A new Javelin Strategy & Research report pulls no punches: credit unions are laggards when it comes to member usage of mobile banking and that is very bad news, suggested Javelin research director Mary Monahan, who authored the report “Mobile Banking, Smartphone and Tablet Forecast: 2011-2016.” 

“Mobile banking users are young. Wealthy.  And mobile banking is the future,” said Monahan.

In an interview. Monahan added, “Younger customers are gravitating to big banks because they offer the mobile services they want.”

She also said that, to be in the mix in mobile, an institution has to offer what she called “the triple play:” SMS, app and mobile Web, preferably across multiple platforms (typically iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and possibly Windows).

The Javelin researcher added: “Many credit unions still do not offer mobile banking apps and that is what users want.”

Monahan's research determined that the nation's biggest financial institutions have opened a widening lead when it comes to mobile banking. The report states, “Over twice as many consumers at the nation's giant banks (over $750 billion in deposits) are using mobile banking than are those at credit unions. At the nation's four giant banks, 37% used mobile banking in the past 90 days vs. approximately 22% at midsized and regional banks vs. just 14% of consumers at credit unions. Now that 92% of the top 25 largest banks by deposit size offer mobile banking, institutions that lack mobile banking risk losing valuable customers to those that offer it.”