Device-focused security company iovation has announced that it has tracked a six-fold increase in financial services transactions that originate on mobile devices from 2011 to 2012.

The Portland, Ore.-based company elaborated that in 2011, just 2% of the financial transactions it tracked originated on mobile devices. In 2012 that percentage has spiked up to 12%.

“The interest in mobile banking is overwhelming,” said Max Anhoury, vice president, global sales at iovation.

In an interview, Anhoury elaborated that for the purpose of these metrics iovation defined “financial services” fairly narrowly to include retail banking, credit card services, payday lending, money transfer services and prepaid cards.

Connie Gougler, iovation's director of marketing, added that devices tracked show a strong predominance of Apple. The iPhone represented 45.6% of transactions. The iPad was 22.2%. Android was 29.5%. All others – Windows, BlackBerry – fought over the remaining scraps.

Anhoury said that a trend iovation has spotted among its financial services clients is that they have rushed to roll out mobile apps but they have stalled when it came to adding powerful features (such as not allowing new payees to be added to bill payment via a mobile device).

But that has triggered another trend, said Anhoury, where financial institutions find themselves under more pressure to beef up their mobile apps – and a result is that the mobile security conversation seems to be intensifying in at least some institutions.

Instant Insights /

Report: Huge Spike in Mobile Transactions in Past Year

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