Fiserv, Inc. released new research the company saidshows Gen Y consumers are increasingly responsible for payinghousehold bills and that they prefer mobile channels for managingfinances.

The company also said that, according to its annual BillingHousehold Survey, mobile bill pay usage has doubled among U.S. online householdsin one year, from 8 million in 2012 to 16 million in 2013.

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Some 30% of U.S. consumers use their smartphone to pay bills,the survey found. And, Fiserv also said more than 80% of consumerswho visit a biller's website are there to pay a bill, reinforcingthe need to make billing and payment a prominent and strategic partof websites.

The tablet surge is helping to drive the numbers, Fiserv addedin its mid-December announcement, with 51% of respondents sayingthey own a tablet and a fourth of that number saying they use theirtablets to pay bills.

However, checking isn't dead yet, the survey reported.Fifty-three percent of U.S. online households said they still paidat least one bill by check in 2013, down from 61% the yearbefore.

“While new bill payment channels such as mobile and tablet arecoming on strong, traditional channels remain in use, creating aneed for billers to support an ever-growing set of billing andpayments, channels and payment types,” said Jardon Bouska, divisionpresident, Biller Solutions, at Fiserv in Brookfield, Wis.

Fiserv said the Billing Household Survey was completed in May 2013 by 3,004respondents at least 21 years old and responsible for paying bills.The company said results are representative of the U.S. populationof online households, which is approximately 100 million out of 121million total U.S. households.