Consumer Bill Payers Want Incentives To Go Electronic

Posted by Mark Brousseau

Consumers pay a lot of bills, and they pay those bills in myriad combinations of channels and methods. Consumers’ bill pay behavior isn’t a trivial matter—changes in behavior can result in millions of dollars of additional or lost revenue, or millions of dollars in cost savings.

Despite the increasing popularity of the Internet and the emergence of the mobile channel as a way to transact and interact, checks sent through the mail remain the most prevalent method for paying bills in the United States.

Aite Group says the number of bill payments made through the mail will fall just short of 5 billion for 2010, accounting for about one-third of all payments made, whereas payments made at a biller site—including recurring and mobile payments—will account for 23% of all bills paid in 2010.

Looking to the future, however, consumers’ bill pay behavior is very likely to change, Aite Group predicts. Roughly four in 10 consumers say they would change how they pay their bills if they received rewards for paying with a debit or credit card, or received a cash incentive for changing their behavior, the research and advisory firm reports. In addition, the rapid adoption of smartphones will help drive bill pay behavior change over the next three years.

“There’s an emerging segment of consumers—which we call Smartphonatics—that will lead to an increase in the use of the online and mobile channels for paying bills,” says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group. “These young and affluent consumers are chomping at the bit to use their smartphones, and are very likely to change how they pay bills if it becomes easier to do so via mobile. The growth of biller-direct over consolidator, coupled with the projected growth in mobile payments, means an opportunity for bill pay solutions providers to create an industry-leading mobile platform.”

What are you seeing?

iPhone Users Doing Mobile Banking

Posted by Mark Brousseau

Mobile banking is quickly moving from a “techie” to mainstream capability that is changing how consumers manage their finances today, which in turn will change how consumers pay for goods in the future. That's according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research (www.javelinstrategy.com).

“Mobile banking is quickly moving from infancy to commonplace, which will help separate the winners from losers in banks’ ability to attract and keep technology-loving consumers,” said Mary Monahan, Research Director and Managing Partner. “Consumers are hungry for the ‘always-on’ and ‘real time’ ability to monitor and manage their money, and mobile banking serves that need better than any other.”

Among the findings of the report:

... Nearly half of mobile-phone owners currently have access to mobile banking today.
... By 2014, 45% of mobile-phone users will actually use mobile banking.
99 million U.S. adults will conduct mobile banking transactions at least once per year by 2014 – with 52% of mobile-phone users relying on smartphones.
... Mobile banking will rival online banking, with the former used as a “remote control” and the latter as a detailed form of control panel for more complex transactions.
... AT&T has the highest number of mobile bankers due to the iPhone’s influence, while Verizon Wireless has the lowest penetration for mobile bankers among the top tier U.S. wireless carriers.

“Mobile banking is quickly becoming an essential consumer capability,” said Mark Schwanhausser, Financial Services Channels Analyst. “Just as the iPod changed the music industry and their business models, our data shows that iPhone users are changing the banking industry by leading the way in monitoring and managing finances through mobile devices.”

What do you think? Post your comment below.

Smartphones and Mobile Banking

By Mark Brousseau

Smartphones will have a tremendous impact on mobile banking, Alain DeSouza, senior manager, Market Development, Solutions Marketing, at Blackberry, told attendees at the Third Annual Mobile Commerce Summit at The M Resort in Las Vegas yesterday.

DeSouza noted that, depending on the analyst numbers you believe, smartphones represent 20 to 26 percent of the mobile phones in the United States, and 12 to 14 percent of the mobile phones globally. When you consider that 4 billion people worldwide have mobile phones (with 1.3 billion mobile phones purchased annually) there is a lot of opportunity for smartphone mobile banking applications.

“Mobile banking will be one of the top seven applications people will have,” DeSouza said. He predicts the mass market adoption of mobile banking applications and that more companies will leverage mobile applications in general as a means of entering and exploiting new demographic segments.

And while iPhone has been getting a lot of the smartphone buzz, “the gorilla in the smartphone industry globally is Nokia, even though Blackberry leads the U.S. market,” DeSouza said.

What do you think? Post your comments below.