Consumers ‘Flocking’ To Digital Payments, Led by Internal Transfers

 

AUSTIN, Texas–Consumers are “flocking” to their digital devices to make payments, according to newly released data.

Malauzai Graphic

Overall, volume in money movements rose 5%– 7% per financial institution in the past year, covering these types of digital transactions: internal transfers, external transfers, picture pay, bill pay, mobile check deposit, and person-to-person (P2P) payments, the Monkey Insights “little data” report from Malauzai Software has found.

The report highlights key trends in Internet and mobile banking usage based on March 2018 data for 400-plus banks and credit unions, covering 17.6 million logins from 908,000 active Internet and mobile banking users.

According to the report and its analysis:

  • Internal Transfers Lead the Charge. “Twenty-seven percent of digital users made an internal transfer in March. Once again, internal transfers lead in the money movement category.
  • That applies to all digital channels from mobile phones through the legacy desktop.  Next up in the league table is Bill Pay/Picture Pay when looking at legacy desktop usage and mobile check capture when looking at end-users accessing via a mobile device.  What was the single largest area of growth?
  • Account-to-Account transfers (A2A).  When A2A is offered, it grows over 25% annually in terms of overall users and transactions.”
  • 69% of Images Accepted First Time for Check Capture. “That amounts to a good user experience. As always, not signing the check is the single biggest reason images fail to be accepted. It’s not picture quality, it’s user error.
  • When MySnap, Mitek’s solution to improve the picture-taking experience, is deployed, the image acceptance rate pops to mid 70% so it’s well worth it.”
  • Outbound A2A Transfers Rule 5 to 1. “As mentioned, A2A is hot. People like sending money to themselves.  In fact, outbound rules.
  • A2A allows an end-user to send money from their bank account as well as transfer money into their bank account.  Outbound transfers dominate five to one.
  • Yes, 75% – 80% of A2A transfers are outbound, sending money to another financial institution.  One could speculate that this means people using A2A are saving, not spending.
  • If they had spending shortfalls, they would be transferring money in.  This shows a savings pattern, moving money outside of the primary payment account.
  • Picture Pay Grows by 10%. Picture Pay transactions, where you take pictures of bills, grew by 10% since March last year. That growth applies to end-users trying the service as well, where the number of end-users grew by 7%.
  • This is juxtaposed with standard bill pay where growth is flat or actually falling. Yes, it’s true, for the first time in years, bill pay has started to see some level of contraction.”
  • P2P Delivery Method as Expected. “When you make a P2P transfer, you can request delivery to your friend via text or email. 70% of end-users on a mobile device use text and 45% use text when sending a P2P from legacy desktop Internet banking.
  • People who use P2P from the desktop like email delivery. Is that a Freudian thing? Maybe they are just tech-newbies who think it’s easier to receive the payment via desktop as well.
  • Talk about user bias!  And those mobile users clearly like their devices and like forcing their friends to use mobile as well.”