Tablet banking in Europe to overtake mobile banking by 2016 - report

According to Forresters European digital banking forecast for 2014 to 2018, while mobile banking use in Europe will grow fast, from 42 million users in 2013 to 99 million in 2018, tablet banking will grow twice as fast, from 19 million users in 2013 to 115 million in 2018. Growing tablet ownership, the increased availability of tablet banking apps, and fewer security fears among tablet users versus mobile users are among the key drivers behind the explosive tablet banking growth predicted by the report.

The report covers digital banking adoption across seven European countries, namely France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

The study also suggests that France is the only country in the forecast where tablet banking will not overtake mobile banking by 2016, as it combines lower tablet adoption than the other EU countries (apart from Italy) with the highest mobile banking adoption after the Netherlands and Sweden.

Forrester expects the proportion of European tablet owners who bank on tablets to almost double from 35% in 2013 to 68% by 2018. According to the forecasts, in 2018, Sweden will have the highest tablet banking adoption at 89%, while Italy will have the lowest at 54%.

The report also reveals that a number of European banks, such as France’s BNP Paribas and Société Générale, Germany’s Postbank and Sparkassen, and Sweden’s Swedbank, have already had tablet-optimized apps for two or three years. Many other banks will follow over the next 24 months, encouraging more customers to use their tablets for banking.

Finally, the study points out the fact that consumers are unlikely to ever trust mobiles as much as PCs and tablets, given that the latter two are largely at-home devices that are rarely lost and therefore intrinsically feel more secure to consumers. Tablet users today are less likely than other online users to not use online banking because of security concerns.