(July 6, 2010) JPMorgan Chase & Co. burst onto the consumer mobile remote deposit capture stage in a big way last week when it unveiled an updated online-banking app for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPod touch that facilitates remote capture and, for added measure, person-to-person payments. The application makes Chase the biggest bank now offering mobile consumer remote capture, a market dominated throughout its short history by specialty financial-services provider USAA Federal Savings Bank.

New York City-based Chase has 25 million demand-deposit accounts held by 20 million customers and already offers PC-based remote deposit capture to small and mid-sized businesses. “For me, it is obviously a validation of the technology, but it also is going to be a market mover,” says Robert Meara, a banking analyst with Boston-based Celent LLC. “Other banks could dismiss USAA and small credit unions, but it’s hard to be dismissive of Chase.”

Chase launched the new app quietly on Apple’s iTunes App Store, but the bank will start a marketing campaign later this month, a spokesperson tells Digital Transactions News. Chase is adding remote capture to enhance “customer convenience,” he says. “It’s one more reason for customers to choose and stay with Chase.” With the updated app, a consumer can snap a picture of the front and bank of a check and then upload the pictures to Chase for deposit.

Asked if Chase will adapt the new service for Google Inc.’s Android or other major mobile-device operating systems, the spokesperson says only, “we’re looking at it.” He also says without elaboration that Chase is “looking at” adding home-based remote capture from its online-banking site, a market also dominated by USAA but which also includes some large processors and individual financial institutions. Chase has an online-banking app for Apple’s new iPad tablet computer, but it doesn’t have remote capture capability.

The spokesperson would not say whether Chase developed the software that powers its consumer remote capture service in-house or is using a vendor. USAA uses an in-house system to do the heavy lifting for its remote capture service, but uses applications from San Diego-based Mitek Systems Inc., the leading vendor in the mobile capture niche, for some functions (Digital Transactions News, May 24). Chase currently is limiting the service to deposits of $1,000 or less and a total of $3,000 over 30 days.

Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., two of the banking industry’s tech leaders, reportedly are testing remote capture. Chase has aggressively pursued the small-business remote deposit capture market with “some unusually rich discounts” valued at $2,055 over two years in the form of waived fees and a Panini scanner, Meara wrote in a recent blog post.

Chase, meanwhile, began offering its QuickPay person-to-person payment service on its online-banking site two years ago, but added the iPhone channel only last week, the spokesperson says. The bank developed the technology in-house. Recipients provide an e-mail address to the sender and don’t need a Chase account. Senders can transfer money from Chase accounts or even non-Chase demand-deposit accounts. Chase does not charge senders or recipients for the service.