Apple in particular thought there was a pile of money to be made from setting up digital services with the banks so that people did not need to carry cash about with them.

However, according to the chief executive of consumer banking for JPMorgan Chase & Co, Gordon Smith, users are ignoring the technology in droves.

Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay are being used for less than one percent of payments at retailers, Smith said, citing industry data at an investor conference.

He does not think that it will always be this dismal, but it seems that it is taking longer to get adoption.

Smith thought that the convenience of paying with phones will bring a surge of use from consumers, but it is impossible to know when that inflexion point will be reached.

Chase last year announced its own application called Chase Pay to hold account credentials for use at checkout counters.