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Mobile banking app usage grows in Canada

Published

Sept. 30, 2013

By Robin Arnfield

Contributing Writer 

A survey by BMO Bank of Montreal has found that mobile banking apps are growing in popularity in Canada. BMO said two-thirds of the 1,000 Canadians it surveyed in August have downloaded a mobile banking app in the last year.

"There has been a significant rise in mobile banking app usage in Canada," Christie Christelis, president of the Canadian research firm Technology Strategies International, told Mobile Payments Today. "People are getting more confident about using mobile banking apps."

BMO customers have adopted mobile banking even more quickly than they embraced online banking, according to Dan Dickinson, BMO's managing director, mobile and online banking. The results show "the growing appetite for this type of technology for everyday banking needs," he said in a statement.

According to a Google online survey of 1,000 Canadians, 56 percent of Canadian adults were using smartphones in the first quarter of 2013. BMO said Canadians have an average of 14 apps on their smartphones.

While mobile banking apps have surged in popularity, BMO added, concerns about privacy and security among all age groups represent the top reason why some Canadians are avoiding using the technology.

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of mobile banking app users told BMO they use the apps on a weekly or daily basis. More than half of users (55 percent) said they use the apps to check account balances, while 44 percent review transactions, 41 percent manage bill payments and 35 percent transfer money between accounts.

Only 20 percent of respondents currently have a financial app that provides alerts, but 27 percent told BMO that would be one of the most useful features offered by a mobile banking app.

Younger Canadians have been the quickest to embrace mobile banking technology, BMO said, with 71 percent of those under 35 using mobile banking. That compares to 55 percent of respondents aged 35 to 44, 40 percent of those aged 45 to 54 and 26 percent of those aged 55 to 64.

Learn more about mobile banking and trends/statistics.