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Smartwatches are set to play an increasing role in mobile banking, according to a new study from Juniper Research.Juniper found that the global number of banking apps will reach 10 million in 2017, rising to more than 100 million by 2020.
With the use of smartwatch banking applications poised for growth, Juniper found that the use of smartwatches to access “push” banking information services has steadily been gaining traction over the past 12 months, with a number of global banks having launched apps.
Meanwhile, the launch of the Apple Watch earlier this year played its part in further accelerating the demand for wearable banking apps.
However, Juniper additionally notes that while these banking information services have emerged as a key trend, they are perceived by many as a gimmick at present.
Juniper believes that while wearables are not suited for conducting complicated financial instructions, wrist-based wearables will become “a key device for multi-factor authentication”, for carrying out banking transaction approvals in the future.
“Digital banking has experienced a substantial progression towards personalised computing,” research author Nitin Bhas commented. “We do believe that, keeping pace with technology evolution, wearable banking will witness a faster adoption rate than mobile banking especially amongst millennials.”
Juniper found that banks have introduced a number of innovative new services, such as augmented reality banking apps and the cashless money box, however that these generally have a short lifespan with consumers.
Juniper stated it believes banks and financial institutions will need to offer customers more targeted services, aimed at specific user needs, enabled through customer analytics and big data management platforms from vendors such as Oracle, Infosys, Fiserv and SAP.
Among other findings of the research, Juniper estimates that the global mobile banking user base will reach 2 billion by 2020, representing 37 per cent of the global adult population, while SMS-based push banking services are on the decline.
