According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, over 2 billion users will access retail banking services via smartphones, media tablets, PCs and smartwatches in 2018 -- that's up by 10 percent year-over-year.
Digital Banking Market Development
The new research found that accelerated adoption in key emerging markets -- such as India and China -- means that mobile banking users now represent 50 percent of the global banked population. Juniper expects that the number of global mobile banking users will now overtake online users in 2018 -- 2 years earlier than previously anticipated.
2017 saw banks worldwide engaging in both technology investments and new tech offerings, although the extent of these activities varied considerably.
Juniper analyzed leading tier-1 banks to evaluate their 'digital transformation readiness' scores and highlight their respective positioning within the digital innovation roadmap.
According to the Juniper assessment, the leading group of banks include: Banco Santander, Bank of America, Barclays, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citi, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, RBS, Societe Generale, UniCredit and Wells Fargo.
These banks once again scored highly, offering a wide range of digital banking portfolios and investing in the rapid development of technology and customer enablement.
"They were found to be in the mature phase of digital transformation, approaching the final stages of objectives as defined in their current roadmap. These players also lead in customer training and employee development programs, with regards to digital technology," said Nitin Bhas, head of research at Juniper Research.
Outlook for Global Digital Banking Growth
As these banks continue towards digital transformation, technology offerings are also becoming increasingly advanced. For example, chatbot offerings deliver a greater differentiation from a normal app experience, particularly where customer service is concerned.
Juniper estimates customer service cost savings achieved through the deployment of conversational chatbot platforms will reach $4.5 billion by 2022.
