Banks Could Hold the Key to Mobile Wallet Adoption
Banks and other firms are jockeying to get consumers to use their mobile wallet products, and a recent Cisco Systems report found that banks might be positioned to dominate the payments technology. The report determined that mobile wallet providers need to provide more secure and personalized banking services if consumers are to be drawn to their products. Cisco’s Al Slamecka says the report shows “that consumers trust their banks more than any other [payments] intermediary.” A March report from the U.S. Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors concluded that “using a mobile phone to pay for a purchase at the point of sale remains a relatively rare occurrence.” Just 6 percent of smartphone users in the report said they made a POS transaction with their cellphone in the past year. A separate SAP poll attributed the slow growth of consumer mobile wallet adoption to skepticism about how the technology works and tech companies’ failure to make mobile wallets easy to use for retailers and shoppers. Slamecka says a majority of consumers trust banks to maintain the security of personal and financial data, which gives banks the upper hand in leading mobile wallet adoption.
From “Banks Might Hold the Key to Mobile Wallet Adoption”
Investor’s Business Daily (06/03/13) Tsuruoka, Doug