Digital financial services firm Avoka has published its second annual State of Digital Sales in Banking report, which found that Australian banks are leading their global counterparts when it comes to digital preparedness.

Despite banks in North America and Europe making headway in improving their digital capabilities, they are still failing to capitalise on opportunities to retain and grow their mobile-first customer base.

The report, which compares the digital capabilities of 32 of the largest banks in North America, Europe and Australia, also found that the majority of North American and European banks fall into the least digitally prepared category, with many still tied to legacy systems.

Dominating the category for digital achievement are six Australian banks, which made the cut through “outstanding digital preparedness”.

According to the report, mobile still lags desktop online capabilities for many banks, with North American banks showing the least amount of mobile innovation. Although there has been considerable advances in customer acquisition for personal banking products (42 per cent of products can now be opened on a mobile device – up from 31 per cent in 2016), European and Australian banks led the increase, with North American banks showing only a six per cent increase in the number of products that could be applied for from a mobile device.

Phil Copeland, CEO of Avoka, said: “What we have found is that many banks have made progress on the experience of their flagship deposit account, but the breadth of offering across all personal, wealth and business banking accounts lags behind.

“Overall, the good news is that banks have responded to the message that consumers want to engage and sign up for banking products over mobile devices. Importantly, there has been no change in the number of products with advanced digital features.”

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