I was tipped off on this article by Paul Jonas regarding a recent survey of community banks indicating that mobile banking remains a top priority over the next 18 months.

The articled featured an interesting set of data that is surprising and encouraging:

Eighty-nine percent of the community bankers polled in a nationwide survey said they are considering some form of enhancement to their existing platform. That includes 54% looking to design a mobile application for a smartphone, such as an iPhone, and 35% planning to add some type of functionality to their existing platform. At the same time, 9% of bankers said they were going to change their provider, and 4% were discontinuing the service altogether.

What surprises me, is the overall focus on mobile within the community bank space. While mobile certainly remains an untapped space for a lot of financial institutions, I would assume that improving their online banking platform would be of higher priority at this point. Then again, if the trend is shifting toward mobile, is online banking that important  for today’s bank customer?

Some data to consider in regards to whether mobile is a smart focus for community banks:

So what do you think? Is mobile banking worth the hype? Should community banks be focusing on mobile, or is there another area they should be putting their resources toward?