4G or Not, Not So Fast For Mobile Banking

On the heels of the Chase iPhone app that is cool but nothing I’ve ever seriously considered using comes news that PayPal will have a similar “solution” any day now. http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/29/paypal-mobile-check-deposit/ According to PayPal, iPhone users will be able to take a picture of the front and back of a check, then deposit the funds through MMS. Just the way we’ve seen it work in the Chase TV spots. In a KPMG study unrelated to today’s announcement, U.S. respondents who said they were comfortable using their mobile devices for financial transactions grew to 16 percent, a six percent increase from the last survey. Respondents not comfortable with such usage declined to 55 percent, an 11 percent drop from the last survey. While U.S. consumers have become more comfortable using their mobile devices for financial transactions, KPMG said, they still trail much of the world in this regard. In fact, about one-third of consumers globally in the new survey said they were comfortable making financial transactions on a mobile device. Among all U.S. respondents who have not conducted banking through a mobile device, 52 percent cited security and privacy as the primary reason. Consistent with many technology advances, younger consumers are more likely to participate at least in the early days. And as is the case in Europe and elsewhere, Americans will likely gain more confidence at the Moment of Trust by being able to cap total purchases to prevent large-scale fraud. As bullish as I am on personal technology, capping would get me closer to trial. What about you?