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

BI Intelligence

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.

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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.

This story was originally published by Mint.