The study, Business Strategy: Have Leading Asia/Pacific Banks Raised the Standards for Mobile? reports that the region's banks are deploying their resources to this "channel of the future". Many are launching standout features and functionalities, ensuring growth in activity rates among customers, and better managing the technology requirements of this channel.

Mobile banking first started off with banks offering baseline functionalities that are similar to those found in PC-based online banking: transaction history, payment origination, and funds transfers, noted Michael Araneta, associate consulting and research director for IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific.

Today, mobile banking has caused a shift in the notion of what a banking channel is. "A channel was effectively owned, managed, designed, and controlled by the bank. The bank itself ensured that channels worked in alignment with its own conditions, including processes, workflows, and channel strategies," said Araneta.

Now, the power has shifted to the customer who owns, manages, and controls the device at hand. "This means that the banks' mobile strategies need to keep in mind customers and customer preferences more than ever," said Araneta.

Araneta pointed out that near field communications (NFCs) and mobile wallets are two areas that banks will be pressurised to respond to, if they wish to be counted as leading figures for mobile banking.