Mobile banking apps becoming more popular in Austria

Considering how people like to handle their finances, Austria can still be considered a country more on the traditional side. A lot of Austrian citizens still prefer to pay by cash whenever shopping or going out and prefer to go personally to the bank instead of making use of the now ubiquitous digital solutions.

However, this might be subject to change in the coming years. According to Ergomania UX agency, mobile banking in Austria is steadily growing with the emergence of more banking apps.

After all, like any other country in the world, Austria was also affected by the Covid pandemic and enacted strict restrictions to prevent the spread of infections. This naturally led to more and more people becoming accustomed to alternative solutions for handling their routine tasks in Austria, like online shopping or mobile banking.

In the financial sector, this also means that the time is ripe for companies to start investing more in the development and optimization of mobile banking apps available in Austria, as purchasing habits are leaning more and more towards digital services.

What does the mobile banking scene currently look like in Austria? The advantages of mobile banking apps

In most cases, mobile banking apps in Austria provide their users with the following services:

• Simple transfers
• Smart contact lists
• Booking an appointment for personalized administration
• Checking the investments or insurance linked to the account
• IBAN and money transfer overview
• Secure, contactless payments
• Management of standing orders and automatic payments
• Stock exchange services
• A complete overview of the account and funds
• Management of all transfer and payment restrictions

Of course, there are always differences between the different banks, as they each have their own unique combination of financial offers to try and cater to the needs of their users and convince them to choose their services instead of turning towards their competitors. It also depends on what type of mobile banking form is being used.

Currently, there are 2 major forms of mobile banking in Austria:

1. Mobile banking apps from traditional banks

PROS:

• Can offer more services and more types of accounts compared to digital-only interfaces (such as investments, insurance, overdrafts)

CONS:

• Requires opening a traditional bank account
• Requires the payment of a variety of fees (account management, in-person transactions, paper statements, and so on)

3. Independent, stand-alone mobile banking apps

PROS:

• Saves users the time and money need to open a traditional bank account
• Smaller environmental footprint as no paperwork is generated

CONS:

• Usually, a less wide range of services compared to traditional banks

Who are the biggest players in Austria with mobile banking apps? Examples of well-implemented UX solutions

Erste George

A great example of an engaging, user-friendly interface among mobile banking apps in Austria. The more transparent a platform is, the less frustration users feel when handling their finances.

Bank Austria

Enables the online storage of invoices via OCR (Optical Character Recognition) – much handier for product returns, accounting purposes, or to confirm purchase guarantees.

BAWAG PSK klar

Provides “statistical statement features” to help users see their financial data all in one place. This is further helped by the app automatically assigning a category to each transaction (such as food).

N26

Another great example in Austria of transparency which improves the usability of a mobile banking app. It uses cards with pictures and short descriptions to identify an offer instead of listing items.

Raiffeisen Mein Elba

A further example of better readability is by progressively displaying information to the user, instead of overwhelming them with a heap of information all at once.

Easybank

In-app notifications done right! This mobile banking app in Austria lets users customize their own notification settings.

Bank Austria Mobile Geldböse

A digital wallet app that also enables the digital storage of discount cards.

Mobile banking app development opportunities according to a UX agency

Despite many good examples of user experience design done right in mobile banking apps, the team behind Ergomania UX agency still thinks that many untapped intriguing UX solutions are missing from the Austrian market. New players in the financial sector or those looking to update their current platforms may want to include:

• Built-in banking keyboards, like in the case of “Itaú Unibanco”
• Map-based transactions, like in the case of “Monzo”
• Virtual assistants, like in the case of “Bank of America” or “Kate”
• Gamification elements, like in the case of “Monese”

Ergomania also draws attention to the fact that the examples listed above have all managed to incorporate third-party solutions to improve their offers and to be able to meet the needs of their users at a faster pace and on a larger scale.

Whatever the future may bring for the mobile banking scene in Austria, one thing is certain: competition is about to get tougher in the financial sector.

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