Tag: mobile banking trends

Mobile banking is being used, but this is only the beginning

| April 13, 2015

More than half of smartphone owners in the United States currently use this type of app and service.

According to recently released survey data from the Federal Reserve and an analysis conducted by Business Insider, about half of all smartphone owning American adults are now using mobile banking in some form, but at the same time, there is still a long way to go before it can be considered to be truly mainstream.

Among the general population, not just smartphone owners, the uses of these services is considerably lower.

The data showed that in 2013 the percentage of American smartphone owners who were using mobile banking services was about 51 percent. By the same time the next year, it had risen to only 52 percent. While it is growing, and while this does mean that more than half of all of these individuals users are also taking advantage of these services, it shows that the rate of growth is very slow and there is still a great deal of room for this type of usage to improve.

The fastest mobile banking penetration growth is occurring more quickly specifically among smartphone users.

Mobile Banking - American Smartphone UsersThe general population may not be seeing a rapid growth, but when taking a more focused look at the people who actually have the devices, there was a rate of increase of 6 percent, compared to the tiny 1 percent seen by the general population.

When looking at American adults who have bank accounts, regardless of whether or not they were smartphone owners, there was a 5 percent increase in the use of banking services over mobile devices. Across the entire American population, the penetration of banking over mobile devices reached 34 percent in 2014.

It was pointed out that it is very unlikely for feature phone owners to try to use mobile banking services will see much of an increase. The reason is that banks have not been releasing the types of apps that would be usable in feature phones, when the population is rapidly making the transition over to smartphones and the vast majority of device owners have that specific type of cell phone.

Customers at Bank of America most willing to pay for mobile banking

| March 30, 2015

According to a new study, 33 percent of the people with accounts with that institution are willing to pay a fee.

The results of a study conducted by research company SNL Financial have now been released and they have shown that it is the customers of the Bank of America that are most willing to pay an additional monthly fee in order to have access to mobile banking features.

This shows that there are some customers who would be willing to pay to use a mobile app from their lenders.

The research took into account the responses of customers from nine large banks across the United States. Among its questions was whether or not the respondents would be willing to pay a monthly fee of $3 in order to be able to continue the use of their mobile banking apps. Among the customers from the Bank of America, 33 percent said that they would be willing to pay the additional fee to use the smartphone app from their bank. That was the highest percentage of any of the bank customers that were surveyed. In second place was Citigroup, from which 31 percent said that they would be willing to pay that same fee.

The report did not suggest why that specific bank’s customers were more willing to pay for mobile banking.

Mobile Banking - Bank of America Center in Austin TexasIn terms of the other seven banks that were involved in this mobile apps study, the percentage of customers who said that they would be willing to pay an additional $3 per month in order to use the application were as follows:

• 29 percent – U.S. Bank
• 26 percent – TD Bank
• 25 percent – USAA
• 24 percent – Wells Fargo
• 24 percent – Chase Bank
• 22 percent – PNC Bank
• 18 percent – Capital One

This could be some very useful insight for banks, which are currently facing an ongoing time of low interest rates and which have been facing a struggle in finding ways to boost their revenues and ensure their growing profitability. Equally, banks have been observing a growth in the number of their consumers that have been embracing mobile banking features.