46% Of Americans Will Use Mobile Banking By 2017

Sites include forrester.com . Published on September 1st, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

Online and mobile banking isn’t 100% secure as yet, but it perhaps never will be. Behind this backdrop it seems people are warming more and more to the idea that doing their banking online is the way to go. Research guru Forrester recently released a report in which it claims mobile banking will be used by 46% of Americans by the year 2017.

The present levels of mobile banking are 13% and 9% for US and European users respectively. While these numbers are small, Forrester notes that the market is slowly but steadily growing, hence the prediction. Present day mobile banking users are also very picky about how they use the medium.

According to Forrester, 45% of people use mobile banking to check their balances, 61% use the medium to check transaction histories and juts 31% use it to move money between their accounts. The last stat is important because for mobile banking to gain the sort of traction needed to take usage over 40%, people must feel secure in moving their money over a mobile connection.

Mobile payment solutions such as those offered by Square and PayPal are no doubt a good first-step towards wide scale mobile banking acceptance. Analysts are even predicting a convergence, meaning larger financial institutions may soon merge their services and capabilities with the emerging form of transaction tools in the marketplace.

Are you a big fan of mobile banking? Share your thoughts on the emerging trend below.