Mobile Banking and Mobile Payment Practices of U.S. Financial Institutions: Results from 2014 Survey of FIs in Five Federal Reserve Districts Mobile Banking and Mobile Payment Practices of U.S. Financial Institutions: Results from 2014 Survey of FIs in Five Federal Reserve Districts

August 20, 2015

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Payment Strategies team offers insights into the mobile banking practices and mobile payment plans of banks and credit unions in five Federal Reserve Districts: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, a nd Richmond. The report presents the consolidated findings from a joint survey that was conducted in the third quarter of 2014.

The five Federal Reserve district banks share a common goal of providing their financial institutions with an understandin g of the current landscape for mobile banking and payments, both within their districts and across several regions of the United States (U.S.). Additionally, the Federal Reserve banks want to inform their own perspectives about the status of mobile banking a nd payments within their districts.

The survey captures a point-in-time snapshot of mobile banking and payments at FIs in each district. With the exception of the First District (Boston), there is no historical or trend information available. Therefo re, information from previous FRBB-NEACH surveys is used in this report to inform the analysis where relevant. Although this historical information may not reflect the situation in other districts, it does offer insights into changes that have taken place be tween 2013 and the time of this survey in mid-2014.

The information presented, while representing only five of the 12 FR Banks, is pertinent to most districts for several reasons. First, this is one of the largest surveys about mobile banking and pay ment services at FIs that has been done in the U.S. It is also noteworthy because most of the data come from banks and credit unions with less than $500 million in assets - a group for which information is not readily available. Additionally, survey responde nts are geographically dispersed at institutions in 25 states and Washington, DC, which provides a broad picture of mobile banking services across the U.S.

Four hundred and thirty-three banks and 192 credit unions participated in the survey - a conso lidated response rate of 11 percent. While the number of institutions represents slightly less than seven percent of all banks and three percent of all credit unions nationally, the survey showed that there is an active environment for mobile banking, and pr ospectively for mobile payment services, at institutions of all types and sizes across the U.S. Not all institutions surveyed were at the same level of implementation, but 94 percent of respondent FIs are already actively engaged in or planning to offer mobi le services.

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