Nationwide Launch Android Wear App, For Some Reason

Your Wrist Is Now Great For Banking. Yes, We Said 'Banking'.

You can now check your bank balance on your smartwatch, in case it has ever occurred to you that you might want to do that.

Customers of Nationwide can now check their balances using a watch on their wrist, because that might conceivably make sense.

Nationwide Building Society said that members who have downloaded the mobile banking app for Android will be able to access their balance if they want to using their Android Wear smartwatch, and also if they can find a reason to bother.

As well as being able to check their balance with the smartwatch, they can can also set it to give them daily notifications of how much money is in their account, which is logical if that's the sort of person you are.

The move comes as people increasingly turn to technology to check their account balances and transfer money, with the rise of mobile payment services such as Barclays' Pingit and the industry-wide Paym, both of which help people to transfer money as easily as texting.

Nationwide already operates a service on its mobile banking app called "quick balance", which allows people to get immediate and secure access to their account balance with the touch of a button. The quick balance button on the app has been used more than 12 million times since it was launched in June.

Tony Prestedge, chief operating officer at Nationwide, explained in ostensibly logical English:

"Giving those members who want and have the technology the ability to check their balance on their watch provides them with even more choice as to how they interact with us, whether it is online, through an app, face-to-face or over the phone."

Meanwhile the 98% of people who don't own a smartwatch shrugged and kept banking on their mobile phone, their laptop or an actual physical bank made out of bricks and humans.

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