The number of mobile banking users will exceed 150 million globally by 2011, according to a new study by Juniper Research.
The Juniper Research report determined that the mobile banking market is currently most advanced in the Far East, but that growing numbers of mobile banking services are being offered in North America and Western Europe. The developed nations of the Far East, North America and Western Europe are forecast to account for over 70% of the user base by 2011.
The report author, Howard Wilcox, says that transactional or “push” mobile banking is being offered increasingly by banks via downloadable applications or the mobile web, complementing existing SMS messaging services for balance and simple information enquiries.
The Juniper report highlighted the extra user convenience as a key benefit — mobile banking is an addition to all the apps and services users can access through their handsets to make life easier, especially via smartphones.
At the same time, the report identified several factors that will need to be addressed to really foster market development such as financial regulations, application slickness and security.
More information about Juniper’s report titled “Mobile Banking: Strategies, Applications and Markets 2008-2013” is available from the research company’s website.