Mark Culleton, Head of Channel Adoption, Retail and Business Banking, said that over 50% of AIB’s customers were active online and now choosing to bank anywhere, anytime, using online banking, while 49% of loan approvals were completed online in the first half of the year.

AIB has well over half a million active mobile banking users. Mobile is now the most visited banking channel by the bank’s customers. On a sample day, 278,000 daily mobile banking logins were registered, compared with 237,000 daily online banking logins.

“Our customers are telling us they want the ability to do more banking on their phones. With that in mind, our next generation Mobile Banking App was designed with new exciting features such as a simplified log-in process, quick balance feature and the ability to apply for a personal loan and obtain a decision within three hours,’’ Culleton said.

“We are continuing to invest in our distribution capability across the branch network, online, mobile and direct channels to provide more convenience and accessible banking services for our customers,’’ Culleton added.

AIB also confirmed today that the introductory offer of waiving transaction fees for contactless transactions will continue until August 2016.

Since June, contactless cards are being used by AIB customers for more than a million transactions per month.

From 31st October, the current spending limit of €15 per transaction will rise to €30.

The move towards contactless payments is aligned to the Irish Government’s National Payments Plan to help towards reducing cash and paper based transactions and promoting electronic transactions.

Customers can pay for transactions by tapping their contactless card to the terminal without the need to enter their PIN (personal identification number), offering customers a faster, more convenient and safe way to pay and also reducing the need to carry cash.

Paying with contactless cards is safe and uses the same robust industry-standard secure encryption technology as Chip and PIN. For added protection, from time to time consumers will be asked to enter their PIN to verify they are the genuine card holder.

The convenience and ease of use of this method of payment has seen a marked rise in contactless payments by customers in cafes, supermarkets and convenience stores. Payments made this way by AIB customers rose over 200 per cent in the last year.