Bullish on Online Banking

Forrester is not normally known to make conservative estimates, so it was a bit surprising that it is so bullish on the penetration of Online banking in the US. Their latest report says that the U.S. market will grow to 72 million online banking households in less than 5 years, a 55% increase from Forrester’s current estimate of 46 million. If that happens, penetration would be 63% of all households, or 76% of all online households. It is estimated that 10% to 15% of households don’t even have a bank account. If you subtract those from the total, Forrester is saying that more than 70% of U.S. households with bank accounts, will be using online banking less than five years from now. Some experts however are wondering if this is a bit too aggressive. In India, IMAI estimated in 2006 that there are 4.5 million people who use online banking, this number is slated to grow to 16 million by 2008. The real potential in India will however come from mobile banking, as it is a nation with over a 100 million active mobile phones.