Big consumer banks have taken heat recently in the court of public opinion. The debit card fee fiasco was merely the capstone on a disastrous year marked by lots of controversy over their shoddy handling of foreclosures and modifications. But financial services consumers are perhaps more discriminating than bank executives would like to believe. That is, consumers aren't tarring the industry in knee-jerk fashion, scapegoating them for every that ails the economy and their personal situations.

To underscore this point, we turn to research by Consumer Union, which took a look at wireless carriers and what they offer in terms of mobile payment security, a big issue as the race for next generation payments heats up.