Over 816 million people will access their banking services using mobile devices by 2011 – a ten-fold increase on the number of people already doing so.
A new report by tech analyst Juniper Research found that financial institutions are delivering a growing number of products in the mobile environment, including financial information services, funds transfer, bill payment and presentation, account management and customer service.
It predicts the annual number of global mobile banking transactions will rise from 2.7 billion in 2007 to 37 billion by 2011, as a greater number of services are deployed worldwide.
Juniper adds that increased consumer confidence, due to the enhanced security measures being used in mobile financial services, will be crucial to greater service usage levels.
However, the report cautioned that a number of hurdles to service deployment and user adoption have yet to be overcome, including financial regulation, payment transaction costs, revenue share issues and customer support difficulties.
China and the Far East region will have the greatest number of users of mobile banking services, followed by western Europe and the Indian sub-continent.
Financial information services will be the most popular banking product offered via the mobile.
Worldwide average financial transaction values are expected to nearly double between 2007 and 2011, rising more than four-fold in many emerging markets.
By John Kennedy
