The pandemic accelerated consumer adoption of mobile wallets and peer-topeer (P2P) payments. One of the biggest shifts Javelin noticed last year was in younger consumers’ use of P2P payments. Adoption of such payments saw the greatest increase among consumers ages 18 to 34, a group that already had the highest usage.

By 2020, consumers across all generations were using more digital channels. While the 18-to-34 age group stood out in P2P payments, mobile banking also showed an uptick for this group, with 94% saying they conducted a mobile banking transaction in 2020. Along with that, 84% of consumers ages 35 to 54 said they, too, conducted a mobile banking transaction last year. Even among the 55-plus category, a majority (54%) in 2020 said they used mobile banking.

Consumers want to play more active roles in preventing fraud. This again points to consumers’ ongoing desire for more education and involvement when it comes to fraud detection, prevention, and resolution. They highly favor the ability to sign up for fraud alerts and notices, which allows them to track their transaction and account activity as well as account balances in real time.