Nowadays, thanks to consumers swapping online platforms for smartphone software, mobile apps have become the most popular channel for banking.
Smart Money People, a financial services review firm, carried out a survey of more than 13,000 consumers in 2018, which revealed that mobile apps have become the most popular banking channel at the expense of the online channel.
According to the survey, 39% of respondents preferred apps to bank with, which used to be just over 30% in the same survey in 2017. The growth came from the online banking channel, which dropped from over 45% in 2017 to 38.6% last year.
Telephone banking and branch-based banking changed little over the year, with the former dropping to 11.4% while branch banking was preferred by 11% of respondents. Digital channels is the preferred option by 77.6% of people, which is a rise of almost 2 points compared to the 2017 survey.
Smart Money People said fintechs and challenger banks, some of which are app-only, have fueled the take-up of banking apps. For a long time, banking apps were not worth dealing with the hassle and perceived security risks, but the rise of app-only challenger banks and other fintech apps is beginning to normalize app-based banking, reassuring app users that the systems are secure. These apps are offering genuine benefits, such as spending insights, budgeting tools and instant updates on your spending. Best of all, they make banking and managing money easy.
Source: ComputerWeekly