Is mobile banking demand on the climb?

Canadians are increasingly embracing mobile computing but are we keeners to access our bank accounts from smartphones or tablets? The answer to that question depends on whom you talk to.

From the customer's perspective, mobile banking is about convenience. For the banks, mobile banking is about providing self-service options and increasing the number of transactions per customer. Thus more transactions will take place but at a lower cost-per-transaction.

"The issue is that it's hard to get a good banking or stock trading experience on a mobile form factor like a smartphone," remarks Warren Shiau, director of research, Consumer Insight & Technology, Leger Marketing in Toronto. "There's a reason after all why tellers', bankers' and traders' monitors are full-size. The user interface and functionality is a key element here for driving adoption and volume of use, and some of the banks are certainly more advanced than others in this respect."

Leader of the pack

One of the big six leading the charge is CIBC, which has introduced a new, mobile version of CIBC.com designed to be smartphone-friendly -- the first of its kind in Canada, CIBC says. As anyone with a smartphone knows, traditional websites, designed for traditional computer monitors, can be difficult to view and navigate.

"As smartphone adoption grows rapidly in Canada, we've responded with innovations such as mobile banking and brokerage, and now with a new mobile-optimized CIBC site," says Geoff Dillon, senior director, Retail and Business Banking, CIBC. "Our new mobile-optimized CIBC.com allows these clients to view a site that is automatically rendered to fit their screen size without the need to zoom in and out constantly, which is often the case when browsing traditional websites on a mobile device. It's a significant enhancement to the mobile browsing experience."

Increasingly, clients want greater access to their accounts whenever and wherever they may be, Dillon adds. "Since the launch of mobile banking, we've responded to client feedback by expanding the number and type of accounts clients can view on their mobile device, and introduced other new features to enable clients to set up new payees for e-mail money transfers."

But a recent TD Canada Trust poll of 1,000 Canadians found Canucks are conservative when it comes to using tablets or smartphones for banking with only 8 per cent using mobile banking apps or sites.

"Mobile banking is still in its infancy, but its popularity has grown exponentially as more Canadians switch to smartphones," Raymond Chun, senior vice-president, TD Canada Trust states in the release.

Canadians are increasingly moving to mobile computing and they're snapping up tablets and smartphones, with multiple devices finding homes in single households.

Security remains a concern

But dogging the mobile banking opportunity are security concerns, highlighted by software security vendor McAfee's recently released "2012 Threat Predictions" report. In it, McAfee reports there's been an increase in mobile malware attacks targeting smartphones and other devices and it warns, "In 2012, we expect to see attackers continue what they've done and to improve upon their attacks. We also predict a move toward mobile banking attacks."

"Current mobile banking adopters trust that adequate security is in place: This is trust borne of Canadian's confidence in our big banks," Shiau says. "What's critical is that the security be there to prevent criminal exploitation in the face of mobile banking as it becomes much more of a target for hackers and criminal syndicates as the volume of adopters increases."

The problem of course, is that mobile banking, stock trading, and contactless payments are much more of an exposed target than doing online banking at home, he adds.

Nevertheless, delivering mobile financial services and making information about products and services available through mobile devices is becoming increasingly important for financial institutions in Canada.

"We regularly communicate with clients to reinforce common sense security measures across all of our banking channels, including mobile," Dillon says.

A CIBC commissioned poll conducted by Harris/Decima reveals 33 per cent of Canadians now own a smartphone, and 25 per cent of smartphone owners have started banking-on-the-go with mobile banking.