The number of mobile subscribers who use their phones for mobile banking will exceed 400m globally by 2013, according to a new in depth study by Juniper Research.  This equates to double the number of users this year. The results of Juniper’s detailed Mobile Banking Technology Strategies Survey showed that banks are laying the foundations for this rapid user take-up by rolling out services using SMS, mobile web and apps to provide additional channel choices for their customers.

Report author Howard Wilcox explained: "Our survey concluded that banks in all regions are becoming increasingly innovative in their service offerings and provide impetus for user growth. Mobile is becoming a ‘must have’ channel for banks."

The mobile banking report, however, stressed that some banks are limiting their options by offering insufficient mobile channel options for users, whilst others have yet to deploy mobile services at all.   On the other hand, there are many banks in Europe, North America and the Far East that are actively delivering and promoting their services by significant above the line marketing campaigns.

Further findings included:

•         Over 80% of banks currently offer some form of mobile banking;

•         Far East and China will be the region with the highest number of users in 2015;

•         Demand for on-the-move bank balance enquiries and advanced alerts will fuel SMS messaging growth.

 The new Juniper report features the Juniper Mobile Banking Technology Strategies Survey of 77 banks across all regions which determined the popularity of SMS, mobile browser, smartphone apps including iPhone and Android and other apps such as Java. Additionally the Juniper study presents insight from its unique Global Mobile Banking Vendor Positioning Matrix of some 21 vendors.

The report provides forecasts of user take-up, user-level messaging traffic, user-level transaction volumes and gross transaction values for Mobile Banking Information Services, and Transactional Services.