• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, July 13, 2015

Study after study show that a top concern of anyone thinking of using mobile payments is security.

But there’s the perception of security and actual security, different, but both critical.

Security is generally part of the DNA of any major financial institution, but not all consumers take comfort in that.

Now yet another study shows that the majority (77%) of U.S. consumers are anxious about their financial information being stolen or compromised.

Interestingly, consumers are less concerned about other security issues than their personal financial information, according to the survey conducted by Braun Research for MasterCard.

The study comprised a phone survey of 1,000 U.S. adults selected based on a nationally representative sample.

And here’s where the issue of perception and reality come into play.

While almost all (92%) consumers feel they take precautions to protect their financial information, almost half (46%) rarely or never change the passwords of their online financial accounts and almost as many (44%) use the same password for multiple accounts.

Additional, more than a third (39%) of consumers have checked their financial data on public networks.

And when it comes to concerns, having financial information stolen is at the top of the list. Here are the consumer concerns:

• 77% -- Financial information being stolen
• 62% -- Email hacked
• 59% -- House being robbed
• 46% -- Being pickpocketed

And in an interesting twist in survey questions, Braun Research found that the majority (55%) of adults would rather have naked pictures of themselves leaked online than have their financial information stolen.

For mobile payments, the good news is that most (83%) consumers are excited about new payment technologies helping to protect their financial information.

Maybe that will be a step in leading more people to give mobile payments a shot. Or maybe it will just be a perception.