It is a wonder why people still drive to a bank branch just to wait in a queue when just about every type of financial transaction can be handled directly on your iPhone today. Habits can be hard to break – especially if you are a bit older than the average consumer. But the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing people to change as people realize brick and mortar banking is really no longer needed. And why waste your time?
According to research distributed by London-based Fintech Nucoro, 2% of the adult population in the UK, or some six million people, downloaded their bank’s App for the first time. That’s amazing.
Nucoro states that about 21% of those aged 35 – 34 did this, as did just over 5% of people aged 55 or more.
Nucoro believes that between the 14th March and the 14th April, around 200,000 people downloaded their bank’s app for the first time every day.
After the initial digital download blitz, Nucoro says the rate of downloads is slowing. One in three or 33% of new downloads happened between the 14th and 21st March compared to around 17% between the 7th and 14th April.
6% of non-App users plan to download their banking App in the coming months.
Nucoro’s research indicates that 22% are using the banking App more, compared to 5% who have seen their use of the Apps fall. Of those people who are using them more, 62% have seen usage increase by over 10% since the Coronavirus crisis, and 11% are using them by over 50% more.
Nucroro COO Nikolai Hack said that a combination of people going out less because of Coronavirus and their finances coming under growing pressure means many people are more worried about bills and money.
“This has clearly led to a surge in people downloading their bank’s app for the first time and people generally using them more to keep a closer eye on their finances,” Hack states. “However, once the Coronavirus crisis passes, for many people the way they interact with their banks will have changed permanently. Many are increasingly happy to use apps, so there will be much more digital interaction. This will represent a strong opportunity for banks to improve customer service, reduce costs and cross sell more products and services such as investments and savings to their core banking clients.”
In May 2018, Nucor launched an investment platform, a “first of its kind as a fully AI-powered” wealth manager. The company provides the platform for financial services firms to “future proof their businesses.”