Avoka measured the digital account opening capabilities of the 50 largest banks in North America, Europe and Australia in a recent data report. It showed that in 2018 for the first time that the capacity for online sales overall surpassed that of conventional account opening. The biggest jump was in personal finance, where digital sales capacity rose to 69%, compared with 43% in 2017. Though business banking lagged behind at 30% online readiness, it still displayed a threefold increase on 2017.
Mobile banking has caught up to desktop digital, now accounting for the vast majority of digital sales. Australia came out on top as the most far ahead. Mobile account opening is now available for more than half the banking products of all types in Australia, followed by 40% in the US and 34% in Europe. It is worth noting that mobile banking accelerated faster in the US, which increased the mobile banking capacity by two thirds, compared with Australia growing by just over a third on 2017.
Europe fares less well in terms of digital readiness across all categories. The report states that banks in the UK and Germany tend to be further ahead than others, but many are still bogged down in legacy analogue systems. In France, new regulations around login credentials for digital banking caused scores in the report to drop dramatically. This could simply be a temporary blip, or an indication of a cultural divide within Europe.
