+ 71% mobile transactions in 2018 (+ 131% for bank transfers / transfers). In the Abi Lab Annual Report, the point on the development and potential of the Digital Bank
The growth in the use of digital channels by customers is bringing about strong increases in order transactions, particularly in Mobile Banking (+ 71%): among these, bank transfers / transfers are up by 131%, payment services between people (P2P) increase by 72%, the prepaid card tops up by + 69%.
The number of PC transactions remains more than twice as many as those carried out via smartphone but the annual growth rates are on average much lower (+ 2% on transfers / transfers, and decreasing on other operations such as paper top-ups prepaid or mobile).
This is what emerges from a survey on a sample of banks contained in the eighth annual report produced by Abi Lab, the Consortium for Research and Innovation for the bank promoted by the ABI, which takes stock of the development and potential of the Digital Bank (Digital Banking).
The offer of internet and mobile banking
According to the Abi Lab study, all the banks in the sample offer services via Internet banking and applications (apps) for smartphones, with iOS and Android operating systems, 70% also offer apps on tablets and 50% on smartwatches (watches capable of connect and interact with people or objects even through the Internet). The percentage of banks that also offer apps for devices with the Windows operating system is lower (33% for smartphones and 23% for tablets). On average, each bank / banking group offers almost 3 apps. As regards the services offered, as well as with "classic" Mobile Banking apps, the various functions can also be offered with ad hoc apps: the most obvious examples are direct payment services between people (P2P), offered with dedicated applications by 47% of the responding banks, the electronic wallet (mobile wallet) and the trading services offered by 26% of the banks. The study notes an increase trend of centralized functionalities in a single application with a consequent reduction of Apps: in 2018, 21% of banks decreased the number compared to the previous year and 38% are oriented towards the convergence of services in one app. Furthermore, 63% of the apps are dedicated to private customers, 11% to businesses and 26% to both.
With reference to the Internet Banking offer, all the banks have a portal for private customers to which in the 41% of the cases flank additional environments segmented for specific types of customers; 82% also provides a portal for the business area that in 57% of cases provides an ad hoc environment for one or more sub-categories.
During the 2019, the main developments in terms of functionality provided on Mobile and Internet Banking mainly concern personal financial management services (PFM), automated assistance via robots (Chatbot) and payment functionalities such as instant transfers (SCT Inst).
Investments in digital channels
The strong attention of the banking world for Internet and Mobile Banking is also confirmed by the expenditure forecasts formulated for the 2019. Indeed, the survey points out that the 78% of banks reported an increase or a sharp increase in mobile investments. Even Internet Banking sees half of the sample increase the economic effort.