Mercator Advisory Group’s CustomerMonitor Survey Series latestInsight Report, Online Banking: A Shift to Mobile Platforms,indicates that online banking is pervasive in the United States. The surveyfielded in November 2013 finds that 84% of U.S. consumers perform bankingactivities to manage their account information using their home computers ormobile devices and 69% use only their computers.
Apparently, Brits are less likely than their Americancounterparts to take advantage of online banking according to a recentlyreleased study published by the United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics(ONS). That study states that while 84% of British households have Internetaccess, just 53% have accessed online banking within the past three months oftheir August 2013 survey. Given thedifference in the survey sample of the ONS study compared to theCustomerMonitor Survey Series survey, which was conducted online, U.S. adultsare approximately 20 percentage points more likely to be using online bankingthan their U.K. counterparts.
Despite this relatively low usage of Internet banking, ONSreported that U.K. consumers had the highest rate of online purchasing incomparison to other European Union countries as 82% of U.K. Internet users (or72% of U.K. adults) buy goods and services online, higher than Norway (80%)followed by Denmark and Sweden (both at 79%). According to the Mercator Advisory Group Insight Report Consumers and Debit 2013: A Shift toAlternative Payments report, which is based on a CustomerMonitor SurveySeries survey conducted online in June 2013, 84% of U.S. adults buy goods andservices at online retailers.
U.S. consumers are beginning to rely more heavily on onlinebanking as their digital “branch” or banking source for managing their accountsand for customer service. Online and mobile banking are the fastest growingmethods used by consumers to communicate with their financial institutions. Withbanks around the world enhancing online banking activities and experience, weexpect more banking consumers to embrace online banking for its convenience asthey have embraced online shopping.
For more information on the growth of online banking andonline account opening experiences, see Mercator Advisory Group’s CMSS InsightReport, OnlineBanking: A Shift to Mobile Platforms, based on an online survey of 3,000 U.S. adults conducted inNovember 2013 to be reflective of the U.S. Bureau of the Census demographicprofile accessible by CustomerMonitor Survey Series members.
