Tablet banking to quickly overtake mobile banking

The number of people in Europe doing their banking on tablets will grow at twice the rate of those banking on mobile phones, with less security concerns a major driver.

The report from Forrester Research found that by 2016 the number of people using tablets to bank will exceed those using mobiles. The report covered the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

The analyst company’s digital banking forecast, 2014 to 2018 said European mobile banking will increase from 42 million users in 2013 to 99 million in 2018. Meanwhile tablet banking will grow from 19 million users in 2013 to 115 million in 2018. It said increasing tablet ownership, more tablet banking apps, and fewer security fears among tablet users versus mobile users, are key drivers.

"As customers start using their tablets and smartphones to do their banking, some will stop using their desktop and laptop PCs," said Stephen Walker analyst at Forrester. "We expect the number of Western European online banking users on PCs and tablets to grow slowly in the next five years and reach 163 million by 2018, masking a big underlying shift from PCs to tablets to access banks' websites." 

Forrester said the proportion of European tablet owners that bank on tablets will double from 35% in 2013 to 68% by 2018.

“Consumers are unlikely to ever trust mobiles as much as PCs and tablets, given that the latter two are largely at-home devices that are rarely lost and therefore intrinsically feel more secure to consumers. Tablet users today are less likely than other online users to not use online banking because of security concerns.”