The real action is at the point of sale
Banks love to talk about developments in their internet and mobile banking services but customer transaction data included in Commonwealth Bank's half-year results presentation package this week shows that the real action is at the point of sale.CBA has tracked branch, ATM, point of sale and internet transaction numbers since 2003. In that time the number of deposits and withdrawals at branches has fallen from 130 million a year to 62 million (the number over the six months to December annualised).The number of ATM transactions has fallen from 325 million a year to 268 million over the same period.The fastest growth has been in internet transactions: up from 40 million in 2003 to 595 million at last count. And 78 per cent of online logins to the CBA are now via mobile.But the biggest numbers are at the point of sale, where transaction volumes have increased from 700 million in 2003 to 1.7 billion at last count.Point of sale accounted for 65 per cent of CBA customer transactions in the six months to December and that proportion rose from 64 per cent in the six months to December 2014.In value terms, the internet rates higher. It accounted for 52 per cent of the value of customer transactions, compared with 34 per cent at branches, ten per cent at the point of sale and four per cent at ATMs.