30 percent of mobile users do m-banking

M-banking on the rise

It appears that the age of mobile banking has truly arrived as a global survey from vendor Sybase 365 reveals that almost a third of mobile phone users now use their devices to access their banking records and make financial transactions.

The survey questioned over 4100 phone users and of them, 30 percent said they used m-banking with 24 percent using the service on a weekly basis.

According to Sybase, the adoption of the service has "exceeded industry expectations", which predicted usage for the service to level out at 16 percent this year.

Services utilised

Those questioned revealed that of the m-banking services, 88 percent checked accounts through their phone, 54 percent received transaction updates and 56 percent paid a bill or card payments.

The interesting thing was the possibility for growth in the market, with a third of respondents saying they would be prepared to pay for more sophisticated services while 44 percent would consider swapping their financial institution altogether for free m-banking.

When the survey asked what services they would like to see in the future, 75 percent said they'd like reports on potentially fraudulent behaviour, 69 percent were interested in balance enquiries, 65 percent wanted the ability to freeze a card while 59 percent were tempted by the ability to make transactions.

The survey also backed up the belief that more and more mobile phone users also want to be able to use their devices as POS devices. A third of the survey respondents said they would be interested in paying for goods and services with their mobile, saying the convenience would be a major selling point especially with entertainment and utilities services.

There was also interest in over a quarter of those asked about the ability to be able to send money over seas, with a median amount of $18.

Commenting on the survey's results, Matthew Talbot, VP of m-commerce, said to Finextra, "As mobile devices become more sophisticated and mobile banking gains traction, at a far higher rate than industry experts predicted, there is a clear opportunity for mobile to become a primary CRM channel for many services and industries - as the consumer desire highlighted in this report suggests."

M-banking is becoming a growing global service, with Asia leading the way, however the US and Europe are rapidly catching up.

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Telco-firms unite for contactless m-payment service | China - Mobile Banking Leader | Smartphones to become POS terminals?

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