Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has enhanced its mobile app offering with the help of NCR Corporation’s deposit software, aiding clients’ ability to deposit checks.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has enhanced its mobile app offering with the help of NCR Corporation’s deposit software, aiding clients’ ability to deposit checks.

The app included a check-depositing feature when it launched at the end of March, however combined with NCR’s Mitek MiSnap feature, clients will be given onscreen guidance for check orientation as well as an automatic picture capture facility.

Benefits for the client include an easier system to use, better image quality and reduced errors to quicken the processing time compared to the initial system in place for the app's first three months of operation.

The check deposit is then validated and transmitted using the NCR APTRA Passport for Mobile software, which delivers fast and secure check processing, the bank said in a statement.

There is an upward trend in the use of mobile apps to deposit checks in the wealth management industry; according to a recent Federal Reserve survey the amount of bankers doing so almost doubled between 2012 and 2013 (from 21 to 38 per cent, respectively).

However, a study released by MyPrivateBanking Research released just a few weeks ago found that although some firms are fully integrating mobile apps into their offerings, not all firms have fully exploited their potential (see here).

The top five frontrunners in mobile app strategy for 2014, according to the research, are DBS Bank, Citi Private Bank, BNP Paribas, Northern Trust and Credit Suisse – a pack that Morgan Stanley could not, but may yet, penetrate.

In January 2013, Morgan Stanley pledged to invest $500 million in analytics, automation and mobile software to improve client and advisor services over the following 18 months, according to Bloomberg. The incorporation of NCR’s software to Morgan Stanley’s wealth management app comes on the very end of this period.