First-of-its-kind Canadian mobile banking experience designed for Gen Zers

TORONTO, August 7, 2019 - RBC is the first Canadian bank to launch a customized mobile banking experience for students. Launching today, the RBC Mobile Student Edition, built within the RBC Mobile app, was designed in collaboration with students to enable features that matter most to them.

The Student Edition hones in on Generation Z (“Gen Z”), which encompasses all high school and post-secondary age students. According to RBC internal research¹, only 38 per cent of post-secondary and 33 per cent of high school students feel that they have their finances under control. With easy access, customizable features, familiar design and quick touch definitions, this new edition within RBC’s existing mobile app is tailored to students’ digital preferences and enables them to learn how to manage their finances.

“Gen Zers are true digital natives, and it was essential that their input lead the development of the Student Edition,” said Sean Amato-Gauci, Executive Vice-President, Cards, Payments and Banking, RBC. “We worked closely with a group of young Canadians throughout the entire process – from the initial research phase through to final testing. With their insights on how they engage with content and interact with money, we were able to deliver a mobile banking experience that’s in line with the apps that they know and love.”

Key Features of the RBC Mobile Student Edition:

• Simplification: Prioritized key features are front and centre for easy navigation, including: quick access to accounts, send money features, insights on spending, setting up reoccurring account transfers and a carousel to scroll through accounts.
• Personalization: The ability to choose nicknames and colours for accounts and upload contact photos allows students to interact with the app in a way that best suits their behaviour and, in turn, obtain a clear financial overview.
• Tailored Content: Contextual definitions for financial terms, coupled with money management insights, help make banking easy to understand.

“Our goal is to help students learn about money management and gain confidence,” said Erica Nielsen, Vice-President, Payments and Banking, RBC. “Banking with RBC is more than managing money. We empower young people to confidently take on the challenges they face by supporting them in understanding their financial future”.

Going Beyond Banking for Generation Z:
With the belief that supporting young people is key to Canada’s future, RBC created programs, advice, offers and technology specifically designed for their life stage, which include:

• RBC Future Launch: A program that helps increase access to skill development, networking, work experience, and mental well-being supports & services. Empowering the youth of today for the jobs of tomorrow.
• Student Solutions Website: An online experience for youth at RBC that quickly connects them to the resources, products (Banking) and programs (Future Launch, WE, RBCxMusic) that matter most to them. With its recent redesign, the Student Solutions Website delivers an enhanced mobile-minded browsing experience that caters to the way students expect to see digital content.
• RBCxMusic: Bringing clients more music, more shows and closer to their favourite artists.
• RBC Rewards and RBC Offers: Clients can redeem points for over 50,000 redemption options, as well as load personalized discounts, bonus points and cash back offers from great brands.
• WE: WE Charity: Together, RBC and WE invest in and support youth -- through programming and educational curriculum – not only for their own benefit but for the collective benefit of our communities.
• On Campus Branches: Convenient locations that offer specialized banking and beyond banking advice to help students enter and navigate their post-secondary life, such as: budgeting, financial wellness essential skills, resume writing and tips for starting a small business.

RBC clients who are under age 22 and have downloaded or updated to the most recent version of the RBC Mobile app (available on Android and iOS) will have access to the Student Edition. For more information about the RBC Mobile app, please visit www.rbc.com/rbcmobilestudent.

Video: RBC Mobile Student Edition, built within the RBC Mobile app, is a customized mobile banking experience for students that is designed to their preferences and helps them build a strong financial future.

Media contact:
Cory Fisher, RBC Communications, 647-339-9521