CaixaBank Sees Massive Gains in Mobile Payments Use

Mobile payments are indeed a worldwide phenomenon, and anyone who believes otherwise needs only look at CaixaBank’s latest figures. The word recently emerged that CaixaBank customers had put a huge amount of mobile payments capability into play, and the gains weren’t likely to suddenly slow.

CaixaBank customers, the reports note, made 2.3 million transactions via mobile devices in June 2018. Fast forward one year to June 2019, and that number jumps to 6.3 million, or a 171.9 percent increase in just one year’s time. While most of the payments were made via mobile device, smart watches and similar wearable devices kicked in for 100,000 users’ worth of payments.

These gains bolstered CaixaBank’s presence to become the mobile payments market leader in Spain, with an official market share of 33.8 percent. The gains are also seen throughout the year; while June 2019 saw 6.3 million transactions, over the past year, the overall number of transactions is 49.2 million.

However, it’s likewise clear that mobile payments are still a small part of the overall landscape. Mobile purchases make up just 5.1 percent of total transactions involved in face-to-face purchases involving cards. Yet even here it’s a significant gain; it was 2.2 percent of the total back in June 2018.

Managing director at CaixaBank Juan Antonio Alcaraz notes “…CaixaBank is collaborating with large sector companies…to continue offering the best service before, during and after making a purchase. In addition to paying for their purchases, the customers’ interaction with the Bank via its CaixaBank Pay application and the complementary services to which it provides access are a crucial part of this growing phenomenon of mobile payments.”

With better experiences and more use cases in play, CaixaBank is demonstrating the kind of appeal that mobile payments systems can show. Users are interested, and as the ability to put these tools to work grows, the interest can help fuel a virtuous cycle of gains. There’s still quite a bit of room for more users to get in on the action—the study makes that quite clear—but as long as the tools and the opportunity are in place, then use should follow, and it already has on a certain level.

Only time will tell how it all pans out, but CaixaBank’s study sure makes a good case for continued gains.