Latest News

Banks & mobile banking 5/6 Businesswire Driven by the excellent opportunity provided by mobile banking to enhance existing customer services, 1/3 of the world’s largest financial organizations are planning to launch mobile banking services in the next 12 to 24 months, according to a recent survey commissioned by Sybase 365. The survey, conducted by Loudhouse, pooled the views of 92 of the world’s top financial institutions (32 European banks, 30 banks in the US & 30 banks from Asia-Pacific). 66% of banks consider mobile banking an excellent opportunity to enhance existing customer service. While provision of such services is considerably advanced in European & Asia-Pacific regions compared to the US, growth is projected to be strongest in the US with 53% of US banks surveyed expecting to launch mobile banking services within the next 24 months. ‘Key factors for financial institutions offering mobile banking are not solely commercial, such as reducing costs or generating revenue,’ said Matthew Talbot, Sybase 365. ‘Mobile banking provides unique opportunities for customer interaction & retention.’ This broadening momentum should be encouraging for the consumer respondents to Sybase 365’s 2007 mobile banking survey, 33% of whom expressed a desire to deal with finances on the move. A key element in increasing adoption, which is mirrored in the 2007 consumer study, is the level of awareness that customers have of mobile banking services. It appears that banks are responding to the lack of awareness felt by consumers, with 65% of the banks who currently offer mobile services stating that marketing budgets & activities to raise awareness are part of their plan for 2008. The most common mobile banking services currently available to customers include balance on demand (offered by 87% of banks with mobile banking services), transaction alerts (77%), money transfers (74%) & balance alerts (71%). Of those banks that offer such services, the top reasons for doing so are to improve the customer experience (87%), to extend internet banking (81%) & to achieve competitive advantage (71%).