News

Mobile banking gets a big boost from Brits

July 4, 2017

Over the past five years, customer activity on U.K. banks' mobile apps has grown 354 percent. And these apps not only are seeing greater use, but also are serving greater numbers of Brits — 61 percent at the start of this year compared with 21 percent in 2012, according to a press release from BBA, a trade association for the U.K. banking sector.

In 2016, 19.6 million banking customers across the U.K. used apps, with 159 logins occurring every second. The proportion of users accessing multiple products and services also rose — from 46 percent in 2015 to 86 percent in 2016, BBA said.

According to the release:

New technology is transforming the way that we handle our finances, from apps which turn our mobiles into a bank branch to text alerts, check-imaging, biometric identification and contactless cards. 'Banks on wheels' physical mobile branches are helping some customers in rural communities get better bank access.

Customers are taking advantage of new avenues to interact with their bank, as well. This included 4.4 million customer-to-bank contacts via web chat in 2016 — 510 every hour.

The popularity of video chats has grown, too, rising 92 percent in 2016. Additionally, 434 million text alerts helped customers track their spending and bank balances, according to BBA numbers.

Contactless card transactions also took off in 2016, the release said. Nearly two-thirds of bankcards are now contactless. During the year, transaction volumes and values soared 174 percent and 225 percent, respectively.

BBA speculated that with more than 450,000 contactless terminals across the U.K., 2016 might be seen in future years as the tipping point when tap-and-pay transactions began to replace notes and coins altogether.