Mobile banking transactions made by UK customers have nearly doubled in a single year, according to industry figures from the British Banking Association (BBA).

The report found that customers have downloaded more than 12.4m banking applications, with the number of transactions made through the apps doubling in a year, reaching 18.6m a week in 2013.

The report from BBA’s "The Way We Bank Now" study focuses on customers of five UK retail banks including RBS, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Santander.

The figures also showed that 28.4m debit and credit cards in circulation have been fitted with contactless technology in the UK.

Customers signed up to receive more than 457.7m text messages from their banks in 2013, including SMS balance alerts.

Anthony Browne, Chief Executive of the BBA, said: "A revolution is underway in how people spend, move and manage their money.

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"Make no mistake, the branch will remain integral to banking services in the 21st century – especially for those big moments in life such as arranging a mortgage. But the day-to-day use of branches is falling and part of that is because there is a groundswell of people who now find that banking on the move is fast, easy and convenient."

Stephen Cooper, head of Barclays retail & business bank UK, said: "Barclays has adapted to customers’ changing needs by making banking faster, simpler and more convenient for everyone.

"From new products and services – such as contactless payments, mobile banking or the award-winning products like Pingit – through to new partnerships, our aim is to deliver a service around what customers want," he added.

Cooper added, referring to the recent partnership with Asda where Barclays installed branches inside Asda stores: "We offered customers the traditional branch setting with new technologies; a more flexible, accessible and seamless banking experience."

Justin Basini, a spokesperson for mobile payment provider Zapp, said: "We’re not surprised by the announcement from the BBA.

"The trend in the industry has been towards banks improving their mobile banking experiences so they become credible channels for customers to interact with their bank.

"What’s happened over the last couple of years is there has been more and more functionality gone in to it including peer to peer payments through Pingit for example.

"This is all about trying to give consumers the ability to use the apps as a fully functional bank account channel rather than just an informational app and I think consumers are responding to that.

"With 12m people having downloaded a mobile banking app to carry out mobile banking shows that it is becoming mainstream. For Zapp it means you have the potential to become a mainstream payment method," he added.

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