Apple may have the hottest stock, the coolest tech and the biggest cash pile in history, but consumers would still be wary of switching their bank accounts to a new model iBank.
Only one-in-ten of 5000 people from the US and UK questioned by pollster Toluna on behalf of consultancy KAE would 'consider' banking with Apple if the opportunity arose. The figure rises to 45% for avid consumers of Apple tech, but still falls short of a majority.
The profile of those consumers who would consider switching their banking services to Apple comprised people aged 25-44, living in city centres or city suburban areas, with an average monthly income of between £900-£2,099 in the UK and $1,000-$3,400 and $6,000+ in the US.
Trust in the brand is the number one reason cited by consumers in favour of iBanking, with just over half believing that Apple would make their account easy to access and manage, as well as provide a reliable service.
Finextra verdict First it was the Bank of Amazon, followed by GoogleBank, then Facebank, and now iBank - the new lunch-eating ogre from the hi-tech industry to be spirited up by spurious research in the interest of generating some cheap headlines. This latest tosh is a classic example of the genre. Despite the fact that only one-in-ten would even consider banking with Apple, the PR arrived in our inbox with the breathless claim that "Banking with Apple could pose serious challenge to high street". Other quotes attributed to KAE executives include the laughable assertion that "it wouldn't take long for Apple to become one of the most profitable consumer banks in recent times" and the slightly desperate "this research tells us Apple customers perceive a fit where at first glance we would assume the brand could not travel". To spare their blushes, we've omitted the names of the guilty parties. Let's be clear: Apple - through its iTunes store - has the potential to disrupt the payments stream, but it has limited appeal as (and probably zero interest in ever becoming) a bank. In fact, we're thinking of commissioning our own research: Would you consider banking with Finextra? The results, one suspects, would be comparable.