News

The growing love affair smartphone-toting Kiwis have with mobile banking is starting to push the desktop PC into second place.

ASB is the first bank to reach a "tipping point" where more than half of all customers' online sessions are now taking place on mobile devices.

Head of digital experience and commerce Michael Ramsay said the behavioural shift was one of the biggest and fastest the bank had observed in its 160-year history.

"In only a relatively short time, mobile banking has evolved from a niche technology into an accepted part of everyday life for most customers," he said. ASB's smartphone app was launched in 2011.

By the end of the first year, the volume of transactions was already four times more than those that took place during internet banking's debut.

Ramsay said the convenience factor of being able to bank on the go appealed to people leading increasingly busy lives.

The bank had also received "great feedback" on its innovative approach to customers transferring cash, which includes making payments to Facebook friends.

"Being able to pay someone out of your contacts to their mobile number or email is really powerful - it just simplifies the whole process," Ramsay said. "I use it all the time to pay the babysitter."

The state-owned Kiwibank expects to reach the same tipping point later this year, with a 300 per cent uptake of mobile banking in the past 12 months.

BNZ has doubled the number of mobile users in the space of a year, and experienced 191 per cent growth in the number of logins.

Its split between mobile and desktop is roughly 30-70, with the bank still experiencing strong growth in internet banking as a whole.

Westpac has experienced a massive 450 per cent increase in mobile logins during the past year, a growth rate three times faster than internet banking at the same stage.

For the full article visit: www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/8946002/Mobiles-becoming-dominant-for-banks#Scene_1