Mobile Payments and Banking: The Story So Far

BuzzCity recently put together a look at the overall mobile payment and banking markets.

The BuzzCity study in question was conducted over the course of a month, running from February 2 until March 3, covering 3,300 people in 23 different countries, ranging from Argentina to Ghana to the United States.

A series of multiple-choice questions was used to pin down what was thought of the sector, and the numbers produced some exciting points.

It was clear, based on the BuzzCity numbers, that certain transactions held more value than others.

Questions about balances were frequently brought into play, with 30 percent of respondents noting that such was an important feature.

Twenty-eight percent came out in favor of cash withdrawals and 26 percent noted the value of transfers from one account to the next. There were also plenty of third-party transaction opportunities afoot, as 32 percent turned to mobile top-ups, while 18 percent dealt with salaries and 17 percent with the payment of regular bills.

SMS authentication and mobile check deposits were also found to be priorities with customers.

The information didn’t stop there, though, as 42 percent of respondents claimed to use mobile devices for banking purposes, or for mobile payment options. That’s up over 60 percent from the numbers in just 2013, showing that mobile payments and banking are catching on at a pretty good clip. Just 35 percent—a little better than one in three—have yet to ever use a mobile device for such purposes, showing that while there’s a good slug of people using the services, there’s still room for growth in the field.

Reports even suggest that mobile banking has dropped the number of unbanked users in the response roster; just under one in four—23 percent—are currently unbanked, and that number is down 21 percent from just 2013.

So what’s stopping every user from getting in on the action here?

Twenty-six percent report concerns about security being an issue, while 23 percent note that they just don’t have the technology required to get in, at least not on a mobile level.

While all mobile phones can handle at least some level of mobile banking, according to the BuzzCity report, users are less aware of this point. Also, 15 percent of respondents didn’t even know that mobile banking was an option.

While cash is still king of payment mechanisms, mobile systems are on the rise, with 24 percent of mobile surfers turning to such systems. Cards, meanwhile, are almost as good as cash, with 29 percent using credit or debt cards, and 12 percent turning to prepaid cards.

Given developments like the Wocket Wallet from NXT-ID, mobile payments might well catch on even faster than detailed in the BuzzCity report, assuming that there’s a sufficient push in awareness.

That, in fact, seems to be the biggest hurdle here; consumers don’t know enough about the security measures being taken to illustrate the kind of protection on hand, consumers don’t know enough about what the bank offers to know that their current mobile device can handle it, and consumers just don’t know enough about the mobile payment tools out there to begin with.

Building awareness is going to be the big secret to getting people in on mobile payments, and the sooner that’s done, the more rapidly mobile payments and banking businesses will gain ground.