8 million active customers from Mobile in 2017, up 68% compared to the previous year. In the annual report of Abi Lab the point on the development and potential of the bank in "mobility".
Strong surge of active users operating in "mobility" by Smartphone and Tablet: about 8 million in 2017, with an increase of 68% on the previous year. Customers are guided by Smartphone (+ 51%). This is what emerges from a survey contained in the seventh Annual Report produced by Abi Lab, the Consortium for Research and Innovation for the bank promoted by Abi, in collaboration with the School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic, which takes stock on the development and potential of Mobile Banking.
The Mobile Banking Offer
According to the Abi Lab study, the innovative and technological push of the “Bank at hand” starts above all from applications (apps) increasingly appreciated by the market, just think that in 2017 3.449.767 were downloaded for Smartphones. All banks offer services via smartphone apps with iOS and Android operating systems, while for the Tablet, the share of banks offering them stands at 89%. The percentage of banks that also offer apps for devices with the Windows operating system (61% for Smartphones and 35% for Tablets) and Blackberries (6% for Smartphones only) is lower. Less than half of the responding banks offer services for Wearable Devices (wearable objects able to connect and interact with people or objects even through the Internet). On average, each bank / banking group offers 3 apps.
As for the services offered, alongside the basic functions of banking, the trading services of financial instruments (trading) reported by the 78% of banks, direct payment services between people (P2P), offered by 67% and functionality are very widespread. expense management (39%). The different features can be offered in a single reference app or with ad hoc apps for a specific service: the most obvious examples are the electronic wallet, that is the so-called mobile wallet, offered by 28% of the responding banks, and the Mobile POS (electronic payments with credit or debit cards by connecting the mobile device to the POS), reported by the 17% of the banks; both functions are mainly managed with an app additional to the "classic" mobile banking.
Investments on the Mobile
The strong attention of the banking world for Mobile is also confirmed by the expenditure forecasts made for the 2018. In fact, the survey points out that the 67% of the banks reported an increase in investments and of these the 11% recorded a strong increase. Among the most significant benefits already achieved with Mobile, at the top of the ranking we find the increase in the value of the brand and the improvement of the user experience (for the 74% of the responding banks). This is followed by revenues from customer loyalty (for 62%) and revenues from new customers (for 44%).