It will likely be the large and well established financial institution that will encourage its wide acceptance.
Experts in the mobile banking industry are now predicting that retail banks are going to start to make larger strides into the sector in order to help themselves to reduce costs, improve their innovations, and hang on to more tech savvy customers who are growing in numbers with each passing year.
This should also help to establish more mainstream adoption of using smartphones for buying.
This does mean, however, that any banks that choose not to take part in mobile commerce will risk being left behind. A new report that has just been released by Ovum, called the “2013 Trends to Watch: Retail Banking Technology”, stated that “efficiency and productivity will remain the banking sector’s mantra, however these will be driven more by innovation and service transformation than in previous years.”
This clearly indicates the importance of mobile payments as early as next year.
The Ovum research director of financial services, Denise Montgomery, said that while banks continue to be uncertain as to where their investments should be made, next year will be a defining time for them to start to solidify their strategies. “In most cases, these strategies will be finalized in the next 12-24 months.”
The digital economy, which is heavily driven by consumers, and the smartphone revolution, are the main push behind this “digital disruption” that spurs the need for innovation onward. This, as mobile payments solutions, specifically, continue their evolution. Most now believe that their widespread entry to the market will occur within 2013, according to the report.
Ovum explained in its report that whether or not a specific bank actually considers itself a technology company that provides banking options or whether it sees itself as a financial advising institution, it will still find itself making investments into innovations such as mobile payments in order to rise above the greater disruptions put in place by the digital age. Otherwise, it will need to make investments into innovation in a more incremental way, to at least make sure that its efficiencies – and therefore its customer experience – continue to improve.