More consumers making switch to mobile banking

Irish consumers are increasingly switching from online to mobile banking, according to figures published for the first time by the Banking & Payments Federation. The data, for the first half of 2014, shows more than one in three of all online and mobile banking payments are being done on smartphones or tablets.

As consumers increasingly eschew their laptop or desktop computer in favour of doing their banking on the move, online banking payments are on the decline, with such payments falling by 5 per cent from Q1 2014 to Q2, or by 10.1 per cent in the year to June 30th.

Moderate

But despite the move to mobile, figures from the EU shows the Irish are still moderate consumers of online banking, with 50-75 per cent of internet users engaging in online banking, similar to the UK and France, but ahead of Spain and other southern European countries. The Netherlands has embraced online banking more than most EU countries, with more than 75 per cent of internet users banking online.

According to the data from the BPF, customers made 14.2 million online and mobile banking payments in the second quarter of 2014, up by 1 per cent from Q1, or by 35 per cent from June 2013, showing the continued move away from in-branch banking. Of these, 4.8 million, or 33 per cent, were made on a mobile device, up by 14 per cent from 4.2 million in the first quarter of 2014.

As of yet, figures are not yet available to determine how much online/mobile activity accounts for total payments activity.

Active users

The number of active mobile users is also on the rise, the data shows, up by 7.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2014 to 1 million. Almost as many logins are now made on a mobile (47%) as they are online (53%)

By the end of June, some 2.4 million customers were actively banking on line, with one million banking on their phones. With 43 million mobile logins, Irish consumers either checked their balances or transacted some banking an average of 43 times over the course of April, May and June.

Banks servicing the Irish market have increasingly upped their mobile offering over the last year or so, with KBC Bank now the only institution not to offer a mobile banking app.