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A Federal Reserve Board report on mobile financial services found that 39 percent of adult consumers with mobile phones and bank accounts used mobile banking in 2014, up from 33 percent from the year before.

The survey found that 51 percent of mobile banking consumers used remote deposit capture, compared with 38 percent in 2013. Also, 22 percent of mobile phone users made mobile payments in the past 12 months – up from 17 percent in 2013.

"The most common use of mobile banking remains checking account balances or recent transactions," the Fed said. "Transferring money between accounts is the second-most common mobile banking activity. More than half of mobile banking users received an alert from their financial institution through a text message, push notification, or e-mail – making this the third-most common use of mobile banking."

The survey also found that 90 percent of the underbanked have access to mobile phones, and the underbanked used mobile banking more than fully banked consumers did – at 48 percent versus 37 percent.

For the first time, the survey looked at the difference between mobile banking and payments in urban areas versus rural areas, and found that there was a lower incidence in the latter.