CHICAGO—A new study offers some insights into where financial institutions plan to make their investments over the next few years.
The findings, released as part of BAI’s “Retail Banking Outlook,” examine emerging retail-banking habits and trends. Based on a survey of nearly 400 global industry professionals found, perhaps not surprisingly, a growing emphasis financial institutions are placing on mobile banking and social media. Among the findings:
- Current functionalities: The primary current mobile banking functionalities offer include checking balances (95% of those surveyed), balance transfers between accounts with the FI (78%), and bill pay (70%).
- Future functionalities: In expanding mobile banking offers, the leading upgrades planned for implementation in the net three years are P2P payments (34%), balances transfers between accounts at another FI (25%, and ability to open deposit accounts (25%).
- Investment priorities: Online and mobile platforms ranked as the leading focus of technology investments, with 59% of respondents choosing investments as an influential aspect guiding their decisions.
- Challenges in expanding and implementing offerings: The biggest challenge faced in expanding and implementing mobile banking is concern about fraud and security, as 44% of respondents noted this is the largest barrier to mobile payment adoption. Security concerns are influential because of consumers’ perception and education, lack of faith in security, and the institutions ability to stay ahead of hackers.
- Social media presence: 83% of institutions surveyed maintain a presence in social media, with the most oft-cited reasons including ability to address consumer service questions, support community initiatives, and provide an additional way to advertise products and services.
- Facebook: 67% of FIs use Facebook as their primary social media too, followed by Twitter (24%), LinkedIn (4%) and other platforms (2%).
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