Barclays Mobile Banking, Pingit and mybarclaycard were all in the UK’s top ten most popular iOS and Android banking apps in Q1 2015, according to App Annie.

And demand in the UK for mobile banking easily outstrips comparable markets in western Europe, said the research.

The remaining seven spots were held by the great and the good of the UK financial sector: NatWest, Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Santander, HSBC, Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Despite the appearance of banking’s incumbents having a stronghold, App Annie asks whether upheaval may be on the way. It points to the presence of start-ups such as Mondo and Atom.

Although not currently a rival to banks, Apple Pay’s arrival in the UK later this month might offer a more significant threat to the status quo.

App Annie’s research revealed that downloads of the UK’s top ten banking apps were almost twice as high as those in France, and about three times as high as Germany.

Barclays’ apps rule but bank chief falls
Barclays’ mobile banking app topped the download table in Q1 2015, with Pingit, its P2P payments app, holding fifth spot. The app belonging to Barclaycard, the bank’s credit card, came in at ten.

No other bank had more than one app in the top ten.

An ironic footnote to Barclays’ strong showing is the fate of the bank’s CEO Antony Jenkins, the architect of its digital banking strategy.

Jenkins was fired on 8 July because, despite the bank’s strong showing in mobile technology, it faces wider strategic problems.

Outweighing this achievement was an underperforming investment banking arm and a heavy bureaucracy that slowed decision-making. Apps are still only a small part of a mainstream bank’s business.