TowerGroup Reseach Concludes Mobile Technology Is Critical Marketing Channel
This entry was posted on 3/11/2008 11:44 AM and is filed under Technology.
Needham, Mass., March 10, 2008: New research from the TowerGroup confirms that Mobile
banking is growing at a feverish pace.
Because of the growth, TowerGroup believes that Mobile
banking has emerged as a powerful "right here, right now" channel for
banks to connect with existing retail and business customers, as well as a
means to reach new customer segments.
According to Virginia Garcia,
TowerGroup research director in the Emerging Technologies practice, Mobile
banking will soon be a cost of doing business.
"Demographic shifts and
new customer expectations along with technology maturity are converging to
create fertile ground for mobile banking," said Garcia. "Within a few
years the mobile device will be the primary access point for consumer banking,
with 40 million U.S. consumers using mobile banking by 2012. Core banking vendors will be important
contributors to the widespread proliferation of integrated mobile banking
services and will fundamentally reshape the vendor ecosystem for mobile banking
solutions. As the focus shifts from 'technovation' to return on investments,
the core banking vendors are ideally positioned to enable proper business
economics in support of mobile banking."
For the top U.S. banks, Mobile banking is already a strategic business and
technology priority. While these major players have the financial and technical
resources to make a strategic commitment to the mobile channel, most mid-tier
and small banks are unable to develop the technology due to cost and capability
limitations. To address those
limitations, TowerGroup concludes that core banking technology vendors have a
big role to play in helping mid-tier and small institutions take advantage of
this emerging channel.
Core banking vendors sit at
the center of a significant portion of the bank technology market in U.S. When new technology becomes available, mid-tier and
small financial institutions look to their core processing vendors for
leadership and innovation. In light of the surging interest in mobile banking
services, TowerGroup believes that these financial institutions should move
ahead with the deployment of mobile banking solutions with confidence that
their core banking vendors will provide the key to start the engine of mobile
banking.
Highlights of TowerGroup’s
research include:
- Increasingly, U.S. banks are recognizing that offering mobile banking
services can help them to reach new customer segments, such as the youth market
and the unbanked, which have a strong affinity for mobility.
- TowerGroup believes that in
2008, mobile banking will finally emerge as a basic, necessary service for U.S. banks and therefore a "must have" in the
solutions arsenals of core banking vendors.
- Recent mobile banking
announcements from such technology vendors as Fidelity Information Services,
Jack Henry & Associates, Metavante, and Open Solutions Inc. represent the
first step in a multi-pronged, evolutionary strategy with regard to integrating
mobile payments more deeply into the U.S. banking infrastructure.
- As the mobile banking and
payments market evolves throughout 2008, the associated vendor ecosystem will
change markedly. Core processors' strategies may eventually call for internal
development or even acquisitions of boutique suppliers that are struggling to
win the confidence of financial institutions looking to push forward on the mobile
delivery channel.
Source: TowerGroup and PR
Newswire
