Banking Apps

I've recently read a couple of accounts on a pretty terrifying type of mugging. The victim will find themselves being robbed at knifepoint, and instead of being told to hand over their phone, or wallet, they will be forced to make a bank transfer to the criminal's account from their banking app(s).

Hardly anyone carries cash these days, people don't even need to carry their plastic cards any more and everyone knows this. Victims may have been marched over to an ATM to withdraw cash in the past, but at most that would only result in a couple of hundred pounds being lost on top of a really traumatic experience. But the only limit with a bank transfer is however much happens to be in the victim's account – potentially tens of thousands.

The likelihood of this happening to you is extremely low, but it has me thinking, what could actually be done to prevent this? Aside from the flippant advice of "learn krav" or "don't go outside".

Nearly every bank offers a an app for you to do your 'online banking', and there are many challenger banks that offer an app only. "Don't install your bank's app on your phone" would be the easy answer but isn't always viable.

On iOS, you could do thinks like hiding the app's icon on your home screen, prevent it from appearing on search but a very determined and savvy criminal would easily find your app in your App's Library - which conveniently groups all your finance apps together. Banking apps love to spam you with notifications so much, that would be another clue to the app's existence.

Further measures could include setting App Limits through Screen Time on banking apps, but this is likely to inconvenience you so much in your day to day, and the Ignore Limits button can be so easily tapped it more or less defeats the purpose.

Is it up to the banking app to add better preventative measures, or for iOS to allow apps to be invisible? It's certainly easier to do the latter on Android; secondary profiles, password-locked folders, and other security features which could potentially deter someone if they got a hold of your phone and couldn't quickly and easily find what they're looking for.

I can't help but feel that those kinds of features feel kind of slimy. Not to turn this into an Android vs iOS debate, but these feel like features Apple would never allow. Privacy and security isn't for only people who have 'something to hide', but features like that can enable adulterers and abusers.

If this concerns you, then it would be wise to review the banking apps that you have on your phone. Do you need them? Is the supposed better UX and convenience of an app worth the worry? If (in the UK) you happen to have a Monzo, Starling, or Revolut, don't keep any more money in there than necessary. There are no limits to the number of current accounts you can have – and they may just offer better interest rates.