Banks in Europe and the US are ready to introduce m-payments, but there is evidence consumers are not as enthusiastic as their financial institutions about the technology, according to EPI research.
In a 360-degree survey of the industry, EPI has brought together research on the attitudes of both consumers and the industry towards mobile payments.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
A survey of 2,000 consumers in four major European payments markets shows only 27.2% of consumers in Spain, Italy, the UK and Germany are interested in their phone becoming a payments device.
Around 58.7% said they would not be interested, while 14.1% said they did not know how the technology would work. The results tally with recent consumer trials in France, where consumers have struggled to use the new technology (see Nice trials: M-payments still struggling).
This is despite a boom in interest in m-payments in the industry, with US Bank the first mainstream US or European institution to introduce person-to-person mobile payments to its consumers. Of 15 senior industry executives surveyed by EPI, 10 said they were actively investigating the launch of m-payments in the next 12 months to 18 months. The results are surprising in that only around a quarter of people surveyed said they would be interested in the application. For a technology which has set its sights on revolutionising the way people transact, the response would appear underwhelming.
But it may also be that consumers are not ready to make an immediate switch to mobile payments. A steady switch from cards to contactless payments and then to mobile may be a more realistic route in developed markets, both in terms of consumer education and rolling out acceptance infrastructure. Francesco Burelli, principal at global management consultancy Value Partners, told EPI there was no doubt that the mobile will play a major role in the payments and financial services space.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataOver time, mobile has the potential to become a major channel, but it is going to be quite few years before we see any uniformity and convergence at a pan-European level, said Burelli.
We would expect that developments will have a national/regional tenor for the time being. We are still far from seeing the clear emergence of dominant business models which have sufficient critical mass to be considered as points of reference at either regional or global levels.
Spanish consumers had the highest level of interest in m-payments, at 39.9% compared to Italy (35.3%) the UK (22.1) and Germany (11.4%).
