Banks and financial institutions have a significant opportunity to leverage mobile for more than streamlining the banking process, with mobile banking activity split evenly between browsing and transactions, according to a report from xAd released today.

The banking and finance edition of xAd’s “Mobile Path to Purchase” report looks at how online banking is shifting to becoming a mobile-only activity for some groups of consumers. One of the report’s main findings is that millennials dominate the mobile banking group of consumers.

“Bankers are relying on their devices, especially smartphones, to pay bills, transfer funds and generally manage their personal finances while they are away from their homes and their computers,” said Monica Ho, vice president of marketing at xAd, New York.

“If a customer is looking for a business or ATM for an in-person transaction, mobile can serve as a tool to locate the closest branch to their current location allowing them to think in-the-moment as they move throughout their day,” she said.

XAd and Telmetrics worked with Nielsen on the study that includes online survey data from 2,000 tablet and smartphone users in the United States. The research also includes findings from Nielsen’s Smartphone Analytics Panel of 6,000 consumers. To qualify for participation, consumers needed to have engaged with financial and banking services, products and information in the past month.

Bank on mobile
According to xAd’s findings, 42 percent of online banking happens on either a smartphone or tablet with the additional 58 percent taking place on a PC.

The mobile bankers also spend shorter amounts of time interacting with their finances. The average mobile banking visit from a smartphone was 3.2 minutes, and tablets generated a 3-minute visit. PCs averaged a 5.5-minute visit time.

The average mobile banker spends roughly 35 minutes accessing their finances per month either from a mobile application or mobile Web site. Apps gobbled up 66 percent of this time, and mobile Web represented 34 percent of total time.

Branded apps in particular play a stronger role for mobile bankers completing transactions with PayPal, Chase and Bank of America as the top apps that consumers used.

Mobile Web on the other hand was used by consumers to access general information. The top mobile sites to do so were PayPal, the digital properties of the Wall St. Journal and Chase.

Showing the role that mobile plays for younger generations, 43 percent of mobile bankers surveyed were under 35 years old. One-third of those bankers consider their smartphone their No. 1 media outlet.

Usage is split evenly between men and women, however women are more likely to use a mobile banking site instead of an app than men are.

Mobile banking in total reached 65.2 percent of the smartphone users surveyed.

Different use cases
The report backs up numerous other industry reports that smartphones are used while on the go and tablets are used at home.

Sixty-five percent of smartphone banking and finance takes place on the go, and 35 percent takes place at home.

On the other hand, 82 percent of tablet banking takes place at home, and 18 percent happens on the go.

Thirty-one percent of consumers used their smartphones to research, and 34 percent were looking for contact information. Only 11 percent wanted to buy but were still researching.

Twenty-five percent of tablet bankers were looking for contact information, and 40 percent were only browsing. Fourteen percent of tablet bankers wanted to buy but were still researching.

During this research, consumers expect for the information that they are looking for to be nearby to them.

In fact, 62 percent of smartphone and tablet users expected for a business that they were looking for to be within five miles of where they were.

Mobile bankers also want to take an immediate action.

For example, 45 percent of smartphone bankers that used their mobile device to access banking and finance information wanted to act immediately. Forty-nine percent of smartphone users that accessed credit card information said the same.

Fifty-seven percent of tablet users accessing credit card information indicated that they wanted to act immediately, and 49 percent said the same while interacting with banking and finance information.

Fifty-nine percent of smartphone bankers said that they were satisfied with their mobile banking experience, and 34 percent of consumers were neutral about their experience. The dissatisfaction comes from a small screen and a lack of information.

Slightly more, 66 percent, of tablet bankers were satisfied with their banking experience, and 30 percent were neutral. Tablet users were dissatisfied with not getting enough information and non-mobile experiences.

“Mobile is such an important medium for this group of bankers,” Ms. Ho said.

“They are relying on their devices throughout the entire path-to-purchase,” she said. “This provides multiple touch points for marketers with these young bankers. Marketers should develop strategies to reach these customers at each point of the process.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York