AUSTIN, Texas–Transferring money is the killer-app function when it comes to overall money movement, according to a new analysis.
That same analysis found the average value of an internal account transfer was $690, while the typical mobile banking user makes four transfers per month by platform, with iPhone users transferring the largest amounts.
The findings, released as part of the Monkey Insights “little data” report from Malauzai Software, offer insights into key trends in Internet and mobile banking usage based on January 2017 data for 415 banks and credit unions, covering 10.5 million logins from 640,000 active Internet and Mobile Banking users.
Among the findings in the Monkey Insights report, along with analysis by Malauzai:
- The Average Value Of an Internal Transfer. The average value of an internal account transfer was $690. A typical mobile banking user made four transfers for the month. By platform, iPhone users transfer money at 66% higher values than Android users. Desktop app users (Internet banking, aka SmartwebApps) transfer a whopping $2,300 per transfer. iPad, at just over an average of $1,000 per transfer, comes in second. Clearly larger format devices encourage considerably higher transfer values.
- 16% Of Active Users Made An Internal Transfer. Making internal transfers is the second most used feature in mobile and Internet banking. 100% of users view their balance. 16% make a transfer. That is a huge fall-off in activity from the first to the second most used feature; 3.5% of active sessions in January led to a transfer, Malauzai said.
- 81% of External Transfers Are Outbound. Accordingly, 19% of the external transfers are in fact sending money into the checking account. Outbound wins by a large margin. This is a clear sign of a savings pattern. Also, some of this activity could be Bill Pay. However, in all cases the money is going to an external account owned by the user, so it’s doubtful they are bills, but it’s possible. This seems to buck the trend of the historically very low savings rate. People are not using external account transfers to move money into their primary financial institution, it’s flowing outbound.
- Half Save & Half Spend. 50% of internal transfers are outbound from the primary account and 50% are inbound. In fact it’s 50.005% in and 49.995% out, to be exact. There is no clear intent when people transfer money internally, it’s split. Again, the theory is the inbound transfer to primary checking would be to help shore up and make bills that month, where the outbound from checking would indicate savings. Outbound also could indicate paying a bill from another account but the assumption is most bills are paid from the primary account.
- External Transfer Averages. The average value of an external transfer was $962. Active users made an average of 1.8 external transfers during the month. The average was consistent for both inbound and outbound. Android users transferred the lowest average amount ($410) and desktop app users (Internet banking) were highest ($1,100). Large format users (iPad and desktop apps) really do transfer money and move money in much higher values than smartphone users. The large format delivers some level of comfort, driving much higher averages.
- In Aggregate, Internal and External Transfers are 50% of Mobile Banking Money Movement Activity. Transferring money is the killer-app function when it comes to overall money movement. 50% of total money movements are Transfers. Far and away, transfers are the most popular form of digital money movement. Next in line is bill pay, but growing very quickly is Remote Check Deposit. P2P and A2A are very distant followers.