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Survey: Consumers see mobile as effective tool for securing card data

March 7, 2017

Fiserv Inc., a provider of financial services technology solutions, has released the results its quarterly consumer trends survey, Expectations & Experiences.

Digital engagement

Consumers most often (six or more times per month) access their primary FI online via a computer.

Among millennials, however, mobile leads in frequency by a significant margin: Within a 30-day period, millennials accessed their financial organization via mobile app or browser 8.5 times on average compared with 3.1 times for other age groups.

Millennials are the most engaged segment overall in terms of channel access. This group engages more frequently than older generations with all channels except online and branch banking.

Traditional methods of managing household finances and payments remain in the mix, even for people who don't prefer them. For instance, only 6 percent of consumers cited checks as their most preferred method of payment, but 58 percent said they had cashed a check within the last three months.

Forty-four percent of consumers said they need faster access to funds: Forty-four percent said they had needed immediate access to funds from a check within the last year. Of these, 26 percent said the reason was daily expenses (26 percent); 20 percent said they needed to pay a bill; and 10 percent said they wanted to avoid late fees on payments.

Security still top of mind

Presented with various financial tools, consumers expressed the greatest interest in those that are security related: Sixty-five percent were interested in security programs to safeguard mobile activity; 58 percent were interested in biometric replacements for passwords as an identifier for online or mobile banking.

People also showed interest in services that enabled them to secure their physical debit and credit cards via mobile devices. Among smartphone users with debit or credit cards, 60 percent indicated interest in using their smartphone to respond to credit or debit card fraud alerts, and an almost equal number indicated interest in receiving card transaction alerts for credit cards (61 percent) or debit cards (62 percent) to quickly identify fraudulent transactions. 

"The latest Expectations & Experiences survey underscores the day-to-day concerns about money that still loom large for consumers, even as there are more options available than ever before in how they can manage their finances," Mark Ernst, Fiserv COO, said in the release. "For banks, credits unions and billers, this is an opportunity to go beyond offering products to creating experiences that are essential to people's lives, anticipating their needs and giving customers control and confidence in their financial futures." 

The online survey of more than 3,000 U.S. banking consumers was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Fiserv in August 2016.