Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Jan. 27, 2009

In less than two years from now, Juniper Research is predicting that about 152 million wireless users all over the globe will use their cell phone for mobile banking transactions.

Juniper says mobile banking transactions are currently more advanced in Asia and Japan, but that they are also growing steadily in North America and Western Europe as well.

Those three markets are expected to account for about 73.2 percent of the global mobile banking user base in two years from now.

Juniper added that overall convenience is the main reason why mobile phone users like making banking transactions with their cell phones.

However, some challenges to market expansion include some varied financial regulations from one country to another, overall application ease-of-use, transaction security and privacy issues.

Howard Wilcox, the analyst of the Juniper report says "increasingly, transactional mobile banking services are being offered by banks and financial institutions via user-friendly downloadable applications of the mobile Internet, complementing existing SMS messaging services for account balance.”

“Doing banking transactions with a cell phone is a key element in the banking industry's distribution channel as they compete against each other in attracting and retaining their customers, as well as to increase their overall market share and penetration."

Juniper's new report focuses on mobile banking in developed markets only. It's next report is scheduled in June 2009.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.

Source: Juniper Research.