Consumers are increasingly tapping their smartphones and tablets to manage their money, a trend that may push personal financial management tools into the mainstream and open new opportunities for credit unions to help their members in real time.

About 15% of consumers prefer to check their financial accounts on a smartphone or tablet and two out of three say being able to check their bank accounts on the go gives them peace of mind, according to a study released in March by PFM software provider Quicken, an Intuit company. The study also found that 23% of consumers would not make a major purchase if they cannot check their finances first on their smartphone.

"Mobile is definitely at the top of everybody's priority list and they see PFM as a very integral part of that mobile strategy," said Bryan Clagett, chief marketing officer for PFM vendor Geezeo in Tolland, Conn. Last October, Geezeo opened its application programming interface technology to third-party developers to build custom PFM applications that would integrate with mobile devices.