State of Mobile Banking in New England Posted by AVCU on 2:28 PM

Mobile Banking may be all the buzz among financial institutions right now, but a new paper by the Boston Federal Reserve and New England Automated Clearinghouse reports there is still a lot of apprehension and misunderstanding among financial institutions. The 46-page “Mobile Banking in New England: The Current State of the Market” is comprised of two sections. The first does a great job of explaining what mobile banking and isn’t, and cites the different technologies and players involved. The second section reveals findings of a study of New England banks and credit unions regarding their understanding of mobile banking, why they’re involved or not, what mobile banking services they provide, whether they charge consumer, and a variety of other findings. The survey was conducted in July of 2008.

Oddly, mobile banking is often more widespread and developed in developing nations whose financial services industries bypassed brick and mortar and ATM machines and began remote service when cell phones were already ubiquitous among consumers. Their security measures however, which are a big consumer stumbling block in the United States, may be less developed than those to which U.S. banks and credit unions are accustomed.