In an article from Mobile
Banker (American Banker) several industry experts are listing 2009 as the
year mobile banking officially became commonplace and customers consider it a
standard service to be offered by their financial institutions.
Fred Brothers, managing partner of technology consulting firm eCom Advisors,
states in the article, "I think we will look back at 2009 as the pivotal
year for mobile banking…I don't think people appreciate that yet."
Later in the article Richard K. Crone, the founder of Crone Consulting LLC,
states, “Mobile banking and payments are taking off much faster than online
banking did.People are already
comfortable with the idea of managing information with phones, and managing
financial details feels like a natural next step to many consumers.With online banking, we had to wait for
people to get modems in their computers and sign up for online service and get
familiar with the process," he said. "None of that is necessary with
mobile banking. All you have to do is to create the service."
And if 2009 was the year when mobile banking became commonplace for people who
already bank online,” Crone said, "the next year won't be about bringing
Internet banking customers to the mobile. The next year will be about customers
who aren't [banking online] at all."
I would agree with Mr
Crone.All the research on mobile
banking suggests that up to 40% of your mobile banking users will not come from
your current online users.
The article focuses on mobile banking, but implicitly states a main driver for
mobile banking is P2P transfers. Doug G. Brown, the senior vice
president of product innovation at Bank of America Corp, says younger users
encourage their parents to use mobile banking because they know that will
enable mom and dad to instantly send them money.
The article also discusses text alerts and mobile payments,
so it seems that a convergence is occurring rather quickly as well. Mobile
banking, P2P, mobile payments, text alerts and counting.
2009 maybe the year for
mobile banking, but it also may be the year that the definition of what is
mobile banking was expanded.
