The T. Rowe Price Personal app is available for both iPhone and iPod touch devices. In addition to the app, T. Rowe Price also has an iPad magazine app for its quarterly digital publication.

“Simply put, our clients were asking for it,” said Chip Weldon, vice president of the interactive strategy group at T. Rowe Price, Baltimore. “We want to meet our clients with the experiences they want, where they want them.

“The app is another way to provide flexibility for our clients,” he said. “Our goal is to make it very easy to do business with us.”

Invest on mobile
The app is available to T. Rowe Price clients for free from Apple’s App Store.

Via the app, users can view their account balances for both small business and brokerage accounts. The app also logs pending transactions and history.

Consumers can also view charts and allocations on their accounts. For instance, the app features a pie graph of how a user’s account breaks down into categories such as personal investments and savings.

The app also lets consumers track fund performance on their accounts.

Additionally, users can also view investment and market news inside the app and find fund research via the app.

“Across nearly every industry, clients increasingly expect firms to provide mobile and portable experiences,” Mr. Weldon said.

“We’re pleasantly surprised by the reaction from clients and fully understand the commitment required to react to our clients’ requests and continuously improve our services – in mobile, on the Web and across all of our client touch points,” he said.

Growing expectations
When it comes to mobile banking, consumers undoubtedly have shown that they want to use their devices to manage their money, and financial institutions are slowly getting behind consumers’ needs.

For example, a recent study from Forrester Research found that banks are investing up to one-third of their digital efforts into mobile (see story).

As both financial organizations and consumers become more tech-savvy, the challenge for companies will be to continue to roll out features and services that build on previous initiatives to give users a 360-degree of banking options.

Examples of more sophisticated features include person-to-person transfers, graphics and different efforts for smartphones and tablets.

Bank of America, USAA and Citibank were voted as top mobile financial institutions from Javelin Strategy & Research because they have developed separate strategies for tablet users, for instance. (see story).

“Like many companies, we see mobile transforming the way both internal and external users can interact with us,” Mr. Weldon said.

“We’re increasing our competencies to build and manage mobile interactions and expect more great things – for our clients and our associates,” he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York