Mobile banking a clear direction for Westpac
(8 November 2012 – Australia) Westpac is predicting mobile banking will become more popular than banking through traditional websites within the next five years, will millions of people starting to manage financial affairs through smartphones and tablets.
The bank has forecast that in the next five years its digital customer numbers will balloon by more than threefold, the trend is likely to change everything from the physical size of branches to the role of ATMs.
Westpac's head of retail and business banking, Jason Yetton, said on Tuesday that the rapid growth in digital transactions was one of several ''seismic'' forces affecting the industry, alongside tougher capital rules and the rise of Asian economies.
Yetton said that by 2017-18, Westpac expected the number of customers using mobile banking to more than triple to 5.2 million, from 1.6 million today.
Websites currently dominate consumers' interaction with their banks. At Westpac, the number of digital transactions is three times the number of transactions that occur through bank branches.
But with Australians embracing smartphones faster than many countries overseas, the next wave of growth is tipped to be in mobile banking, including using smartphones to make payments for small purchases.
While smartphones are heavily used today to transfer money or pay bills, low-value payments - such as paying for a cup of coffee with an iPhone - are tipped to surge in the coming years.
If this occurred, Yetton said the change was likely to be rapid and there could be less need for ATMs, as customers used their smartphones as a substitute for cash.
''The usage of ATMs hasn't materially changed in the last five years, but I think the big revolution will come when you get mobile payments as a capability,'' he said.
Yetton said the typical size of branches was also likely to become about 30 percent smaller as customers embraced digital banking, he also said banks will become more about interaction and less about transaction.
Westpac's head of retail and business banking, Jason Yetton, said on Tuesday that the rapid growth in digital transactions was one of several ''seismic'' forces affecting the industry, alongside tougher capital rules and the rise of Asian economies.
Yetton said that by 2017-18, Westpac expected the number of customers using mobile banking to more than triple to 5.2 million, from 1.6 million today.
Websites currently dominate consumers' interaction with their banks. At Westpac, the number of digital transactions is three times the number of transactions that occur through bank branches.
But with Australians embracing smartphones faster than many countries overseas, the next wave of growth is tipped to be in mobile banking, including using smartphones to make payments for small purchases.
While smartphones are heavily used today to transfer money or pay bills, low-value payments - such as paying for a cup of coffee with an iPhone - are tipped to surge in the coming years.
If this occurred, Yetton said the change was likely to be rapid and there could be less need for ATMs, as customers used their smartphones as a substitute for cash.
''The usage of ATMs hasn't materially changed in the last five years, but I think the big revolution will come when you get mobile payments as a capability,'' he said.
Yetton said the typical size of branches was also likely to become about 30 percent smaller as customers embraced digital banking, he also said banks will become more about interaction and less about transaction.
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