Over half of US smartphone owners are using mobile banking, but there is still a long way to go

Half of US Adults with a smartphone are using mobile banking, but amongst the general population penetration is much lower, according to survey data from the Federal Reserve and our estimates.

• The percentage of US adults with a smartphone who have used mobile banking is increasing at a creep from 51% in 2013 to 52% in 2014.
• Mobile banking penetration is growing more quickly among the population of US mobile users. It increased six percentage points to 39% in 2014.
• Among US adults with a bank account that may or may not have a mobile phone, penetration increased five percentage points to 35%.
• Among all US adults, mobile banking penetration increased 14 percentage points to 34% in 2014.

It's unlikely that the percentage of people with a feature phone that use mobile banking is increasing significantly. That's because banks aren't investing in mobile banking apps for feature phones when almost everyone is using a smartphone. Instead the population of people with a feature phone is decreasing as people upgrade to smartphones. As a result, smartphone penetration among mobile users is increasing and that's what's pulling penetration among all mobile users up more quickly than the growth in penetration among smartphones users.

This research post originally on BI Intelligence. To read more of my research on payments and digital banking, please sign-up for a trial subscription at intelligence.businessinsider.com.

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