SAN FRANCISCO — Should banks spend on the channel or channel integration?

That’s the central question that appears to face bankers today, according to a live poll conducted during last week’s Bank Innovation 2013 event.

Bankers are largely falling into two camps. About 31% of bankers say their companies are spending most today on mobile banking, while channel integration is garnering the greatest budget from 28% of bankers.

Another interesting point from the survey, which took place in real-time during a brainstorming session at the conference, was how tablets are not attracting dedicated budgets from banks. Additionally, shopping rewards applications do not appear to be garnering big budget dollars.

The impediments to innovation were clearer to discern from the data: corporate bureaucracy trumps all other impediments (see below). Fully 48% of those who responded to the query during Bank Innovation 2013 said corporate bureaucracy was to blame for  innovation lag at banks. In information comments on the survey, several attendees said their banks just don’t think innovation first when they budget. Is that changing? Somewhat, it seems — as long as corporate bureaucracy doesn’t get in the way.