Digital banking is increasingly reaching the broad majority
Digital banking is becoming more popular in the United States every year. According to Forbes, 78 percent of Americans prefer to do their banking digitally, using either mobile apps or their bank’s website. Online banking had already begun to emerge as the preferred method long before the global coronavirus pandemic, but the strict social distancing measures that have been part of the measures to contain the spread of the virus have greatly accelerated this process. This prompted many banks to massively upgrade their digital offering.
In fact, both the mobile banking apps and the banks’ websites have been equipped with more and more features and functions in recent years. “The [Banken] have felt compelled to improve their digital business model and potentially start competing with challenger and neobanks,” said Matt Williamson, vice president of Mobiquity’s Global Financial Services division. According to Forbes, 78 percent of Americans bank digitally, while doing so 41 percent prefer mobile apps, while 37 percent use their bank’s website.The reason for this is that the majority of banks have invested significantly more money in the development of mobile solutions than in their websites in recent years.
Many still prefer the classic visit to the branch
Not all Americans are following the digital banking trend. More than a quarter (29 percent) still prefer to go to the bank branch in person than to reach for their smartphone. Factors such as personal contact and trust could be decisive for this. Paul McAdam, Senior Director for Banking and Payments Intelligence at JD Power, explains it this way: “Banks have trained their relationship managers to respond to customers, offer help and ask questions.” This leads to conversations, during which it is possible for the banks to offer advice and clarifications on important details. According to McAdam, many consumers are significantly more satisfied with getting personal advice from bank employees. “We’re talking about people’s money here, and many consumers, even the younger ones, say opening an account in person makes them feel better,” McAdam said.
These features are most important to Americans when it comes to online banking
Forbes divides the functionalities of mobile banking apps into two categories, namely essential features and convenience features. The essential features include the functions that are often used in everyday life, such as checking the balance, depositing checks and wire transfers. Convenience features are those that are useful, but are rarely used in everyday life. These include peer-to-peer payments, finding nearby ATMs, and budgeting and tracking tools. Users surveyed by Forbes were asked to indicate the features that are most important to them personally. The most important things for consumers are therefore transfers from account to account, depositing checks and viewing transactions and account balances. Although these features have always been at the top of the rankings over the past few years, these features have lost some of their popularity in the latest Forbes survey.
Editorial office finanzen.net
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