• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 9, 2009

Mobile banking has long been viewed as a golden opportunity for both wireless carriers and financial services companies. The rollout of 3G networks, growing use of smartphones and explosion of mobile applications have only heightened those expectations.

With that in mind, comScore released findings from an upcoming report Thursday showing that mobile users are using Internet browsers and applications roughly evenly to access banking accounts. Among smartphone users, 44% banked via browser and 40.6% through apps. For users with phones running on 3G networks, 53.1% did so through a browser, and 48.1% through apps.

"The relative parity among usage of browsers versus applications for access to mobile banking indicates the growing importance of ease of use for accessing accounts and conducting transactions," according to comScore.

The biggest difference between smartphone and all 3G users was in the percentage of mobile bankers who used text messaging to get account information. Only a quarter of people banking via smartphones did so, compared to 41% of 3G users.

Where are people mobile banking? Surprisingly, the largest proportion (31%) is banking at home, although many have Internet access on their home computers. A quarter conduct transactions when running errands, while 15% do so while commuting. At work, on vacation and traveling for business are the other main places where people do mobile banking.

ComScore released data earlier this year showing that an average of 3.3 million people traded stocks or accessed financial accounts daily via the mobile Web during the three months ending in January, up threefold from 1.1 million a year ago.

Separately, ABI Research this year estimated that the number of people banking through mobile devices could reach half a billion globally by 2013.