Forrester's latest report on the Australian mobile banking sector indicates that while most individuals depend on mobile banking apps, customer satisfaction with these services remains modest.
The 2025 Australian Digital Experience Review found that 69% of Australian online adults had used a mobile banking app in the previous month, reinforcing the channel's status as the preferred method of banking. Despite this widespread adoption, the average Customer Experience Index (CX IndexTM) score for consumers using mobile apps during their last banking interaction was 66.0, falling in the "OK" range.
Mobile banking examined
Forrester assessed the mobile app experiences delivered by four major Australian banks: ANZ, CommBank, NAB, and Westpac. The Forrester Digital Experience ReviewTM methodology incorporated the scoring of each bank's app across 25 customer scenarios, a performance score from Forrester's CX IndexTM, and feedback from unmoderated usability testing with 40 customers per brand.
Through this analysis, the report sought to highlight best practices and identify where banking apps excel and which aspects require further development to match evolving consumer demands for functionality, personalisation, security, and advisory support.
Westpac's performance
Westpac's mobile app emerged as the top performer in this assessment for the third year in a row. The bank was recognised for its focus on providing personalised insights and recommendations, such as suggesting that customers with fortnightly income schedules pay their home loan on a similar basis to reduce interest. The app also provides proactive prompts to top up low balances to avoid penalties and educates users on preventing future charges, contributing to customers' sense of security and belonging.
CommBank's features
CommBank's mobile offering achieved distinction in account management and investment functionality. The bank's app includes a suite of tools for card management and budget tracking, supported by colour-coded graphical representations. It also estimates spare cash, encouraging customers to increase savings.
A notable feature is CommBank's investment hub, which provides educational content and simple comparison tools, assisting customers in selecting investment products suited to their experience, objectives, and risk preferences. This is intended to make investing more accessible to newcomers.
AI and customer service
The report observed that Australian banks are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence and virtual agents to handle matters like transaction disputes. However, the review noted issues with smoothness of service transitions, indicating that customers are sometimes left with unresolved issues during transfers between digital assistants and human agents.
The need for a 'human-in-the-loop' design was highlighted, calling for improved processes to ensure full transfer of context and efficient case resolution when transitioning from AI-powered agents to human staff.
Long-term financial wellbeing
Forrester's analysis found that while mobile banking apps commonly offer support for short-term savings and budgeting, there remain substantial gaps in functionalities designed to help users improve long-term financial health, such as strategies for debt reduction and building net worth over time.
Fraud prevention advances
The importance of proactive fraud prevention tools was underscored, identifying this as an emerging point of differentiation among banks. CommBank and NAB implement a process of pausing payments when a potential scam is detected, requiring customers to review a safety checklist. Westpac's SaferPay system goes a step further, using AI and behavioural analytics to intervene by asking customers a series of questions to validate suspicious transactions before they are processed.
"Australian banking customer expectations have moved beyond basic transactions, as they seek more personalised experiences to meet current and future financial obligations and feel secure about their financial future," said Zhi-Ying Barry, Principal Analyst at Forrester and lead author of the report. "AI is shaping the future of mobile banking where we found leading Australian banks increasingly use AI-powered insights to help customers stay on top of their finances and conversational AI to improve access to services."
