Will smartphones replace the need for human interaction in the financial sector?

Smartphones combine all the capabilities needed to manage personal finances. However, face-to-face meetings are difficult to replace in some situations.

Our survey shows that Nordic consumers are keen users of mobile banking solutions to conduct daily banking activities. Nearly three out of every four Nordic respondents (74%) indicate that they use their smartphone to check their bank balances at least once a month. Meanwhile, close to two thirds of the respondents (64%) state that they use their smartphone to transfer money to other individuals domestically. 68% perform other banking transactions, including transferring money between their own accounts or paying bills.

How would you like to pay?

When Nordic consumers make online purchases using their smartphones, credit and debit cards are overwhelmingly the most common payment method. More than seven out of 10 of Nordic consumers (72%) on average use their credit cards via their smartphones, followed by online money transfer/payment providers (46%), online banking apps (38%) and Apple, Android and Samsung Pay (16%).

When risks increase, so does the need for human interaction

Housing loans are for most people the biggest or one of the biggest financial decisions they will make during their lifetime. According to Nordic consumers, more prefer face-to-face meetings to arrange housing loans (38%) and car loans (30%) than any other method, with the laptop/computer being the second most popular choice, ahead of phone calls and doing it online on a smartphone. On an average basis, Norwegians are most likely to arrange any of their loans using online channels (37%), whereas Danes are the least likely to do so (20%).