App-lause for traditional providers, but challengers still lead the charge with mobile banking in Germany

We've published the 4th edition of the German Mobile Banking App Review today. Download the full report, for free, from our?website.

The fourth edition of the German report, in partnership with Visa, shows that whilst fintechs flaunt feature-rich banking apps, some traditional providers have stepped it up adding a host of new features to their apps.

For those of you who haven’t read our previous reports, the underlying motivation of the research is to track and measure digital transformation in banking. As we settle into a post-pandemic way of life, the shift into operating our financial lives onto the mobile phone is more evident than ever. Banks are increasingly adding fresh new features to give customers the tools to function effectively in a digital world, without the need for branches, paper and voice-based interactions with their bank. Perhaps even the plastic card could become a thing of the past as the Pays become ubiquitous?

Not only have app features been important, but speed too and we have seen providers switch to new apps and complete redesigns to give customers that seamless instant access to their account activity. Several providers have improved log-in times since the last edition with the average log-in time for an app reducing to 6.8 seconds. Sparkasse however, have flown from a clunky load speed to amongst the fastest apps logging-in around 4 seconds.

Traditional providers have reduced their log-in times steadily over time to compete with the speedier apps. Their app average has seen the biggest improvement, with an average in Q1 2022 of 7.3. vs. 9.7 seconds in Q1 2020.

Banking apps must be feature-rich, fast and frictionless but also secure and this study we have seen many providers moving strong customer authentication (SCA) for online transactions in-app and away from the separate authentication apps, typically prevalent in the German market. In the previous study, 19% of apps supported in-app strong customer authentication; now 45% of the market allow the user to authenticate using the native bank app.

Despite these improvements from some traditional and direct banking players, Revolut still tops the ranking table followed by their fintech rivals N26 and Vivid Money. The inclusion of Klarna in this edition has them straight in at the top of the table in 4th place. Commerzbank have leapt from the bottom third of the table to 7th place.

Is the improvement seen by some traditional providers enough to keep up with the fintechs? They seem to have an instinctive ability to predict what a customer wants and needs before a customer ever knew how they lived without it?

We would love to hear what you think of the research. Find the full report on our website www.optima-consultancy.com/bankapp