Mobile banking has been slow to adopt in Canada, stats show only 9% are accessing their account to check their balance. To put in perspective, other countries such as our U.S. friends are already taking a picture of a cheque then e-mailing their banks to make deposits.
A couple reasons for the slow adoption is that we only have 70% wireless penetration in Canada, and our data plans are more expensive than other countries, which makes us use our device less for these premium services. According to Bob Hedges, a managing partner at Boston-based consulting firm Mercatus, us Canadians are “at the tipping point in terms of adoption” and “over the next five years this will become more important than online banking”. Mercatus completed a study that showed almost 20% plan to start using mobile banking within the next year and that it’s more popular with people who are aged 18 to 25.
IDC Canada Senior Analyst Krista Napier says there are 3 categories when it comes to mobile banking:
1. Banking via SMS text messages
2. Browser-based banking
3. Mobile Banking App such as an iPhone app, Palm App, Android App
Back in June of last year a joint venture between Rogers, Bell and TELUS formed “Zoompass”. This is Canada’s first mobile payment service and is not specifically “banking” but allows customers to send, receive and request money, check account balance, review transactions all by using your mobile device. So we’re getting there and I checked the Zoompass site and they have no statistics available, but they do offer the service for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices.
Sonia Baxendale, the head of consumer banking at CIBC said mobile banking “is the way of the future”. Do you plan on using your mobile device for mobile banking this year? Is it secure enough for you?
Via: Globe
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