Conferences, white papers, surveys, pilot programs, newapplications all screamed the same refrain in 2012: mobile banking,mobile banking, mobile banking.

Disruption. Disintermediation. Reinvention. These three themesrocked the first installment of Money2020, a bustling conference that attracted a full house of2,000-plus attendees. And it brought in very senior executives frommajor financial services players ranging from American Express toVisa, MasterCard and Discover; from Wells Fargo to Bank of America;and from Google to PayPal. Money, old and new, crammed into theAria hotel in search of a roadmap to what it will look like in ascant eight years.

The biggest headline out of the conference: the mobile phonechanges everything.

Mike Cook, a Walmart vice president whom MIT's Technology Reviewrecently called the most powerful man in payments, threw down thegauntlet at Money2020. He stated that if a payments solutionportraying portending to be new does not build upon the inherentsecurity and intelligence built into the smartphone, Wal-Mart wantsno part of it. Period.

“I do not see EMV playing a role in payments,” Cook pronounced.He explained that the chip and PIN toolset “is just replicating theexisting system. Phones are much smarter than that.” Cook andWalmart have already dissed near field communication, saying thatfavorite of companies such as Google has no obvious place inWalmart's plans.

And then Cook threw out his real zinger. “Think about how easyit will be to disintermediate financial institutions. I do notthink they even see this coming.”

The plain message at the mid-October BAI Retail Delivery conference was that a new day is dawning infinancial services, it's no longer your grandfather's spreadbusiness and new tools bring new opportunities to those who figureout how to use them.

The conference offered panel after panel on mobile banking,peer-to peer-payments and the rules of engagement with socialmedia. It also included a tentative obituary for near fieldcommunication, an innovative payments technology around whichenthusiasm seems to be crumbling.

But the biggest and longest buzz at this year's BAI, thesessions that played to full houses, was anything mobile and atleast one big idea seemed to start to take hold. The current cropof mobile banking apps just aren't good enough anymore, not in aworld populated with glitzy smartphone games and slick personalfinancial management tools. The antidote: mobile banking apps2.0.

Apps developer mFoundry, a Larkspur, Calif.-based company with 800 mobilebanking customers, announced at BAI that it was opening its app toinclude content from a range of third- party developers. mFoundryCEO Drew Sievers pointed to payments innovator Dwolla and prepaidcard specialist Blackhawk Network as cases in point. Sieversclaimed that not only will the more powerful app that results bemore engaging for consumers, it will also produce new revenuestreams for the financial institutions that hop aboard. Heenvisioned a three-way split of profits resulting from sale byBlackhawk Network on a prepaid card, with Blackhawk, mFoundry andthe financial institution all sharing in the proceeds.

At another panel, Matthew Wilcox, a senior vice president atZions Bancorp., a Salt Lake City-based institution, tossed out astaggering figure that validates why mobile is gaining so muchpopularity with bankers. It costs on average $4 per in-branchteller visit versus 8 cents per mobile banking transaction.

Wilcox added that mobile banking customers are more profitable($450 in annual profits per head at Zions versus $350 per onlinebanking only customers). And they are far more loyal. In a year,only 1,5% will leave the institution compared to 4% of onlinebanking customers. Add it up, said Wilcox, and not only is mobilethe lowest-cost channel in banking history, it is producing goodcustomers.

Further fueling the mobile fever, Raddon Financial Group'sSpring 2012 National Consumer Research study, which is based on1,230 survey responses gathered in February of this year, showedthat household mobile banking use has more than tripled in twoyears from 6% in 2010 to 20% in 2012.

It is projected that mobile banking use is likely to follow theadoption path that online banking has taken since 2001 as consumersgravitate to the anywhere access channel that allows them to bettermanage their personal financial affairs by checking their monthlyaccount balances, paying bills, transferring funds, or makingperson-to-person payments, according to Raddon.

The research revealed that beyond the transaction nature ofmobile mania, the use of tablet devices is also growing and will bethe landscape from which personal financial management programswill be delivered to the technology-oriented consumer that has beenbred. Just as one format for mobile banking enters the mainstream,another form is beginning its stampede across the financialservices landscape.

The word among some industry leaders is that, suddenly, apps fortablet computers are a must- have. Transformational as mobilephones have proven, the changes now are accelerating with tabletcomputers such as Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire.

“Mobile is a member service. And our members have told us, veryplainly, that they want us to offer tablet apps,” said SonyaMcDonald, a senior vice president at the $5 billion Randolph-BrooksFederal Credit Union in Live Oak, Texas.

RBFCU responded to that demand by recently introducing multipletablet apps.

“We will have 96% of the tablet market covered,” said McDonald,meaning just about any tablet owner will be able to download an appthat works on their device.

RBFCU presently offers an app for sector leader iPad, whichstill dominates tablet sales. The credit union also just introducedan app for Amazon's Kindle Fire, by far the hottest selling Androidtablet.

Visa got in on the act late this year. Credit unions thatprocess their payments with FIS and The Members Group are among thefirst to have the chance to sign on with V.me, Visa's new digitalwallet program designed to make online shopping easier and moresecure.

The FIS processing credit will unions will be able to access thenew program through membership in Card Services for Credit Unions,the association of credit union that process payment transactionswith FIS.

“As online, mobile, and physical payment environments converge,we are excited to provide our credit unions and their membersaccess to the next-generation of payments solutions with V.me,”said Robert Hackney, president of CSCU.

V.me presents an opportunity for issuing credit unions tostrengthen account holder relationships by offering a new servicethat addresses the growing trend toward shopping online, CSCU said.“Through credit union branding and Visa-backing, account holderscan shop with comfort and checkout with ease knowing they'reprotected by layers of security within Visa's industry-leadingnetwork. Once logged into V.me, all that's required to make apurchase is a simple click of a mouse, touch on a mobile browser,or in the future, a wave at the physical point-of-sale,” CSCUsaid.

Another new partnership between the World Council of CreditUnions and Boom Financial, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm thatprovides mobile banking and money transfer services to immigrantand unbanked families, is poised to pump new life into creditunions in developing countries.