Article

Canadian smartphone owners expect to use mobile banking in next 24 months

Large percentage say they still prefer online or traditional banking methods.

November 15, 2011

According to a new survey from Canadian bank ING Direct, smartphone users want their mobile banking apps to offer payment functionality, budgeting tools and the ability to chat with a bank associate.

With mobile banking expected to become a bigger trend in the next few years, the survey finds that nearly half of Canadian smartphone users (49 percent) expect to do banking from their mobile device in the next 12-24 months. This number grows to 64 percent when looking at those aged 18-34.

"The appetite for mobile banking among Canadians is growing. Our clients have performed over 200,000 mobile fund transfers and 1 million balance inquiries over the last 18 months. Our mobile apps see 2,000 downloads a week, and that number continues to rise," said Peter Aceto, president and CEO at ING DIRECT Canada.

Despite the uptake of mobile banking in the last 12 months, nearly two-thirds of Canadian smartphone users (65 percent) still aren't on board. When asked why they haven't used mobile banking, a majority (56 percent) said online banking suited them just fine while one in five Canadians (21 percent) said they prefer other methods of banking (in person, ATM, telephone, etc.)

A large number of respondents (40 percent) said they had security concerns about using their mobile phones to do banking. Of all respondents, 64 percent said security is their biggest concern about mobile banking.

"It's not surprising that security is one of the biggest concerns given that the popularity of mobile banking has only recently started to pick up," said Charaka Kithulegoda, chief information officer at ING Direct. "The fact is mobile banking applies the same stringent security measures as traditional online banking websites."

For smartphone users who have used mobile banking in the last 12 months, the most common mobile banking functionalities used include checking account balances (63 percent), paying a bill (19 percent), transferring funds (15 percent), emailing money (2 percent), and buying and selling mutual funds (1 percent).

Who's using mobile banking?

• 35 percent of Canadian smartphone users have done banking on their mobile devices in the last 12 months.
• 53 percent are 18 - 34 years old, compared to 38 percent of those who are 35 - 54 years old and 12 percent of those aged 55+.
• 66 percent of those who've done mobile banking in the last 12 months have used their bank's mobile application vs. 34 percent who simply use their smartphone browser to access the bank's website.
• 2 percent of Canadian smartphone users indicated they primarily conduct their banking transactions using their mobile devices.

Canadians who are already using mobile banking apps still have a wish list of functionalities they'd like to have. Topping the survey list is the ability to make mobile payments using their smartphones (31 percent), the ability to add a payee (27 percent), personal finance management/budgeting tools (19 percent) and the ability to live chat with a bank associate (17 percent).

The survey was conducted from Oct. 21-25 using 700 randomly selected Canadian adult smartphone users. The margin of error — which measures sampling variability — is +/- 3.64 percent. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding, according to ING.

For more information on this topic, visit our mobile banking research center.