Results of a new global consumer survey around mobile financial services (MFS), reveals 15% of European respondents are likely to use advanced mobile financial services and products for loans, savings, insurance, and payment solutions for education services and medical treatment in the next 12 months, highlighting a great opportunity for service providers to drive the next phase of growth.
The survey also found that almost 50% of the respondents have yet to use MFS, and
Europeans ready to adopt Advanced Mobile Financial Services
service providers need to offer innovative reward schemes, greater data security, and service ubiquity to encourage people for faster adoption and increased usage.
Conducted by analyst and consultancy firm Ovum on behalf of Amdocs, the survey focused on both users and non-users of mobile financial services in UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.
“Rewards can be a powerful tool for driving increased usage of MFS, if handled correctly. Rewards come in many forms and need to be carefully matched to the desires of the target market ̶ otherwise they will prove a blunt instrument,” said Eden Zoller, principal analyst with Ovum.
“The survey revealed that European MFS users are most drawn to rewards in the shape of free airtime for calls and texts, followed by vouchers for products, services and entertainment.”
Key findings include:
- Loans, savings, insurance, m-coupons, omni-channels payments, and solutions for education and medical treatment payment are the top applications people would like to use in the next 12 months:
15% of European respondents say that in the next year they’re likely to adopt advanced mobile financial services products ̶ savings, loans, and insurance ̶ while 19% would like to use them for redeeming mobile coupons, and 15% to pay for education services and medical treatment.
17% of the respondents say that they are likely to use MFS for buying transport tickets and 18% of them say they would like to use it for online and offline shopping and paying their bills in restaurant. The trend is similar across all the countries with an exception of Sweden, where 30% of the respondents say that they are likely to use savings, loans, and insurance, while 28% of them would like to use MFS for redeeming mobile coupons.
- Lack of market awareness and misperceptions about mobile financial services are still key concerns: Almost 50% of the total European respondents are either unaware about the existence of mobile financial services, or are aware but still don’t use them. However, when it comes to unbanked respondents, a surprising 75% do not use them. The trend is similar across all surveyed countries.
- Top three factors that will increase overall adoption and usage of mobile financial services in Europe are identified as: greater data security (45%), service ubiquity (44%) and rewards (37%). Other factors that respondents say would encourage their adoption and usage are low transaction charges (32%) and ease of use (30%). The trend is similar across the region with an exception of the UK where 50% of the respondents are likely to use mobile financial services more if they are offered rewards for using the service.
“Driving the next phase of adoption and growth is the biggest challenge for mobile financial services providers in mature markets like Europe,” said Patrick McGrory, Amdocs division president for emerging offerings.
“The market needs compelling value propositions and advanced solutions to address this challenge. Amdocs’ integrated wallet solution with seamless payment processing capabilities, along with expert deployment and managed services, enable service providers to deliver new and exciting mobile financial services, which encourage active usage and drive customer loyalty.”
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