USB Is First Major Bank to Launch Mobile Photo Bill Pay

US Bancorp made good on its promise to be the first major bank to deliver mobile photo bill pay to its customers today. The initiative was announced in early December.

The feature is available on updated iOS and Android apps released today.

San Diego-based Mitek powers the solution and is a major advocate for the transformative power of the smartphone camera. The healthcare and insurance industries are using Mitek software to input customer and patient data, as well.

With Photo Bill Pay, users of US Bank’s mobile app simply snap a picture of a bill using their mobile device. The software then auto-populates a biller profile using the information from the bill. The user can then pay the bill using bill pay as they would normally.

Photo bill pay is the companion feature to remote deposit capture, the technology that allows users to deposit checks by taking pictures of them.

US Bank’s press release states the following regarding adoption:

Recent research forecasts Mobile Photo Bill Pay adoption to reach 33 percent among adult U.S. consumers by 2018, and result in 1.4 billion bills migrating to the mobile channel. Another study suggests that more than 1 in 5 customers would use this feature.

Customers reacted positively to remote deposit capture, and it is now a “must-have” feature for banks’ mobile apps. It’s an open question whether customers will embrace mobile photo bill pay, too. After all, remote deposit puts money into your account while bill pay takes it out. But bill pay in online banking is a famously sticky feature, so the same should hold true for mobile. The app could encourage bank switching.

US Bank is the first major bank to launch this feature, but not the first overall. First Financial, an Abilene, Texas-based bank with $4.5 billion in assets, was the first bank in the US to launch mobile photo bill pay last month, using software from mobile provider Malauzai.

US Bank has assets of $354 billion and is based in Minneapolis, Minn.

Related posts:

1. First Financial in Abilene, Texas is the First Bank to Launch Mobile Photo Bill Pay
2. Mitek Mobile Photo Bill Pay Launch Imminent (Updated)
3. Simple Unveils Photo Check Deposit