Mobile wallet usage in Australia has surpassed ATM withdrawals in both volume and value as local consumers increasingly turn to digital payments and digital banking methods.
The Australian Banking Association (ABA)’s ‘Bank on It: Customer Trends 2025’ report, delivered in collaboration with Accenture, reveals that the volume of mobile wallet transactions in Australia is now eleven times greater than that of ATM withdrawals.
In the past year alone, Australians made $160 billion in mobile wallet payments, marking a 28% increase year-on-year. Overall, mobile wallet usage in the country has grown significantly in the last five years, with the value of mobile wallet transactions rising 23-fold since 2019. At the same time, cash withdrawals have fallen 9% each year in the given period. Their value in 2024 was only $106 billion. As for the volumes, more than four billion payments made via mobile wallets last year far exceeded the 353 million ATM cash withdrawals registered in 2024.
This ongoing shift to digital payment services has coincided with a 70% increase in digital banking interactions since 2019, as customers show a clear preference for digital over in-person services. Digital banking has become the dominant channel for Australians, with 99.3% of customer-bank interactions now occurring through digital platforms, a slight but meaningful increase from 99.1% recorded the previous year.
In-person brick-and-mortar branch visits have decreased faster than bank branch closures, resulting in lower in-person banking activity overall. Notwithstanding the digital trend, Australian banks continue to invest in physical services to maintain financial inclusion levels. Australia today has a denser commercial branch network than similarly urbanised OECD countries, supported by more than 3,400 Bank@Post locations, ensuring continued access for regional and remote populations. Bank@Post presence is more common in regional and remote Australia, where 27% of the local population lives.
With the robust development of both physical and digital banking infrastructure, customer satisfaction with banking services in Australia remains high. Digital platforms receive particularly strong approval compared to international benchmarks. Thus, Australians are notably more satisfied with branch banking services (56% vs 51%), online app (66% vs 60%), chatbot (32% vs 27%), and website (59% vs 54%) channels than their peers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Singapore. Continued investment in secure and user-friendly digital infrastructure has supported this outcome.
At the same time, the Australian banking sector continues to direct capital toward productivity-enhancing sectors. Small and medium-sized enterprises now account for 51% of business lending, up nine percentage points since 2023. Meanwhile, agricultural lending has reached $131 billion. With robust capital reserves and sound risk management, Australian banks are positioned to support the broader economy and help drive long-term resilience and growth.
