- Key Insight: The mobile banking approach of U.S. Bank centers on enhancing user engagement within the app.
- What’s at Stake: Failing to offer valuable features in mobile applications could lead to customer attrition for banks.
- Expert Quote: Emmett Higdon highlights that the visibility of features depends significantly on their placement on the home screen, which is critical for user adoption.
Bulleted points were generated using AI, with editorial review.
U.S. Bank has consistently ranked at the forefront of two key industry ratings for mobile banking.
The institution took the top spot in mobile banking across two different scorecards: one by Keynova Group and the other by Javelin Strategy & Research. Additionally, Bank of America secured the second position in both assessments.
For the second consecutive year, U.S. Bank achieved similar accolades from both agencies in 2024, reaffirming its commitment to a robust mobile banking strategy over the past year.
Ankit Bhatt, chief digital officer for consumers, small business, and platforms at U.S. Bank, remarked to American Banker, “Clients anticipate their digital interactions to go beyond simple transactions. They expect experiences to be personalized and proactive, utilizing our data to deliver rich, useful, and informative content. This expectation is influenced by their experiences with other mobile applications in their lives, which they also apply to banking.”
Initiated in 2011, the Keynova Mobile Banker Scorecard has seen U.S. Bank as the top overall bank in nine consecutive scores since 2021. (Keynova publishes the Mobile Banker Scorecard biannually).
As highlighted in the comprehensive Keynova report, a critical feature for mobile banking—real-time account balance alerts—is not universally available in the industry. Of the banks scrutinized by Keynova, 82% offer real-time low-balance alerts, yet only 53% provide immediate notifications for negative balances or overdrafts.
Since 2019, U.S. Bank has provided real-time balance notifications, which include actionable steps such as transferring funds upon issuing an overdraft push notification.
For the second consecutive year, Javelin named U.S. Bank the gold standard for mobile banking in its 2025 Mobile Banking Report. Emmett Higdon, director of digital banking for Javelin, explained that U.S. Bank maintained its top ranking by enhancing its Security Center, pioneering account aggregation for open banking, and adding updates to the app without drastically altering its existing user interface.
“Our key focus lies in how features are presented, which has positioned U.S. Bank ahead of many competitors,” Higdon shared with American Banker. “They excel at integrating all functionalities and making them immediately accessible to users.”
The significance of a mobile banking app’s home screen in effectively showcasing features to customers cannot be overstated, according to Higdon.
“The home screen of your mobile banking app represents the most valuable real estate you possess,” he stated. “It’s also the most efficient. A bank may offer numerous interesting features to assist users with money management, budgeting, and cash flow. However, if those features require multiple clicks to find, users may never discover or fully utilize them.”
For instance, budgeting tools and spending analytics are functionalities that banks, including U.S. Bank, have found challenging to incorporate effectively into their mobile platforms. According to a 2024 Consumer Reports survey evaluating ten mobile banking applications, U.S. Bank received low marks due to not providing easily accessible budgeting features. Instead, tools were offered only when triggered by certain events like low account balances or overdraft charges.
In response to a request for comment, a U.S. Bank representative explained to American Banker that the bank does offer budgeting features that allow for connections to U.S. Bank accounts as well as external accounts, providing alerts when users exceed pre-set budget limits. The bank also noted that they have revamped the checking account experience to better highlight monthly spending patterns. Additionally, external spending indicators have previously been recognized as a strength of U.S. Bank by Consumer Reports.
“We consistently urge banks to improve in this area,” Higdon stated. “While spending insights may be well-implemented at U.S. Bank and Bank of America, visibility remains an issue. Users may not delve deeply enough into their accounts to explore these features, as there are often numerous links and footnotes obscuring them. Enhancing the visibility of these features could significantly benefit banks overall.”
Consumer Reports also addressed the broader concern of low utilization rates for budgeting tools offered by banks. The findings of the 2023 Banking Apps Survey indicated that just 13% of surveyed users had engaged with features designed for establishing savings goals, 18% had utilized budgeting tools, and 16% had taken advantage of round-up savings programs.
However, mobile banking continues to ascend in significance for financial institutions.
“Customers have expressed their preferences through their behaviors,” said Higdon. “We are witnessing mobile banking evolve beyond traditional online banking. It experiences higher adoption rates and more frequent interactions. Personally, I might only access online banking a couple of times monthly for bill payments or to assess larger visual data, whereas mobile banking engages users multiple times a day, every day. Increasingly, the primary connection point for customers is through mobile banking applications. Not only do banks need to simplify account management and transaction monitoring, but it’s also a pivotal avenue for promoting additional products to customers.”
In the last year, approximately 67,000 families have begun using the Greenlight family finance tool through the U.S. Bank mobile app, as reported in June 2025. Though U.S. Bank declined to comment on the impact of the Greenlight partnership, revealed in June 2024, they indicated that new connection features for Greenlight users will be introduced later this year.
