Spain, Poland and Turkey ahead in mobile banking. CaixaBank takes the top spot in Forrester's 2015 European mobile banking functionality review-scoring an 86 out of 100 in the evaluation. It is followed by Westparc (Australia), with a score of 79 out of 100, Bank Zachodni (Poland), CIBC (Canada) and Scotiabank (Canada), all with 75 out of 100, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and mBank (Poland), both with 74 out of 100 and Lloyds Bank (United Kingdom), with 73 out of100. Overall, banks in Spain, Poland, and Turkey are leading the way forward according to Forrester, which bases its assessment on more than 40 different criteria. Forrester Research carried out an assessment of 41 retail banks' mobile banking applications across the world between March and April 2015. The European banks included in this ranking are as follows: Akbank, Bank Zachodni WBK, BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Deutsche Postbank, Garanti, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, Isbank, mBank, Société Générale and UniCredit. CaixaBank stood out from competitors due to its extensive account management and transactional features, a digital wallet that is integrated into its mobile banking app, and strong sales and marketing capabilities. According to the review, Bank Zachodni WBK and mBank of Poland also stood out as mobile banking leaders for providing better guidance across touchpoints for a growing customer base. Most of the European banks included in the review performed well where it matters most to customers: across login, balance checking, basic money movement, and person-to-person payments. But there's room for improvement. European banks could help customers further with money management tips, improved mobile self-service features, and access to human help through tools such as chat. EU digital banking teams should use the context of each customer's situation to increase the relevance of features and content and develop functions to flag up bank card fraud. Another study carried out by KPMG consultants and the Swiss UBS group highlighted the fact that the number of customers using mobile banking services could double by 2019 to reach a figure of 1.8 billion people globally. In 2013, 600 million customers used mobile banking, a figure that had already reached 800 million by the end of 2014. The growth in online banking services is expected to come from developing countries where the number of traditional banking agencies is much lower. In Asia, the number of mobile banking services is particularly likely to double by 2020, as well as in Brazil where mobile banking services adoption rates are doubling every year. In Europe, however, growth is much more modest, with a penetration rate for these applications that has a ceiling of 38% due to market maturity and the broad spread of online banking services. According to data gathered by UBS, online banking tends to create a much less loyal client base, with a proportion of customers that are likely to leave their bank that is 20% higher for those using online banking. On the other hand, they are 8% more likely to recommend the services of their online banks compared to traditional banking services customers. (Isabelle Lamberty)