Australian consumers ahead of UK and US when it comes to mobile money management

Consumers Worldwide Want More Banking via Smartphones, FICO Survey Finds

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — January 14, 2014 — FICO (NYSE:FICO), a leading predictive analytics and decision management software company, has released the results of an international survey of smartphone consumers showing that they want to do much more mobile banking than most of today’s smartphone apps permit. While the most requested functionality is the ability to check account balances (75%), more than half of respondents want to receive notifications of potential fraudulent activity (59%), make payments from their account (53%) and transfer money between their accounts (50%) using their smartphone.

The demographic breakdown showed that across all categories, young people showed the most interest in banking services delivered by smartphone.  When it came to specific product services such as receiving credit card bill payment reminders and credit card limit warnings, people aged 25 to 39 were the most interested in delivery by smartphone.

The least popular service, according to the findings, was to receive information about new products and services (39%). Interest in this dropped with age, with only 6.5 percent of over 55s attracted to the idea.

The survey also found that men were more interested in smartphone banking services than women – by an average of three to four percentage points across all age groups.

When it came to the habits of consumers from specific countries, Australian respondents ranked consistently ahead of the UK and US in their desire to conduct more banking on smartphones.

52 percent highlighted the desire to check account balances and statements as compared to just 34 percent of UK and 35 percent of US consumers. Australians were also very keen on security checks (44%), such as an SMS notification on possible fraudulent activity, when compared to the UK (31%) and US (30%).

Australians were also keen to receive credit card limit warnings (42%), significantly more than the US (23%) and UK (23%). This attitude is likely due to the country’s history of significantly high credit card fees on over-limit spending, even though this practice is now banned through regulation. Another notable contrast is the request by Australians (40%), to make payments from bank accounts through mobile phones as compared to the US (22%) and UK (23%).

“Australians have long been early adopters of mobile technology, so it stands to reason that many of them would want to conduct their banking using those devices,” said Ross McGown, FICO’s Managing Director, APAC. “Culturally, Australians are big online shoppers and so this habit of conducting retail transactions online seems to have made them open mobile banking as well.

“For forward-thinking banks, this presents an unprecedented opportunity to differentiate themselves and strengthen their relationships with their customers. The unique ability to combine voice, applications, text, and location information with powerful analytics, personalisation and automated communications make mobile banking much more significant than previous channel expansions, including the advent of ATMs or even online banking.”

The survey looked at consumer preferences and tendencies with regards to mobile, online and in-person interactions with banks. It included 2,239 adult smartphone users in the UK, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and the United States.

The banking preferences of smartphone consumers from Australia, Brazil, China, the US and the UK can be explored in further detail at a special interactive website: www.fico.com/mobileiq.

About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO), formerly known as Fair Isaac, is a leading analytics software company, helping businesses in 80+ countries make better decisions that drive higher levels of growth, profitability and customer satisfaction. The company’s groundbreaking use of Big Data and mathematical algorithms to predict consumer behavior has transformed entire industries. FICO provides analytics software and tools used across multiple industries to manage risk, fight fraud, build more profitable customer relationships, optimise operations and meet strict government regulations. Many of our products reach industry-wide adoption — such as the FICO^® Score, the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the United States. FICO solutions leverage open-source standards and cloud computing to maximise flexibility, speed deployment and reduce costs. The company also helps millions of people manage their personal credit health. FICO: Make every decision count™. Learn more at www.fico.com.

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