Mobile Banking Gains Relevance in Germany

The increased need/wish for mobility amongst various sections of the society, particularly amongst professionally active groups, is confronting credit institutions (banks), and other enterprises offering financial services, with challenges to adjust their service portfolio in a way to best suit customer needs. On the other hand it also opens up a new arena of opportunities by the way of offering innovative, value-added services so as to not only cater to the needs arising out of the mobility of the customer but also by actively inducing demand for new, mobility-centric services.

Mobile Banking can contribute to the business of banks by serving as i) a source of revenue, ii) an additional distribution channel and iii) as an image-enhancing product. The key to successful implementation lies in employing this medium to effectively increase sales volume, reduce costs of distribution and enhance customer satisfaction.

As a recent study by Chair of International Management at University of Hamburg established, there exists a sustainable and sufficiently large demand for mobile financial services amongst various customer groups. “The issue is no more whether there exists sufficient demand for mobile services”, as Mr. Rajnish Tiwari, co-author of the study THE MOBILE COMMERCE PROSPECTS: A STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF OPPORTUNITIES IN THE GERMAN BANKING SECTOR puts it: “but rather how to identify interesting customer groups and to offer them desired services for reasonable prices.” The real challenge thus lies in designing suitable products.

In order to contribute to customer- and market orientation of mobile financial services the authors of the above mentioned study - Dr. Stephan Buse and Mr. Rajnish Tiwari - are organizing a one-day “Mobile Banking Workshop” in Hamburg. The workshop is scheduled to take place on 2nd of March, this year. The workshop will include the presentation of the study including the results of two empirical surveys of customer acceptance and bank perspective respectively. It will further include a strategic assessment and a discussion on the viability of Mobile Banking applications and employed mediums (e.g. clients vs. browsers).

The workshop is primarily targeted at credit institutions (banks), financial services enterprises, consultancy firms and technology providers (e.g. software firms and network carriers). Academic circles involved with Mobile Commerce or banking are also welcome to attend. Detailed information about the study can be obtained at: http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/m-commerce/banking/study/index_e.html

An overview of the surveyed data may be obtained on the above-mentioned site with the help of questionnaires used. The site further provides a Table of Contents, Research Issues investigated and Indices of Charts and Tables. The proceedings of the workshop are expected to be bilingual in German and English.