Despite the general downturn in the banking industry, new research from Needham-based TowerGroup finds that 2009 will be a pivotal year for mobile banking as it turns from a niche channel to a mainstream channel for consumer banking.

TowerGroup estimates mobile banking usage will grow from 10 million active users in 2009 to more than 53 million active users in 2013, representing a compound annual growth rate of 51.8 percent.

As economic concerns prompt consumers to manage their finances more closely, their desire for real-time access to, and control of, their aggregated financial information is increasing the urgency for banks to create a mobile banking channel, the report showed. TowerGroup said it believes that mobility will be a major disruptive force in the financial services industry.

"Financial services executives understand that mobile banking is a bridge to much more feature-rich, value-added mobile payments solutions," said Charul Vyas, analyst in TowerGroup’s Emerging Technologies practice. "The ubiquity of mobile devices, coupled with customers’ craving for information on the go, is creating the perfect opportunity for banks to extend the reach of their banking services using the most personal possession for consumers – the mobile phone."