An Australian bank that was an early adopter of Internet banking is changing its focus to mobile. St George, which began offering online banking in 1995 when it was rare, said consumers clearly are shifting to mobile, and tablets in particular, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The bank, now part of Westpac Group, said half of its 1.1 million digital customers use its mobile platform, which has prompted it to invest in transforming the mobile and tablet experience. The bank is also said to be looking at smartwatches as a new avenue for mobile banking and payment apps.

Other banks in the region are also making moves, the newspaper said. NAB has introduced a new app, Flik, for social media payments; that area has been pioneered by Commonwealth Bank's Kaching and its peer-to-peer payment facility, Bump. Kaching has been downloaded a million times and processed $9 billion since its October 2011 launch, the paper said.

ANZ also offers a pay-anyone mobile facility through its goMoney app.

St George has transformed its branch formats to put "technology at the forefront," head of mobile Travis Tyler told the paper. The bank has followed NAB with plans to replace tellers with touchscreens.

Speaking at a business function last month, Westpac CIO Clive Whincup said the convergence of mobility, digitization and social media had "radically shifted the balance of power, placing the customer in control. Continuous, ubiquitous connectivity is changing the way customers think and act. ... This will have deep consequences for how banks provide services in the future."

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