CCG Catalyst (www.ccg-catalyst.com), a management consulting firm offering strategic advice to banks, has released the results of its recent study, “The Age of Mobile Wallets: What Banks Need to Know When Considering the Creation of a Bank Branded Mobile Wallet.”

The study focused on examining the customers’ use of mobile wallets to help banks recognize opportunities, decide whether to create mobile wallets and realize unmet customer needs. Administered through AskYourTargetMarket, was issued to a panel of 25 million U.S. consumers (18 years of age to 65 years plus) it measured consumer attitudes and behaviors toward mobile wallets vs. non-bank mobile wallets.

Respondents answered a series of questions segmented in three key themes: usage, behavior and habits. Of the 2,000 completed surveys generated, the key findings are as follows:

° If their bank offered a mobile wallet, 51 percent of the respondents are likely to use a bank-offered mobile wallet;

° 45 percent currently use PayPal mobile, which was the most popular mobile wallet used by consumers who took part in the survey;

° 82.8 percent have a smartphone, but 12 percent of those with a smartphone do not plan on using a wallet of any kind just yet;

° More than half of the respondents keep track of their spending and paying bills (66.6 percent), while 47.8 percent check their bank account status on a daily basis;

° 58.9 percent occasionally use their mobile banking app to bank;

° The top challenge to using the mobile wallet is fear of identity theft (68.3 percent), followed by merchant acceptability (33.9 percent).

“The results of the survey offer insights to the current state of mobile wallet adoption, and this will help banks make vital decisions surrounding their own adoption of mobile wallets,” says Paul Schaus, CEO and president of CCG Catalyst. “Clearly there is a growing interest among customers to using bank-offered mobile wallets, and we want banks to recognize and fulfill those unmet customer needs.”