· As part of their innovation strategies, 26 percent of banks surveyed are investing in start-ups

· Globally, 84 percent of banks are increasing investment in innovation as compared to 2009, when only 13 percent of banks increased investment

· 61 percent of banks indicated they have an innovation strategy, a significant increase from 37 percent in 2009

· 49 percent of banks are aiming to be innovation leaders in their markets, whereas 38 percent of banks are content to be fast followers

· Channels continues to be the area attracting most investments with 89 percent of banks increasing their investments in this area

· Many banks organize their innovation activities around specific themes. “Mobility” is currently the most important theme with 88 percent of banks rating the importance as “high”. Closely following that are the themes of “Big Data” (67 percent) and “Social Channels” (63 percent)

· Over 70 percent of banks perceive mobile payments and services on multiple devices to be of high importance for delivering customer value in the mobile channel

· For the online channel, automated account origination and personalization of marketing offers are considered to be of high importance by 70 percent and 59 percent of banks respectively

Michael Reh, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Finacle at Infosys said “In times of continued pressure on profitability, there is no letup in the demand from customers for innovative products and services.  One interesting finding of this year’s report is that many banks in rapidly growing emerging markets, who are used to generating profits from customers with smaller transaction values, are at the forefront of innovation in retail banking.  Lessons on innovation from these banks could be extremely valuable to financial institutions around the world as they compete with new players in the market.”

Patrick Desmarès, Secretary General at Efma "This year's global retail banking study indicates more banks are adopting formal innovation practices and developing their approach to open innovation. However, there are still a large number of banks which do not seem to have good basic practices, so there is plenty of room for improvement. Working closely with start-ups is becoming more common and we believe this is a positive trend. Interestingly, it is the banks in fast growing and rapidly developing markets that are still leading the way and showing more ambition.”