A majority of U.S. business leaders (owners, managers, and executives) prefer using digital banking, and yet less than half of them have plans of increasing their use of online banking products and services, that’s according to a JPMorgan Chase survey.
The survey, which was released last week, showed that the primary reason for businesses for not wanting to increase banking online or on any digital platform is because of cybersecurity concerns. The survey found that of the 45% of business leaders said that they will not increase their digital banking use because of security reasons. Almost all (99% ) respondents expressed this is a major concern.
On the bright side for JPMorgan Chase, which has a large commercial banking unit, 81% of business executives said they prefer to bank online.
And while almost all U.S. businesses still use checks in some form or the other, 29% of respondents listed payments as the most valuable online banking tool. Account management and receivables were also listed as popular features for commercial online banking.
According to the report, currently, 95% of respondents said they still use checks for certain payments. And while ACH, wire transfers, and cards are also popular methods of payments, checks are still the most widely used method by far.

Using checks, of course, is an issue that banks are attempting to solve by establishing realtime payments. The U.S. market is notorious for using checks, while the rest of the world has switched to more modern payment techniques. With realtime payments (or faster payments), business customers will be able to send, receive payments instantly. This type of payment will also give the bank more realtime data and thus enable the banks to provide customers with additional tailored products and services.
Realtime payments, however, are still in the making. Bank Innovation previously reported that the soonest possible timeline for a realtime integration is no earlier than 2019. Integrating into realtime payments is a hefty undertaking for banks, which are still bogged down with their legacy systems. However, the main reason for this lengthy timeline is because banks are still working on figuring out a value proposition for themselves in offering customers realtime payments, which, after all, costs money.
Read JPMorgan Chase’s full report here.






