Trends Report

The ROI Of Mobile Banking

By-The-Numbers Business Case Is Lukewarm Today, But Advanced Functionality And Elusive Benefits Suggest Greater Returns Lie Ahead

May 10th, 2011
AH
Alexander Hesse
Brad Strothkamp, null
Brad Strothkamp
With contributors:
Carrie Johnson , Emmett Higdon , Beth Hoffman

Summary

Consumer adoption of mobile banking has accelerated over the past few years. In the US, the proportion of online adults who are mobile bankers has quadrupled from 4% in 2006 to 16% at the end of 2010. This growth has eBusiness leaders at financial institutions large and small racing to boost their presence in the mobile space. Yet few eBusiness teams have articulated a clear business case for selling to and supporting customers through the mobile channel. To help institutions calculate the potential ROI of their firms' mobile banking initiatives, Forrester developed a model based on the estimated costs and projected benefits of launching a full-service mobile banking offering. Our model shows an average ROI of 15.7% for a complete mobile banking service, including access through native applications and the mobile Web. While far from small, this is hardly a ringing endorsement of mobile as a significant profit center for banks. But multiple factors make it likely that the next few years will bring advances in mobile banking that could potentially boost the return from offering mobile services to bank customers.

Want to read the full report?

Contact us to become a client

This report is available for individual purchase ($1495).

Forrester helps business and technology leaders use customer obsession to accelerate growth. That means empowering you to put the customer at the center of everything you do: your leadership strategy, and operations. Becoming a customer-obsessed organization requires change — it requires being bold. We give business and technology leaders the confidence to put bold into action, shaping and guiding how to navigate today's unprecedented change in order to succeed.