4% of Businesses Use Mobile Banking, But 65% Would Like to Use It, Aite Survey Finds

With the exception of Wells Fargo, which has been offering mobile banking to business customers since 2007, banks are just starting to dip their toes into mobile banking for business customers. Citizens Bank just launched mobile banking for businesses yesterday and Union Bank began offering mobile banking to commercial customers on November 2.

So Aite Group's just-completed survey of treasury executives around the world to ascertain their interest in business mobile banking demand is very timely. The research, "The Business Case for Offering Mobile Corporate Banking Services," estimates that 4% of businesses around the world currently use mobile banking. Most of these are small, with less than $10 million in annual revenue. But two-thirds of businesses would be at least "somewhat likely" to use mobile corporate banking for basic transactions, such as checking balances and transferring funds, the survey found. An impressive 43% described themselves as "likely" or "very likely" to use mobile banking.

More than half of the treasury executives (56%) said they would like to perform more advanced functions on their phones, such as approving wire and payroll transactions and initiating payments. The Aite analysts note that advanced mobile functions are "stickier" than basic ones.

However, security remains a hurdle for mobile banking adoption among treasury managers. While 22% agreed that "security is a concern, but I would still use it," 58% selected "security is a concern and would prevent me from using it."