Mobile Banking SMEs More Confident In Growth, Says Survey

The travel and expense management space has earned a place as a top adopter of mobile solutions for the enterprise. But new data says other aspects of corporate finance are quickly joining the mobile solution bandwagon.

Data released by Raddon Financial Group found an increasing demand for mobile banking solutions, especially among small businesses. More than half (52 percent) of smaller companies surveyed by the firm said they rely on mobile banking platforms to manage and access their bank accounts.

And that number increases as the age of small business owners decreases; 68 percent of millennial SME owners say they depend on a mobile banking solution.

Nearly all of the companies surveyed said they agree mobile banking saves time (80 percent), so it may come as a surprise that there aren’t more small businesses reporting a dependence on some kind of mobile banking platform.

According to researchers, the survey offers insight into how small businesses are responding to the technological resources offered by their banks. For example, 56 percent said that these resources significantly impact their business and its decision to actually use what’s offered by a financial institution.

So-called mega-banks control 68 percent of the small business market share, reports said, adding that researchers believe technology, like online and mobile banking, has played a role in mega-banks’ dominance among SMEs.

The effect of technological solutions offered by mega-banks has a greater impact on small business customers than retail customers, the data also found, as just 41 percent of individuals report having a mega-bank as their primary financial institution.

For small businesses, nearly half said that a mobile banking solution increased their satisfaction with their bank (just 2 percent said that satisfaction decreased).

Perhaps most importantly, the report concluded that the use of mobile banking tools leads to an expected performance boost for small businesses; 75 percent of SMEs that use mobile banking tools said they expect sales to increase (compared to 56 percent of non-mobile bankers).