Consumers have a clear preference for mobile banking services over other banking channels, according to new research.

Roy Mortgage Research asked customers of the major banks to list their channel preferences, and found that mobile banking was number one for customers of all four banks, followed by internet banking, branch banking and phone banking.

The difference in satisfaction between mobile banking and phone banking was marked. Among Commonwealth Bank customers, mobile banking received a 90.8 per cent satisfaction rating, compared with 76.3 per cent for phone banking.

CBA customers gave internet banking an 87.8 per cent satisfaction rating and branch banking an 83.5 per cent satisfaction rating.

Roy Morgan said 63.6 per cent of Australians use mobile apps on a smartphone or tablet to access their bank accounts, up 7 percentage points over a year.

Just over half, 50.3 per cent, use internet banking, 47.4 per cent use a branch and 22.8 per cent use phone banking.

Access to bank accounts via mobile apps was ahead of internet access for the first time last year.

“The higher customer satisfaction ratings of the automated banking channels give an extra incentive to banks and other financial services firms to increasingly move as many of their services online as possible,” said Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine.