Mobile Payments Investment to Grow in 2012

Transactional services such as remote deposit capture (RDC) and mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments will account for the majority of mobile investment in 2012 by financial institutions, according to a survey released today that was conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Fiserv. The "Mobile Banking and Payments" survey evaluated the plans of 10 banks and credit unions that in total hold more than one-third of all U.S. deposit accounts.

In addition to RDC, financial institutions plan to invest in actionable alerts, which allow recipients to initiate an action such as a funds transfer in response to an alert about a low balance, and additional payment capabilities, according to the survey.

Eighty percent of surveyed institutions said they plan to invest in some type of mobile payments initiative in the next 12 months, with P2P mobile payments cited as a priority by seven of the ten respondents. Ninety percent of the financial institutions surveyed already have a mobile banking offering that provides basic account access, and almost all provide ATM/branch locators, transfers between accounts and bill payment.

Financial institutions are committed to providing mobile banking and payments capabilities for a range of devices, with a focus on smartphones, according to the survey. While none of the surveyed institutions currently offer specialized support for tablets, this was cited as a priority for 2012 by several of those queried.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio