Consumers in the United States are becoming accustomed to the use of cell phones for financial transactions, which has opened the door for further innovation among service providers, according to mPowa (www.powa.com), a mobile payments company.

Recent data from the Federal Reserve has found that the number of people using their smartphones for financial transactions has increased over the past year. As of November 2012, 28% of all mobile phone users and 48% of smartphone users had used mobile banking in the past 12 months. This is a marked increase on the previous year. A rise in mobile payments was also reported by the research. Financial institutions are already creating new ways to interact with customers through the use of technology now that fewer people feel intimidated by the prospect.

"It is really encouraging to see that consumers in the United States are embracing the use of smartphones for financial transactions," says Dan Wagner, founder and CEO of Powa Technologies. "They are becoming much more used to the technology, which is great because there is so much potential for their devices to serve a number of purposes."