US bankers increasingly see mobile technology as a must-have component of their retail offerings but believe that regulatory and risk-management concerns are set to dominate IT spending initiatives in 2012, a recent report has revealed.

According to the report, US bankers expect regulations to impact their businesses in 2012 and a significant majority says that curbs on debit card interchange fees will lead the industry to minimize or eliminate debit card reward programs, increase ATM interchange fees, minimize credit card rewards and discontinue free checking in the near future. However, one in four US bankers expects regulations to facilitate additional technology spending while community banks lag behind their larger competitors in adopting innovative technology solutions.

The survey has also shown that less than one third of US bank respondents deem their current risk management technology solutions to be effective in managing their bank's credit, market and liquidity risk. Among the smallest banks, only 9 percent believe their risk management technology solutions are effective. Additionally, while the largest banks plan to increase spending on these solutions by at least 10 percent of their current levels, the majority of small US banks plan to increase their current risk management spending by less than 10 percent.

Furthermore, the report has found that among US banks, 42 percent currently provide mobile banking or mobile payments services to their customers, while an additional 40 percent plan to offer it in the next 12 months. However, the largest US financial institutions provide mobile banking at more than double the rate of the smallest banks (76 percent of large banks versus 36 percent of small banks). For 77 percent of US bank respondents, security remains the top inhibitor in the growth of mobile banking, regardless of bank size.

Finally, the report has revealed that mobile banking developments are currently driven by the need for US banks to deepen existing customer relationships versus acquiring new customers. Most US banks reported that the two most important mobile applications for US retail customers are non-transactional - information reporting and alert messaging.

The survey titled American Banker Research was conducted by bank technology and payment systems companies Tata Consultancy Services, TSYS and Jack Henry and Associates.