Will mobile banking be 'ATOMic'?

04/11/2015 By Mark Long

4 November 2014

At BVA BDRC we spend a lot of time assessing consumer engagement with financial services channels and technology, so I read the recent Marketing Week article How one disruptor is breaking the banking mould with interest.

Founder of UK challenger high street bank Metro, Anthony Thomson is about to launch a new mobile-only bank, Atom. He strongly asserts that Atom will disrupt the banking sector and lead the market on to an inevitably digital mobile future.

Our regular Moments of Truth NPS Benchmarking programme monitors adoption and engagement with offline and online banking channels. To help provide some context for the MW article, our Q3 2015 research suggests that 29% consumers (from a sample of 15,000) have used a mobile banking App in the preceding 12 months, up 5% since Q1 2014. Adoption then is well underway.

Mr Thomson speaks to the imperative for Atom to be all about 'customer centricity’ and on this point, the channel is already delivering. Of the 21 customer touch-points measured, mobile banking via an App generates the highest NPS outcome and the second strongest customer ease rating. We’ll have to see whether Atom can go on to challenge First Direct the market leader in this channel.

So whilst I’d challenge some assertions in this piece (e.g. the collapse of branch visitor numbers), our insights would suggest that Atom is being built on very firm, virtual foundations. Read more about our Moments of Truth Benchmarking programme.

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