A new survey has found that mobile banking apps have overtaken physical branches as the most important banking channel.

The new survey by a card issuing platform Marqeta noted that 62% of Americans now primarily rely on digital mediums to carry out their banking transactions. In comparison, only 31% of the respondents do in-person banking, most of the time.

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Also, around 69% of Americans plan to use their banking app regularly in the following three months. Less than one-third (30%) of total respondents said they expect to visit a branch in the same time period.

Furthermore, only one-third of the people surveyed said they will be troubled if their bank decided to shutter all branches.

The Marqeta survey also revealed that nearly half (46%) of the people simultaneously use digital banking and conventional channels, while 14% solely use online banking.

It also noted that most of the Americans are likely to prefer digital banks as a secondary option. Around 74% of the respondents said they will consider switching digital banks, if they change their current service provider.

Less than one-fifth (17%) of the banking customers expressed complete satisfaction with the services they receive from their traditional bank.

However, 54% of Americans find digital banks riskier to store money, with 48% of the opinion that they will limit their savings in such challengers.

Furthermore, 20% of the respondents said they find going digital completely involves ‘too much work’ hence they prefer status quo.

Around 25% said that the process of switching to a digital lender would be ‘too interruptive’.

Marqeta chief marketing officer Vidya Peters said: “This research shows that the vast majority of consumers act digital-first and mobile-first when interacting with their banks.

“This upends how banks need to think about the market, with an app and a card accounting for almost all banking interactions.”

The survey was joined by more than 2,000 US and UK adults. It was conducted by Propeller Insights on behalf of Marqeta.