Hey, remember when online banking came along? Suddenly you were spared hours in bank queues and dealing with bank employees. Thing is you were largely tied to your desktop. The next logical step was mobile banking.
Smartphones have seen mobile banking take off in a big way. Banks even have apps that take you pretty damn close to the full online experience.
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Small wonder then that nearly one in 10 mobile users (in other words, pretty much all of us) are expected to pay their bills using mobile devices by 2016.
According to tech analysis company, Juniper Research, smartphone apps are just one reason mobile banking is taking off. The company says that the rush is also being fuelled by banks “bundling MBPP (Mobile Bill Presentment and Payment) services within their overall mobile banking platform”.
People that use mobile banking once are also expected to stick with it. The research company reckons that “approximately 80% of total mobile banking customers will pay their bills via a mobile device by 2016”.
According to Juniper’s Research Director Windsor Holden, “Customers are becoming increasingly more confident in using basic informational mBanking services. The natural progression is to engage in transactional banking, as they demand tighter control over their finances within a turbulent economic environment and busier lifestyle which are at odds with a 9 to 5 branch-based service.”
At least one group of people, however, will be slow to adopt mobile banking: the elderly. Juniper Research reckons that they, especially, will be put off by the fear of things like malware and spyware.
This situation, it says, will continue unless and until consumers are convinced that mobile device security is of the same grade as online security, if not better.
