Member Article

Mobile banking is booming

But banks will need a mobile centric approach in communications

Our ongoing global research into mobile banking finds that there is, unsurprisingly, a continuing boom in banking on mobile devices; mobile payments have now overtaken the use of credit and debit cards - 17% of people now use cards compared to 24% using mobile payments. However, banking customers across the world remain unaware of all the many possibilities and facilities available to them. There is an apparent skewed approach to communications, meaning that customers are confused as to the range of banking features and services available to them. Although banks claim to continually evolve their mobile strategies, they are not focusing on where it matters – on the very devices on which they offer their services. In recent years, only 16% of marketing spend was placed on mobile advertising by banks, a decrease of 10% from 2013. Even less is spent across both radio and newspaper, which both account for 9% of marketing spend. Overall, marketing efforts remain traditional with TV cited as the most used medium for promotions (42%).

Progression, but still work to do

Almost half of all mobile users now use their mobile for financial transactions; a growth of 60 percentage points from 26% in 2013 to 42% in 2015. We expect that all mobile users will bank online within the next year if adoption remains at the current rate. Even though there has been significant uptake, and nearly all banks provide some form of mobile banking service – still over one in 10 don’t know that mobile banking facilities are available to them and a third have yet to use their mobiles for banking services.

Communicate and educate

Despite the advancements in mobile banking, a quarter of those surveyed continue to have security concerns - a decrease of 10% from 2013, signalling a shift change. With most phones now capable of mobile banking, banks must better educate their customers on how they can use their online services safely. More services will always mean new fears – so education will be an ongoing process, across all the channels.

One in four also believe that their device is not suitable for online banking, signalling a lack of awareness as to their devices’ capabilities. The challenge of evolving technology will always remain but most banks now offer app services, along with SMS services. This will continue as banks develop more possibilities in terms of services and evolve their offerings, including fingerprint scanning as the functionality of smartphones increase, so it’s imperative to communicate services coherently to their audiences.

Where are the banks failing?

By focusing all efforts on one main channel of communication – TV - and not the actual devices their audience are using every minute of every day, banks are clearly missing opportunities with their customers which are integral to building relationships and trust. Education and awareness is a necessary and ongoing task for banks to target their customers, with ongoing security fears, lack of knowledge about the services available and lack of understanding about service requirements surprisingly prevalent. By acknowledging and acting quickly in their mobile banking communication efforts banks will reap the rewards as the boom is clearly set to continue.

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by BuzzCity .