Fed: Mobile banking on the rise

{mosads}Among underbanked, mobile phones were used by roughly half for banking purposes, and was climbing significantly. In 2011, just 29 percent of the underbanked used their mobile phones to that end; it climbed to 49 percent in 2012, a higher percentage than the overall population.

Even 10 percent of the unbanked reported using mobile phones for banking purposes, as 59 percent of that population has a mobile phone.

Typically, mobile phones were used to review account balances, monitor transactions, or transfer funds between accounts. But with many banks now offering mobile applications that allow users to deposit checks via their phones, the Fed found that activity had doubled from 2011 to 2012, as 21 percent had used their phones to do so in the last year.

Using phones to actually make purchases at the point of sale remains fairly uncommon but is vastly growing. Just 6 percent of mobile phone owners reported using their phones to make a purchase, but that is three times higher than the 2011 level.

However, while the use of mobile phones in financial matters is growing, the Fed also found a large group who is consistently opposed to the idea. Of the mobile phone owners who did not use mobile banking, over half said that they have no interest in doing so, and were skeptical of the benefits of and security behind such technology. Less than one-quarter of mobile phone owners have any interest in using their phone to make purchases.