Keynova Group Tracks Emerging Conversational Virtual Assistants and Security Upgrades in Mobile Banking; Consistency in Policies and Accessibility Required Across Digital Channels

U.S. Bank Sweeps Latest Keynova Group Mobile Banker Scorecard

WILMINGTON, Del., Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of its Q3 2026 Mobile Banker Scorecard, a competitive evaluation of the 17 leading U.S. retail banks' mobile experiences. U.S. Bank continues to rank first overall as well as first for its mobile app and mobile web experiences.

"Mobile banking expectations are being shaped by every digital experience that consumers encounter, and while banks are understandably cautious about introducing AI-powered interactions, mobile customers increasingly expect advanced digital agent support including voice interactions," said Susan Foulds, managing director of Keynova Group. "Fundamentals like strengthened user authentication and readily available links to accessibility and privacy policies also should not be overlooked. Banks that expect to lead in mobile need to evolve on all three fronts: smarter digital assistance, strengthened security options and consistent policies and accessibility practices."

Key Findings:

Voice-Enabled Virtual Assistants Lag Expectations
Banks and credit unions are judiciously releasing AI-powered virtual assistants and bots for direct customer support and guidance, yet customers' expectations for intelligent interactions including contextual screen awareness and verbal exchanges are rapidly rising as they experience AI agents outside of banking. Only Bank of America's Erica and U.S. Bank's Smart Assistant currently offer native app voice interactions for common inquiries and banking tasks such as scheduling bill payments and transfers, assisting with card controls, transferring a user to a relevant screen based on an inquiry and/or displaying a credit score. Additionally, Erica can display Zelle transactions and deposits and initiate P2P payments through vocal exchanges. Although conversational virtual assistants have been generally slow to expand in mobile banking, 35% of Scorecard banks' apps now provide an advanced virtual assistant with natural language processing via text exchanges.

Security Safeguards Advancing Beyond One-Time Passcodes
As security continues to tighten across digital banking, banks are starting to advance beyond login security questions and one-time passcodes and are more consistently requiring extra authentication for higher-risk transactions and actions. Passkey authentication is more widely available for mobile web logins, offered by 30% of Scorecard banks for mobile web, while just 18% offer passkeys for mobile app logins. Further, as reported in the Keynova Group Q2 2026 Online Banker Scorecard, nearly one-quarter of Scorecard banks also now employ their mobile apps as an authenticator with embedded permission links in push notifications to allow logins by different devices or browsers. Layered mobile authentication is also increasing as nearly half of banks' apps require multifactor authentication (MFA) to reset a PIN, though just two banks' apps require MFA to unlock a debit card. And Citi offers a novel alternative, moving to passwordless biometric or 6-digit PIN authentication enabled through its mobile app for wires and ACH transfers.

Accessibility Evolving and Digital Policy Improvements Needed
As mobile devices can present more accessibility challenges than larger desktop screens, approximately half of Scorecard banks now offer viewing adjustments including text size, dark/light mode and landscape display options. Despite the addition of these features, less than half provide links to accessibility policies on app and mobile web login screens. When it comes to privacy and security policies, most of the banks provide links to the policies on the mobile web login, yet only half do so on the app login screen and far less enable authenticated mobile users to set privacy preferences in both channels. These variances show that well established digital policy and accessibility best practices available in online banking remain inconsistent in mobile banking. Closing these mobile digital policy gaps will become increasingly important with demographic shifts and as customers expect the same transparency, control and accessibility elements across every digital banking channel.

About the Mobile Banker Scorecard
Keynova Group's semi-annual, fact-based Mobile Banker Scorecard, offered for more than two decades, evaluates digital user capabilities, customer experience elements, and best practices to identify evolving trends and insights that drive mobile strategy in banking. The evaluation of over 350 criteria organized and scored by categories and tasks encompasses the mobile apps and websites of Bank of America, BMO, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Citizens Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, PNC, Regions Bank, TD Bank, Truist, USAA, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. A separate semi-annual Online Banker Scorecard reviews the online banking experience. For more information please visit: https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#banking 

About Keynova Group
Keynova Group is the nation's foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Group's Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firm's proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.

SOURCE Keynova Group