Mobile Banking

Sponsored by Diebold, Incorporated
Tags: Mobile Banking, Networking / Connectivity, Retail / Off-Premises, Software, Wireless
Type: Guide
Overview|Table of Contents|Intro|Download

When banking via the Internet first became available in the 1990s, it promised to revolutionize the financial services industry. Customers could check their balance, pay bills, transfer money between accounts and perform a host of other tasks, all from their desktop computers.

And revolutionize the industry it has. According to a 2010 survey by the American Bankers Association, more bank customers (36 percent) prefer to do their banking online compared to any other method.

Despite the popularity of online banking, though, it has its limitations. In part because of the need for both a computer and a high-speed Internet connection, only about 40 percent of the average financial institution's customers take advantage of online banking.

There is another delivery channel for banking services, however, that virtually everyone can access: mobile phones.

A survey by Nielsen estimates that by the end of 2011, smartphones will overtake feature phones in the United States. One in two Americans will have a smartphone by Christmas 2011, according to the survey.

It's a safe bet that virtually everyone in the United States will own a mobile phone within the next few years. And experts predict that just as mobile phone adoption surpassed that of the Internet, so will the adoption of mobile banking surpass that of online banking.

According to the Online Banking Report, 32 million U.S. households will use mobile banking by 2016.

And mobile banking will benefit not only bank customers, but the financial institutions as well. Deploying a mobile banking solution will enable financial institutions to decrease costs, increase revenue and enhance security.

Within the next few years, mobile banking services will enable financial institutions to leverage the pervasiveness of mobile phones by providing a must-have channel of communication both between customers and their accounts and between financial institutions and their customers.

In this guide, sponsored by Diebold Incorporated, we'll look at the services offered via mobile banking, outline the benefits to both customers and financial institutions and take a look at what's on the horizon.