In September 2014, CG surveyed 1,005 U.S. consumers online and conducted qualitative phone interviews with financial services executives at the top 20 U.S. financial institutions, to understand how mobile banking and the shift in mobile device size (tablets getting smaller, smart phones getting larger) will influence how Americans do their banking in the 21st Century.

“An ever-increasing consumer demand for instant gratification is seeping into every facet of our lives, including how we bank,” said Byl Cameron, CG’s Digital Practice Lead. “Consumers want to do everything on every device that they own: laptop, smartphone, phablet or tablet.”

Key Study Findings

Mobile device growth will dominate banking during the next 24 months. All survey respondents expect to buy more mobile devices by 2016. 84 percent plan to purchase a smartphone, 26 percent a laptop, 25 percent a tablet, and 14 percent a phablet. Specifically for banking, 81 percent expect to use a laptop in 2016, 62 percent a smart phone, 44 percent a tablet, and 11 percent a phablet.
Bank customers prefer to conduct mobile banking on all of their mobile devices. Consumers who have a three-device lifestyle interchangeably use their laptops, tablets and smartphones for the most frequent mobile banking activities:
Viewed balances: 97 percent on laptops, 95 percent on tablets and 94 percent on smartphones
Transferred funds: 89 percent on laptops, 81 percent on tablets and 82 percent on smartphones
Paid bills: 92 percent on laptops, 86 percent on tablets and 81 percent on smartphones
Consumers are focused on three mobile banking activities: Looking at balances, transferring funds and paying bills are the most frequently conducted mobile banking activities across mobile devices.
Depositing checks with mobile devices is gaining popularity. More than 60 percent of phablet and smartphone users are depositing checks remotely.
The phablet phenomenon is coming to America.
Phablet use for mobile banking will grow by more than 100 percent
46 percent of Americans are more likely to conduct mobile banking due to larger mobile devices, such as the phablet
One in six U.S. consumers believe mobile banking is an important reason to buy a large screen smartphone/phablet

“CG believes that phablets will have approximately 30 percent of the mobile device market share by 2020 and become the dominant device for mobile banking,” said Cameron. “We also project that tablets will decline in popularity, especially as a device on which to do banking. Our study found 68 percent do not use tablets today for banking.”