Australians embracing BPAY as mobile banking continues to surge

By Ben Tosi · · 3 min read
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Whether it be your quarterly energy bill or annual car insurance premium, recent research has revealed that the chances are you’re paying for a portion of your household bills via BPAY.

The electronic billing system, which has been operating down under for more than 20 years, released statistics today indicating that 60% of Australians pay their bills via BPAY, due mainly to the fact that they can do so without having to leave their mobile banking app.

“We know that most people are a little nervous about the security of paying online with a credit card or in a random app,” said BPAY Group’s General Manager of Product, Scheme & Business Development, Keith Brown.

“Our customers have let us know they prefer to pay bills within the security of their banking environment, and so that’s where we have continued our focus.”

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Mobile banking the future, Roy Morgan

As part of many streamlined mobile banking apps, there are now a staggering 1.5 million BPAY payments made each and every day which are worth an estimated $1.5 billion, but that number could be set to grow over the coming years if results from a recent Roy Morgan Research survey are to be believed.

The survey - which focused on the popularity of different banking channels - indicated that we’re increasingly turning away from visiting banking branches and instead favour mobile banking.

In fact, for the first time ever, more Australian banking consumers reported having made a mobile banking transaction (46.5%) than having visited the bricks and mortar versions of their banks (45.1%), over the past year.

“Our research continues to show that mobile banking has the potential to be the leading banking method, with an outlook to surpass internet banking, which saw a decline over the last 12 months,” said Industry Communications Director for Roy Morgan, Norman Morris.

Interestingly, the market research company also reported that we’re usually more satisfied with our mobile banking experiences and more likely to recommend a bank based on its app.

“With growing consumer trends towards frictionless mobile banking, where payments can be made and received to a mobile device, shopping online and in store can be used with a mobile, and even be used in lieu of a debit card to withdraw cash at an ATM, it’s no surprise the relationship with banking satisfaction can relate heavily to the services banks provide to their mobile banking,” said Morris.

BPAY to help us pay… each other

BPAY might be a popular method to pay monthly bills, but we could soon be using it to pay each other too thanks to Okso, a new person-to-person payments system.

Osko, BPAY’s brainchild, launched in February this year and makes the most of the freshly-launched New Payments Platform (NPP) by allowing everyday Australians to make instantaneous funds transfers between different bank accounts.

RELATED: How will the New Payments Platform (NPP) benefit Australian businesses?

“Paying the plumber in an emergency just got a whole lot easier. Before long we won’t even remember not being able to move our money in a flash,” said CEO of BPAY Group, John Banfield.

Right now, Osko is launching with a number of Australia’s biggest banking providers and you can find out whether yours is involved here. Or if you’d like some extra information on the New Payments Platform, Osko and what it could mean for you, check out our handy guide.