NWC News Network, May 08 2008, 1445 hrs
Commissioned by Sybase 365 a study conducted by Loudhouse found that an estimated one third of the world’s largest financial institutions plan to launch mobile banking services in the next 12 to 24 months. They aim to tap on the opportunity to enhance existing customer services through mobile banking.
The survey, which had approximately 92 of the top financial institutions, globally, participating in it estimated that 66% of the banks consider mobile banking as an excellent opportunity to improve existing customer services. Results also indicated that the although the provision for such services were better in European and Asia Pacific Region as compared to the US, the growth is stronger in the US with an estimated 53 % of banks expected to launch mobile banking services in the next 24 months.
The survey also noted that over 33 % of consumers have expressed a desire to deal with finances on the move. It also estimated that 65 % of the banks who currently offer mobile banking services have said to be making strategic plans to allocate budgets and direct their activities towards raising awareness among the consumers.
Observations include that the most common mobile banking services currently available to customers include balance on demand (offered by 87 percent of banks with mobile banking services), transaction alerts (77 percent), money transfers (74 percent) and balance alerts (71 percent). Of those banks that offer such services, the top reasons for doing so are to improve the customer experience (87 percent), to extend internet banking (81 percent) and to achieve competitive advantage (71 percent).
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