Forrester

Why Read This Report

In February 2009, Discover Financial Services introduced its Spend Analyzer, an online personal financial management (PFM) tool that lets clients track and categorize their spending. Adoption was swift, but there was one problem: Cash payments, including those made to friends and family, could not be captured, somewhat sapping the value of the Spend Analyzer as a comprehensive PFM tool. Discover's eBusiness team recognized the problem and worked to create a person-to-person (P2P) payment feature that helped clients "electronify" cash-based and P2P payments. The initiative has been a success so far, hitting adoption and transaction levels three months ahead of internal projections. Discover's mobile P2P offering demonstrates a fundamental tenet of mobile financial services strategy: Services and features have a greater chance of success when they grow out of a core business objective.