A recently released report has found that mobile banking has seen a dramatic increase in 2012 all over the world. The report finds that Asia has the highest mobile banking penetration—47 percent of survey respondents in South Korea said they had mobile interactions in the previous three months, the highest penetration in the survey—while survey respondents in the U.S. reported the highest frequency, averaging 4.9 mobile transactions in the previous three months.
The growing rate of mobile penetration in developed and emerging economies has pushed banks to invest in the mobile channel, with many proposing well-developed banking apps, allowing everything from checking your balance to money transfers.
“Mobile banking presents profit-strapped banks with an opportunity to shift routine transactions from high-cost physical channels to much lower-cost digital channels,” said Gerard du Toit, Bain financial services partner and lead author of the report. “It also presents opportunities for banks to create more “wow” experiences that use new digital technologies to delight customers and deepen customer loyalty.”
In Europe mobile and online banking is well developed, but it varies across countries. Germans are big fans of the online channel, but their mobile banking applications are lacking. “Smartphone adoption did not gain steam until 2010, and most of the banks have been slow to invest in mobile applications because they were focused on mergers and surviving the financial crisis. As a result, the mobile channel has not yet provoked delight among customers— which of course opens an opportunity for banks that can quickly develop advanced, reliable mobile offerings,” the study explains.
In France, mobile usage is slightly lower than the global average at 26%, but internet banking is very popular. Spanish customers are very happy with the online and mobile channel, but they still remain less popular than branches and ATMs, where most of their transactions are carried out. In the UK the mobile channel is well under way with the country’s main banks having launched very complete mobile banking and payment solutions in the past few months.
“Mobile functionality will become table stakes in the competition for loyal customers, so banks should invest now to lock in customers while features such as remote deposit capture still have the power to differentiate a bank,” Bain & Company recommend.
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