In a detailed paper on mobile payments published in the FDIC's winter issue of "Supervisory Insights," a group of agency executives explore in detail "the unique risks and supervisory issues raised by this technology." 

The FDIC's point is that amid the loud enthusiasm for these fast-emerging technologies, there has not been a comparable focus on the security issues the new generation mobile payments tools raise. The paper, authored by four FDIC executives, aims to address these concerns. Although the mobile payments formats may seem new, in most cases, they fall under already well-established regulatory requirements. 

For starters, the FDIC acknowledged that the mobile payments universe is immense and growing. "Consumers spent over $20 billion using a mobile browser or application during the year [2012]," the agency noted. It also observed that some one-third of mobile phone users in 2012 reported using a mobile device to make a purchase.