Javelin determined that 19 of the top 30 largest financial institutions (FIs) offer mobile banking. They judged and scored those 19 in five categories of criteria: marketing and security messaging, mobile access, general mobile banking features, short message service (SMS) features and security. The top four banks by deposit size – Bank of America (which is highlighted in the report as the market leader in consumer adoption of mobile banking), JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Wells Fargo – round out the top five FIs with the most robust mobile banking offerings. “These bulge-bracket FIs generally rank at the top of our scorecard because they have the resources to allocate to their mobile banking channel yet a mid-market institution leads the pack,” said James Van Dyke, President and Founder. “As FIs and credit unions continue on their mobile banking journey, they can learn from others to get the most out of their technology investment”

The 19 FIs are generally doing a good job with the basic functionality of mobile banking – allowing customers to monitor their accounts. Javelin’s report identifies specific opportunities for offering more advanced mobile banking services – such as money movement capabilities, remote deposit capture and account opening – to enable FIs to increase customer adoption and profitability.

The Javelin report discusses the current portfolio of mobile banking products and services and defines the future of mobile banking is. It also scores the 19 financial institutions on their mobile banking offerings, determines which ones are most complete and describes the path to industry leadership.

Selected Key Report Findings – 2010 Mobile Banking Scorecard

·         The two top reasons that consumers cite for not using mobile banking are a lack of a compelling value proposition and concerns about security – both of which FIs can address through better marketing.

·         The five FIs that score highest in their mobile banking offerings all provide multimode – or triple play – mobile banking: SMS text banking, Wireless Access Protocol (WAP)/browser and smartphone applications.

·         Only 5% of the top FIs offer bilingual websites or applications while Hispanics and Asians make up almost half of the consumers who use mobile banking.

·         By 2013, smartphone usage will exceed feature phone usage, changing product requirements.

·         While four-fifths of the top FIs have iPhone mobile banking applications, just over one-third have Android-based applications.

“Many banks are behind the curve of Android availability. Already more smartphone owners have Android-based handsets than iPhones and too few FIs have Android applications. Almost half of Android owners are mobile bankers, which shows that there is a real disconnect between what consumers are using and what FIs are offering,” said Alan Ruperto, Analyst. “This void of Android-based mobile banking applications offers new opportunities to FIs and mobile banking vendors to better serve their customers and drive broader-based consumer adoption of mobile banking.”

Javelin’s 2010 Mobile Banking Scorecard report is based on information gathered during a minimum of   four mystery-shopper calls to experienced customer service representatives (CSRs) at the 19 largest U.S. financial institutions that offer mobile banking. The report also includes data collected online from a random-sample panel of 5,211 households in March 2010 – with respondents representative of the overall U.S. online population – and data collected from a random-sample panel of 3,100 respondents with mobile phones in July 2010. The 19 FIs were judged and scored on a total of 47 criteria in five categories.

About Javelin Strategy & Research 
Javelin provides superior direction on key facts and forces that materially determine the success of customer-facing financial services, payments and security initiatives. Our advantages are rigorous process, independent position and expert people. For more information about this or other Javelin reports, please visitwww.javelinstrategy.com/research or contact Liz Travers at (925) 225-9100 ext. 31 or etravers@javelinstrategy.com.