"Singapore and the developed Asian countries, in general, are some of the most advanced countries in terms of using mobile banking. Singaporeans are increasingly using their mobile phones to perform banking transactions, anytime anywhere, at their own convenience," said James Fergusson, managing director, global technology sector, TNS.

"In Singapore, major financial institutions such as Citibank, DBS and Standard Chartered, have developed mobile finance applications for Singaporeans who demand financial services via their mobile phones. We are also increasingly seeing people access other more sophisticated financial services on their mobile phones such as trading of stocks and shares."

Asians are also adopters of the mobile wallet, which allows the mobile phone to load up and store money. In South Korea, 21.5 per cent of the mobile phone users said they use their phones as mobile wallet compared to 20.9 per cent in China and 17 per cent in Hong Kong.

"The mobile phone is becoming the one essential device that everyone brings with them. The tap-and-go convenience of being able to pay for goods and services with their mobile phones is becoming increasingly attractive and could soon replace credit cards and stored value cards that are currently in the market," said Fergusson. "With near field communication (NFC) technology on phones, we are increasingly seeing this practice becoming reality."