Credit Union Times highlighted the results of a recent survey conducted by Austin, Texas-based financial software company Malauzai that concludes that bank person-to-person (P2P) transactions are not being adopted by bank customers, belying trends reported by other sources. What is taking off, according to the same study, are account to account transfers (A2A) and mobile remote deposit capture. Here’s a synopsis of the report findings:
“Person-to-Person payments are a huge disappointment,” Malauzai said in its “Monkey Insights” report published Wednesday. “This makes P2P a low-volume task coming in number 11 in the list of most-used digital banking features. Lots of hype and no results. Zelle, real-time, etc., none of it changes these metrics. The Venmo phenomenon continues to confound us bankers, as clearly it is growing, even if its average transfer value is sub $30. Different type of P2P but way more successful.”
Credit union members and other financial institution customers nonetheless still find value in mobile banking, according to the data. The average smartphone user logged into mobile banking 18 times a month and spent a minute and a half per session; desktop logins, on the other hand, were less than half of that at just 8.5 times on average for the month, though those users stayed on for just over five minutes. Members used “quick-balance” features, which let members see balances without performing a traditional login, 37 times on average during the month.
Without much knowledge of the composition of the study, it’s difficult to know how representative these finding may be of the market at large. It is an interesting point, however, and bears consideration and comparison with other trends. If financial institutions (FIs) consider P2P as the indicator of future, mobile transaction use like mobile payments, FIs may also want to consider A2A user trends as well.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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