JPMorgan Chase & Co. remains the clear leader among the largest U.S. consumer banks in terms of mobile banking use, fourth quarter earnings released this week show. The bank has counted the most active mobile users of the big four U.S. banks for years, and there are no signs of that changing.
With 11% year-over-year growth in active mobile users, climbing to 33.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 from 30.1 million the same quarter of 2017, JPMorgan posted yet another strong year in this space.
Over 67% of JPMorgan’s digital customers are mobile users, meaning the bank still has about 16.1 million existing digital customers that could potentially go mobile. That’s the highest number of existing customers that have yet to switch to mobile of any of the big banks.
CFO Marianne Lake touted JPMorgan’s “focus on digital everything” during the bank’s earnings call, specifically noting the YoY mobile user growth.
Bank of America Corp., which has ranked second among the banks in terms of active mobile users for years, grew to 26.2 million such users in the fourth quarter of 2018. That’s up 9% from 24.2 million users the same quarter of 2017.
Nearly 73% of BofA’s digital customers are mobile users, leaving roughly 9.9 million existing digital customers that could potentially convert to mobile.
During the bank’s earnings call, CFO Paul Donofrio said mobile and ATM banking now account for more than three quarters of BofA’s deposit transactions. “And mobile, with all its benefits for our customers and our shareholders, is now approaching half of all digital sales,” he added.

Wells Fargo & Co.’s rate of active mobile user growth did not keep pace with that of the other banks. The bank counted 22.8 million active mobile users in the fourth quarter of 2018, up just 7% from 21.2 million the same quarter of 2017.
It’s worth noting over 78% of Wells Fargo’s digital customers are mobile users, the highest percentage of the four big banks, which still leaves over 6 million existing digital customers that could potentially go mobile.
CEO Tim Sloan touted several mobile-related successes during the bank’s earnings call, including more customers using biometrics to authenticate; 90% of debit card on/off requests now being handled digitally, through features such as Control Tower; and the pilot of Greenhouse, a mobile-first banking account app “with innovative cash management functionality.”
Citigroup Inc., in the meantime, recorded a YoY growth rate of 12%, but has far fewer mobile active users than the other banks. The bank counted 10.8 million active mobile users in its North American consumer banking unit in the fourth quarter of 2018, climbing up from 9.7 million the same quarter of 2017.
The share of Citi’s North American digital users that are mobile users reached about 59%, meaning Citi has perhaps another 7.5 million existing customers that could become mobile banking users.
CEO Michael Corbat said during Citi’s earnings call that the bank would continue using technology to improve the client experience and lower costs, “whether it’s by automating processes or enhancing our mobile channels.”
Globally, Citi has seen the number of its mobile users climb 62% to 18.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 from 11.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. Digital users, meanwhile, increased by 26% to 29.1 million last quarter from 23.1 million users during the same two-year timeframe.





