For years, US consumers had little interest in banking with their mobile phones. Unlike ATMs, mobile phones don't dispense cash. But they do get lost. Many US consumers have been very worried about security.

But making balance requests doesn't necessarily compromise account security and designating specific phones for banking activity can remove the risk of carrying an account number on the phone. By keeping it simple, mobile banking is set to move beyond the early adopter crowd.

More than 100 million US consumers will use their mobile phones for banking services by 2012, according to Javelin Strategy and Research data cited in an April 2008 BusinessWeek article.



In an even more specific prediction, TowerGroup said in its "US Mobile Banking Forecast 2007-2012" report that nearly 41 million US consumers will conduct some banking activity by mobile phone at least every 90 days by 2012.



One-quarter of US online banking users surveyed for comScore's "April 2008 Online Banking Report" said they were interested in mobile banking.

"Many of the top banks are realizing that customer servicing is of increasing importance in this competitive market," said Brian Jurutka, vice president at comScore, "and are therefore investing resources into online service enhancements and mobile banking."



Mobile customers are not asking to manage complex offshore accounts or to contact Switzerland. Consumers interested in mobile banking told comScore they were most interested in obtaining account balance information (61% through text message and 57% through mobile browser).

Mobile banking might also improve customer loyalty, according to Lisa Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer.

"Consumers are using debit cards more often to make even small purchases, encouraged by ad campaigns and incentive programs," said Ms. Phillips. "Banks that offer mobile alerts to customers to help them avoid overdrafts may lose out on some fees, but they'll reap much more in customer loyalty."