Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Mobile Banking: 2012 Update

Mobile banking is surging in popularity, according to the Federal Reserve Board. It's growing so rapidly, in fact, that the feds are scrambling to keep up. That's why the Federal Reserve Board fielded a new survey of mobile banking in November 2012, updating its first-ever survey of mobile banking taken in December 2011.

According to 2012 survey results, 87 percent of Americans aged 18 or older owned a mobile phone, and 52 percent of those phones were smartphones. Among smartphone owners in 2012, 48 percent had used mobile banking in the past 12 months—up from 42 percent who had done so in the 12 months prior to the 2011 survey. Among those who had used mobile banking in 2012, 87 percent had checked their account balances, 53 percent had transferred money between accounts, 21 percent had deposited a check using their phone, and 6 percent had used their phone to make a point-of-sale payment. Smartphone ownership and mobile banking are particularly popular among young adults, blacks, and Hispanics, the Fed survey finds.

"As smartphones become more commonly used, and their capabilities expand," concludes the report, "they may increasingly be the means consumers use to access financial services and manage their finances."

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Consumers and Mobile Financial Services, March 2013

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