Data from comScore Inc., which may have implications for U.S. mobile banking usage, showed that 20 million mobile users across the five leading European markets (United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy—EU5), representing 8.5% of mobile subscribers in these markets, accessed their bank account via a mobile phone in March 2011.

Since August 2010, the first month this activity has been measured, there has been a 15.4% rise in mobile bankers which has been largely driven by smartphone users who accounted for 70% of the mobile banking market in March 2011. Among smartphone owners the number of banking users has risen by 40% since August 2010.

“Consumers want to be able to access information on the go at any time, and with mobile banking becoming more user-friendly through apps and mobile optimized pages, people are gradually becoming accustomed to it,” said Jeremy Copp, vice-president mobile for comScore Europe. “It will be important for service providers, such as banks and credit card providers, to watch this development as it can certainly be seen as an indicator of increased trust in mobile services.”

During the three-month period ending March 2011, France boasted the highest penetration of mobile bankers in EU5 with 10.3% of consumers accessing bank accounts through their mobile phones. Spain ranked a close second with 10.2% penetration. Germany, which is the largest smartphone market in Europe, had the lowest penetration of mobile banking users with 6.8% accessing their bank accounts. In the EU5 region, 8.5% of mobile subscribers overall accessed mobile banking, while 5.1% accessed credit cards and 5.2% accessed electronic payments via their mobile device.

U.K. mobile phone owners were the most conservative with regard to accessing credit card accounts and only 3.9% of the mobile population used the service in March 2011. On the other hand, mobile banking reached 8.6% of the total U.K. mobile market, making it the third-largest market for mobile banking in Europe.

In the EU5 countries, nearly two males accessed mobile banking for every one female. Among age segments, 25-34 year olds accounted for the highest percentage of mobile banking users (27.9%). Mobile users aged 55 and older showed the lowest relative usage of mobile banking. Apple users exhibited the highest relative usage of mobile banking, followed by users of Google Android.

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