With half of Americans now banking through their smartphones and tablets, providers are finally taking steps to move the channel out of online banking's shadow, according to a report from Javelin, which has crowned USAA the mobile king.
In 2015 there were 29 million more US mobile banking users than in the previous year, a dramatic shift that has put pressure on financial institutions to innovate in a clearly hugely popular channel, says Javelin.
This has contributed to a dramatic jump in financial institution support for m-banking enrolment through a mobile device. It rose from seven per cent in 2014 to 30% in 2015 among the top 30 retail US providers. But with more than two-thirds of top banks still requiring some online interaction to enable mobile banking, there is still a significant gap between supply and mobile-first customer demand.
Other factors are driving institutions toward standalone mobile support, including customers’ willingness to open new accounts entirely through their phones. Support for mobile new account opening among the top 30 doubled over the past year to 33%.
Ranking the quality of the top 30 providers' mobile offerings, Javelin has awarded USAA the top spot, praising the army bank's pioneering artificial intelligence virtual assistants, best-in-class biometric login options, and strong control of payment cards.
Emmett Higdon, director, mobile, Javelin, says: "We are finally seeing mobile banking moving out of online banking’s shadow. With strong support for tools to discover, open, and monitor financial accounts through mobile devices without first interacting with online banking is a key strategy in attracting, and retaining, profitable mobile-first customers."