Mobile Usage in the United States
IN MARCH 2012, the Federal Reserve Board published and presented to Congress, “Con-
sumers and Mobile Financial Ser-
vices,” its comprehensive study
about mobile banking and
payments.
According to the Fed, con-
sumer usage of smart phones
and other mobile devices is
growing steadily: 87 percent
of the U.S. population has a
mobile phone and 44 percent
of all mobile phones are smart
phones. The vast majority of
smart phone users (84 percent)
use their device to access the
Internet at least weekly.
Consumers are also changing
the manner in which they access
financial services. In the last year,
of consumers with a mobile phone:
■ ■
21 percent have engaged in mo-
bile banking;
■ ■
12 percent made a mobile payment; and
■ ■ an additional 11 percent definitely or probably expect to utilize mobile banking in the next
12 months.
Note that the Fed defines mobile
banking as accessing bank information versus mobile payments, which
includes bill pay and Person-to-Person payments. The FDIC Winter
2011 Supervisory Insights equated
these numbers to at least 19 million
active mobile banking customers.
According to the Fed, the two
most frequent uses of mobile
banking are verifying account balance and recent transactions (90
percent) and transferring money
between accounts ( 42 percent).
Of those consumers who have
not used mobile banking, more
than half believe their banking
needs are being met without it.
Additionally, many expressed
concerns about the security of
the technology including losing a
phone and data security.
■ ■ utilizing industry best practices around security protections
that do not rely solely on wireless network providers security
protocols; and
■ ■ ensuring a user’s data is protected by doing things like limiting
the identifying information stored on the user access device.
The mobile world continues to expand rapidly with new
innovations and technologies. It is exciting to be on the cutting
edge of these new developments. With some consideration to our
“old” regulations, you should be ready for a great ride.
Side note: In an informal poll of attendees at the mobile banking sessions at the ABA’s Regulatory Compliance Conference in
June, it was apparent that compliance officers have a much higher
adoption rate for mobile devices and mobile banking than U.S.
citizens at large. Most compliance officers have smart phones and
at least 67 percent have tried mobile banking in the last year.
Board. She is a former member of the CRCM Advisory Board and
the Compliance Executive Committee. Meg has published several
articles on topics ranging from Regulation AA/UDAP to Regulation
O and wrote the recurring Training Room column in the ABA Bank
Compliance magazine. She is also a frequent speaker at industry
compliance conferences and schools. Meg was recently honored as
ABA’s 2011 Distinguished Service Award recipient. She graduated
from the University of Missouri–Columbia with degrees in
psychology and law. Reach her at
Meg_Sczyrba@infosys.com.
MEG SCZYRBA, CRCM, is an industry principal at Infosys
Technologies Limited. That keeps her busy trying to figure out how
to implement regulatory requirements in Finacle, their integrated
banking platform core processing system. Sczyrba has previously
worked for PayPal, Washington Mutual, Union Bank of California,
U.S. Bank, and as a compliance consultant. She is very involved
in the industry and sits on several ABA Boards including the ABA
Compliance School Board and the ABA Bank Compliance magazine
THOMAS J. HEALY, CRCM, is senior compliance director for
Deposits, eCommerce, and Marketing at Ally Bank in Charlotte.
Before Healy joined Ally in June 2010, he was a compliance and
operational risk manager at Bank of America supporting Deposit
Products, Regulatory Complaints, Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA), and Consumer Regulatory Relations Examination
Management. Prior to his work at Bank of America, Healy was the
compliance officer at F&M Bank in Granite Quarry, N.C, where
he was responsible for building the bank’s compliance, BSA, and
security programs. Prior to entering the financial services industry,
Healy was a senior consultant with Uniform Computer Recovery,
a North Carolina consulting firm that specialized in business
continuity planning. During his tenure there, the company
expanded it services to include assisting community banks in
building compliance programs to meet regulatory requirements.
Healy serves on the advisory boards and faculty for the ABA
Compliance Schools. Reach him at
Thomas.Healy@ally.com.
