I use HN Notify so please reply to one of my threads if you'd like to contact me.
meet.hn/city/us-Rockford
Yes, the apps perform better/faster and generally have more UI thought put into them. Overall, lower friction. Often when people need to use their banking app, they're in a hurry, maybe stressed (e.g. in line at a grocery store) so everything the bank can do quickly and with visual assurance helps.
On the premium end of banking, where users generally aren't stressed about money, offering an app is more about catering to however the user prefers to interact.
Chicago is one publicized example. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/10/chicago-shortens...
This project is an enhanced reader for Ycombinator Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/.
The interface also allow to comment, post and interact with the original HN platform. Credentials are stored locally and are never sent to any server, you can check the source code here: https://github.com/GabrielePicco/hacker-news-rich.
For suggestions and features requests you can write me here: gabrielepicco.github.io