Demand is far outstripping supply these days in mobile remote deposit capture, new research suggests.
After hearing about the possibility of initiating a deposit into a bank account by capturing the image of a check with a cell-phone camera, some 24% of respondents to a recent survey deemed the process desirable or very desirable, says Mary Monahan, executive vice president and research director for Pleasanton, Calif.-based Javelin Strategy and Research Inc., which conducted the survey.
“We seldom get a number that high for a financial-services product,” Monahan says. “Consumers are not very imaginative when it comes to new banking products.”
Javelin in March queried 5,201 adult consumers online who represent a cross-section of Americans based on gender, race, ethnicity and income. To participate, respondents had to consider themselves “primary or shared financial mangers” of their household finances, Monahan says.
Among the respondents, 34% owned smartphones capable of conducting remote deposit capture, she says. Of that smartphone-owning group, 69% had used their phone’s camera to take general-purpose pictures, and 28% had downloaded applications of some sort to their phones.
Extrapolated, that suggests 47 million Americans have the equipment and experience required for mobile remote deposit capture, says Monahan.
In a closer look at the respondents who expressed interest in the technology, Javelin found that larger banks may have more opportunity to spread the practice, she says. Some 30% of respondents who banked at larger institutions, defined as having more than $750 million in deposits, viewed the deposit process as desirable or very desirable, compared with 17% of those banking at smaller institutions categorized as having deposits of less than $30 million who did.
Among the respondents already engaged in mobile banking, 52% identified mobile remote deposit capture as desirable or very desirable, and 82% of that group already had smart phones, Monahan says.
Younger consumers showed more enthusiasm for the technology than did their older counterparts, she adds. Among the respondents ages 18 to 24, 36% deemed mobile remote deposit capture desirable or very desirable, while 10% of respondents older than 65 felt that way. In fact, 73% of consumers 65 or older showed little interest in the process, the survey found.
Although Monahan interprets the survey results as a strong vote of confidence in mobile remote check capture, she also notes that another Javelin survey found weakness on the supply side. Of 25 banking executives surveyed in April, 19 reported that their banks did not offer the service and, of those, about half planned to add it in the next 12 months.
“ We’re seeing a lot of announcements” from banks that intend to offer the process soon, Monahan says.
In 2009, USAA Federal Savings Bank became the first financial institution to offer mobile remote deposit capture (
The costs would vary among banks, she cautions.
Other banks that offer the technology now include JPMorgan Chase & Co., U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Monahan says.
San Diego-based Mitek Systems Inc. provides most of the check-imaging software (
Fears that the technology might invite fraud have held back acceptance among consumers and banks, but financial institutions can subject the transactions to fraud-mitigation software already in place for scanner-based images, Monahan says,.
To head off fraud, USAA restricts use of the process to depositors who qualify for the institution’s insurance and credit cards, Monahan says. Other banks have set daily-deposit limits, she adds.
Most of the problems arise from duplicate deposits, Monahan says. Consumers may forget they have deposited a check and then submit it again. Lack of communication inside a family might result in more than one family member submitting the same check for deposit.
Mistakes aside, Monahan views the process as having great potential. “It’s definitely a good product,” she says.
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