San Francisco, CA, May 19, 2016: Half of the U.S. adult population now banks using smartphones and tablets, which is 29 million more than last year. This dramatic shift in consumers’ channel preferences puts pressure on financial institutions to innovate in the space to meet increased demand for mobile functionality. Today, JAVELIN released, 2016 Mobile Banking Financial Institution Scorecard: Mobile Becomes the Remote Control for Banking, which assesses the evolution of FI mobile banking offerings and recent trends in mobile account management and transactional functionality. 

Given this exponential increase in willingness to bank via mobile devices, it comes as no surprise that this year’s scorecard also saw a dramatic jump in financial institution support for mobile banking enrollment through a mobile device. It jumped from 7% in 2014 to 30% in 2015 among the top 30 retail U.S. financial institutions. With more than two-thirds of top banks still requiring some online interaction to enable mobile banking, there is still a significant gap between supply and mobile-first customer demand. 

Other factors are driving institutions toward standalone mobile support, including customers’ willingness to open new accounts entirely through their mobile devices. Support for mobile new account opening among the top 30 financial institutions doubled over the past year to 33%.  



“We are finally seeing mobile banking moving out of online banking’s shadow, said Emmett Higdon, Director of Mobile, JAVELIN. “With strong support for tools to discover, open, and monitor financial accounts through mobile devices without first interacting with online banking is a key strategy in attracting, and retaining, profitable mobile-first customers.” 

In conducting its annual mobile banking benchmarking, Javelin’s Mobile Banking Leader awards recognize the biggest innovators in banking on small screens among the top 30 financial institutions by deposit size. The top five leaders are recognized in these mobile banking categories: accessibility, app store user ratings, functionality, and alerts. Additionally, one provider is named the Javelin Best Overall Mobile Banking Leader. This year’s winners are: 

  • 2016 Javelin Best Overall Mobile Banking Leader is awarded to USAA. This is the fourth time that USAA has claimed this top position. USAA continues to innovate in the mobile channel, supporting its direct bank customers with pioneering artificial intelligence virtual assistants, best-in-class biometric login options, and unprecedented mobile control of their payment cards.
  • 2016 Javelin Mobile Banking Leaders in Accessibility: Ally Bank, Bank of America, Discover Financial, USAA, and Wells Fargo. These five banks provide a broad range of mobile touch points for their users, including tablet apps on both Android and iOS platforms, as well as an Apple Watch app.
  • 2016 Javelin Mobile Banking Leaders in Functionality: BBVA Compass, BB&T, Bank of America, USAA, and Wells Fargo. These banks offer emerging capabilities, including biometric login support, mobile banking enrollment through mobile devices, and turning payment cards on or off within mobile banking. 
  • 2016 Javelin Mobile Banking Leaders in App Ratings: Capital One, Chase, Citizens Bank, First Republic, Navy Federal Credit Union, and USAA. Each of these FIs’ customers acknowledge their mobile banking leadership with high marks for their apps in the Google Play and Apple App stores.
  • 2016 Javelin Mobile Banking Leader awards for Most Comprehensive Alerts: BBVA Compass, Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Citizens, Discover Financial, Fifth Third Bank, and Union Bank. These banks offer a wealth of alerts and notifications, delivered through both push and SMS that keep their customers in touch with changes to their accounts and join with them in the fight against fraud.   

For more details: 2016 Javelin Mobile Banking Leaders Awards

The report, 2016 Mobile Banking Financial Institution Scorecard: Mobile Becomes the Remote Control for Banking, ranks the top 30 financial institutions by deposit size according to performance in accessibility, capabilities, alerts and notifications and user ratings for mobile banking apps. 

The following institutions were benchmarked for this report: Ally Bank, Bank of America, Bank of the West, BB&T, BBVA Compass, BMO Harris Bank, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Citizens Bank, Comerica, Discover Financial, Fifth Third Bank, First Niagara, First Republic Bank, HSBC, Huntington, KeyBank, M&T Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, PNC Bank, Regions, Santander Bank, SunTrust, TD Bank, Union Bank, U.S. Bank, USAA, Wells Fargo, and Zions.

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About JAVELIN 
JAVELIN, a Greenwich Associates LLC company, provides strategic insights into customer transactions, increasing sustainable profits for financial institutions, government, payments companies, merchants and other technology providers. Javelin’s independent insights result from a uniquely rigorous three-dimensional research process that assesses customers, providers, and the transactions ecosystem.

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