The share of adults using banking services on their mobile phones is growing, according to a Fed survey.Photo: Reuters
The popularity of mobile banking grew last year, with 43% of adults with mobile phones and bank accounts using their phones for financial activities, according to an annual survey by the Federal Reserve.
The share of adults who reported using mobile-banking features increased by 4 percentage points from the Fed’s 2014 survey, reflecting the increasing popularity of features like mobile payments and the capability to check account balances on a hand-held device. More than half of mobile-banking users had received alerts...
The popularity of mobile banking grew last year, with 43% of adults with mobile phones and bank accounts using their phones for financial activities, according to an annual survey by the Federal Reserve.
The share of adults who reported using mobile-banking features increased by 4 percentage points from the Fed’s 2014 survey, reflecting the increasing popularity of features like mobile payments and the capability to check account balances on a hand-held device. More than half of mobile-banking users had received alerts from their financial institution in the form of a push notification, text message or email.
The report also shows how mobile banking continues to disrupt more traditional banking channels. While mobile hasn’t surpassed online banking or ATMs as the “most important way” consumers interact with their bank, it beat out branch tellers for third place among types of banking interactions ranked by importance.
In demographic terms, users of mobile-banking services tend to skew young and diverse, the survey found. A higher share of younger adults, Hispanics and African-Americans use these services when compared with the general population.
Some barriers to the widespread acceptance of mobile banking remain, however, with users expressing “concerns about the security and privacy of personal information.” But consumers have also taken steps to secure their personal information by keeping up with software updates and using password protection on their phones.
The Fed’s online survey was taken between Nov. 4 and Nov. 23, 2015, and was conducted by GfK, an online-consumer-research company.
Write to Gabriel T. Rubin at gabriel.rubin@wsj.com