Juniper Research Forecasts Mobile Banking to Surpass Online Banking by 2019

According to Gartner (News - Alert), in 2013 the annual smartphone sales surpassed that of regular mobile phones. The sales accounted for 57.6 percent or 967,775.8units from the total of 1,806,964.7 mobile phone purchases.The increasing adoption rate of smartphones is allowing organizations to provide better services to their customers around the world, and banking is one of the sectors slated to grow as more companies deploy mobile solutions.

Although smartphones will provide more options, standard mobile phones have been used for banking in many developing countries with limited banking infrastructures. This early adoption, which in many cases was before many developed countries, has proven the reliability of the technology and ensures it will only get better as the availability of smartphones continues to increase.

The latest report from Juniper Research (News - Alert), titled, "Mobile & Online Banking: Developed & Developing Market Strategies 2014-2019," predicts mobile bankers will surpass online bankers by 2019. According to the report, the mobile bankers will more than double to 1.75 billion users compared to the 800 million of 2014.

The growth is not situated in one particular region as emerging countries such as China, India and Bangladesh continue to experience growth in the past 12 months. Developed countries meanwhile are seeing more demand from consumers as the issues of security, which slowed early adoption, is no longer as big of an issue as it was in the past.

More consumers are using electronic banking services, but banks are noticing more of their customers are logging in using their mobile solutions instead of the online system. The mobile platform is seen as an indispensable revenue stream for banks around the world as branchless banking, digital wallets and micro-insurance become the norm.

The traditional banking branch is slowly but surely dying off as more banks announce the closure of branches in the US and Western Europe. These closures are purely based on the decreasing number of branch visits by consumers.

Industry trends and developments are also driving the growth as M&As between global players, increased investment, and strategic partnership improve services with innovative technologies with wider deployments. This includes the extension of mobile banking beyond mobile devices and into wearables such as Smart Watches and Smart Glasses.

The report evaluates the development of mobile and online banking ecosystems by analyzing the adoption of PC, handset (smartphone and featurephone) and tablet banking. The forecast looks at mobile and online banking adoption, segmented by service type – ‘Push’ MBIS/EBIS (Mobile/Electronic Banking Informational Services) and ‘Pull’ MBPP/EBPP (Mobile/Electronic Bill Payment and Presentment) services.

"The level of maturity in number and innovation of services being offered in the market across several geographical areas, demonstrates that banks now regard the mobile channel as an indispensable revenue-stream. However, with the mobile channel becoming a key customer retention strategy, it presents a great challenge to traditional institutions," said Nitin Bhas, the author of the report.