August 27, 2013 - The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published an interim report exploring some early findings of a review into mobile banking services, setting out the possible risks to consumers and areas that firms should consider when developing their services.

The FCA's remit extends to both high street banks and firms not traditionally associated with banking, such as mobile phone networks.

Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA, says: "Mobile banking is an exciting development in financial services, with increasing numbers of consumers attracted to the convenience of banking on the move. With the market growing, now is the right time for us to take stock and, as part of the FCA's forward looking approach, to ensure that consumers are appropriately protected."

Key to this is an exploration of the potential risk to consumers and suppliers including fraudulent access to accounts, malware threats, technology failure and service interruption, consumer awareness issues, and anti-money laundering systems and controls.

"We want to make sure that the industry knows exactly what we're looking into," says Adamson "and consumers have a clearer idea of some of the potential risks."

He says the watchdog plans to conduct a more detailed assessment in late-2013, testing a sample of firms providing mobile banking services. A full review of the FCA's finding will be published in the first half of 2014.