks that I have been speaking with. With the investment that goes into the deployment of a mobile banking or mobile payments solution, reputations are on the line. The importance of trust in the entire value chain is amazing to me.
Ground zero for where trust affects everything is the trust that individual consumers have in mobile applications–especially with regard to security.
As I contemplate adoption, my own security concerns come to mind. I use mobile banking when I am in the USA. As I travel around the world I frequently decide not to access mobile banking because of my lack of confidence in the security of the system. I wait until I can get my laptop connected, fire up my VPN, type in my one-time-password (OTP) — and only then access online banking.
It is not enough to make mobile systems trustworthy. We need to be able to explain how they work to users in a way that inspires their confidence. For me, this is a necessary prerequisite to adoption.
Deeply understanding the concept of trust is important to both of these objectives. So that is what I am thinking and reading about nowadays.