A new survey by the British Bankers Association (BBA) talks up its members’ adoption of mobile technology, including the stat that customers of the country’s five biggest banks used their mobile phones for 18.6 million transactions per week in 2013 – up from 9.1 million the previous year.

In other highlights of its report, the BBA lists how the banks’ customers have downloaded more than 12.4 million bank apps.

And their customers made nearly 40 million mobile and internet transactions per week in 2013. And there are now 28.4 million debit and credit cards with contactless technology.

“Several senior bankers I have spoken to say they are astonished by the strength of take-up of this technology, which has already led to a noticeable dip in customers contacting call centres,” said Anthony Browne (pictured), BBA chief executive, quoted in The Telegraph.

The report also contains some projections from individual banks. For example, HSBC said nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of the text messages sent to customers were warnings about their balance dropping below a point they had previously specified.

And RBS Group forecast that 250 million annual “tap” payments will be made in 2023, up from only 14 million in 2013. That would represent a massive increase over the next decade, although the survey does not explain whether this figure includes mobile devices as well as contactless cards.