Worries about security. That is the biggest impediment to mobile banking adoption in the United Kingdom and this is despite a brisk spread of smartphones, now accounting for 51% of all mobile phones in the UK, according to the Firstsource Mobile Banking Survey.
The survey found that two-thirds of smartphone owners do no mobile banking at all.
Fear that banking details will not stay secure in the mobile channel are cited by 55%. Over one third (35%) said the small screen is a problem. One in 10 said the mobile apps they had looked at were not very good.
Some 58% of respondents also said they would not use their smartphone as a credit card substitute – the so-called tap and pay mobile payments model – even if their phone were so equipped.
Of those who said they would not use the feature, 67% pointed to fears of data insecurity as the reason.
Younger smartphone owners expressed more willingness to use this feature, with 42% of 18 to 24 year olds saying they were willing to try their smartphone as a mobile wallet.
Iain Regan, global head of sales and marketing at Firstsource Solutions, said in a prepared statement: “It seems that there are still challenges to the widespread adoption of mobile banking. Customers still have a lack of trust in mobile banking security...This challenge can be overcome, but [financial institutions] will need to make banking applications more user friendly while at the same time ensuring security.”
