Since the Barclays Mobile Banking and Pingit Apps were launched in 2012, they have been downloaded more than 5m times, says the bank, and are being accessed 17.5m times each week with more than £4bn in payments and transfers being made each month during July and August 2014. The figures equate to a spend of £1,500 every second / £90,000 every minute

In November last year, the UK bank said it would cut 1700 customer-facing jobs from its branch network, citing the rise of new customer channels, particularly mobile banking.

In a bid to encourage further uptake, Barclays is seeking to inspire confidence in the security of its online and mobile banking initiatives and offering 'digital safety' tips to encourage consumers to safeguard their devices.

Barclays says that it mobile banking and Pingit apps are the first to have been independently assessed in order to be awarded the new BSI (British Standards Institution) kitemark for secure digital transactions.

Alex Grant, managing director of fraud prevention at Barclays, says: " Having our security systems independently and rigorously tested to achieve the BSI kitemark clearly demonstrates our continued commitment to safeguard our customers' finances and data."

Alongside the kitemarks, Barclays also offers Kaspersky Lab's internet security products free of charge to all its online and mobile banking customers.

David Emm, principal security researcher, Kaspersky Lab comments: "These statistics demonstrate that smartphones are fast becoming the standard tool to browse, interact, shop and bank online. However, despite using them to access the same internet as traditional computers, many people do not think they require the same fully-fledged protection. Most people wouldn't dream of doing their online banking on their laptop or PC without protection, so why wouldn't the same apply when using your smartphone?"