Mercator Advisory Group’s Customer Monitor Survey Series latest Insight Report, Online Banking: A Shift to Mobile Platforms, indicates that online banking is pervasive in the United States. The survey fielded in November 2013 finds that 84% of U.S. consumers perform banking activities to manage their account information using their home computers or mobile devices and 69% use only their computers.
Apparently, Brits are less likely than their American counterparts to take advantage of online banking according to a recently released study published by the United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics (ONS). That study states that while 84% of British households have internet access, just 53% have accessed online banking within the past three months of their August 2013 survey. Given the difference in the survey sample of the ONS study compared to the Customer Monitor Survey Series survey, which was conducted online, U.S. adults are approximately 20 percentage points more likely to be using online banking than their U.K. counterparts.
Despite this relatively low usage of Internet banking, ONS reported that U.K. consumers had the highest rate of online purchasing in comparison to other European Union countries as 82% of U.K. internet users (or 72% 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 to Alternative Payments report, which is based on a Customer Monitor Survey Series survey conducted online in June 2013, 84% of U.S. adults buy goods and services at online retailers.
U.S. consumers are beginning to rely more heavily on online banking as their digital “branch” or banking source for managing their accounts and for customer service. Online and mobile banking are the fastest growing methods used by consumers to communicate with their financial institutions. With banks around the world enhancing online banking activities and experience, we expect more banking consumers to embrace online banking for its convenience as they have embraced online shopping.
For more information on the growth of online banking and online account opening experiences, see Mercator Advisory Group’s CMSS Insight Report, Online Banking: A Shift to Mobile Platforms, based on an online survey of 3,000 U.S. adults conducted in November 2013 to be reflective of the U.S. Bureau of the Census demographic profile accessible by Customer Monitor Survey Series members.