US Bank Mum About Mobile on Earnings Call

Don’t bother listening in on US Bancorp’s fourth quarter 2012 earnings call if you want to learn about mobile banking adoption or the like.

Today’s call centered on the bank’s decline in charge-offs and nonperforming assets and growth in loans and deposits. Even mortgage servicing fees were discussed in depth. The mobile channel? It was barely mentioned, coming up only in the Q&A in the context of payments. (The transcript is here.)

Now, mortgage servicing fees are very important to a bank’s business, and count more toward the bottom line than the latest wizardry on customers’ smartphone apps.

But US Bank is doing noteworthy things with its smartphone app! US Bank is leading the charge with mobile photo bill pay, soon to launch on its smartphone app. Additionally, US Bank is sending its VP of customer experience, Jim Reynolds, to Bank Innovation 2013, to sit on the challenging Channel Convergence panel. This is forward-thinking stuff.

But from the earnings call, it was just business as usual. Why is US Bank walking the walk, but not talking the talk?