When it comes to mobile money management, Bank of America and Chase Bank earn top spots with Android smartphone and tablet apps users in the U.S., according to an exclusive monthly app index provided to Mobile Strategies 360 by digital analytics firm SimilarWeb. The index reveals the Top 10 apps each month in a range of verticals based on the app’s current installs and daily active users.

The index also looks at two other telling metrics within each of the Top 10 apps: app retention, the percentage of users with an app installed who opened the app at least once within 30 days after installing it; and the percentage of each brand’s total web traffic that goes to its mobile site.

For March, the J.P. Morgan Chase & Co app has the most downloads among U.S. Android users. 6.9% of Android owners have the Chase app on their mobile devices. Ranking No. 2 in terms of downloads is Bank of America Corp. with 6.11% of Android users having the Bank of America app.

However Bank of America edges out Chase to rank first on the index, as customers use its app more often than they do the Chase Bank app.

Bank of America’s app retention rate is 9.04% versus Chase Bank’s 7.39%. Mobile traffic, though not a factor in the app index ranking, accounts for 35.77% of Bank of America’s total web traffic, whereas its 35.25% of Chase’s online traffic.

“Bank of America leads the list of the most-used financial apps despite being installed on fewer Android devices than Chase,” says Pavel Tuchinsky, digital insights manager for SimilarWeb.  “The app allows you to make money transfers using only your mobile number or e-mail address, pay bills and credit cards, deposit checks and set up mobile banking alerts.

The list of the Top 10 finance apps is comprised mainly of online banking apps. It also includes credit and lending apps.

Banking apps tend to be used more often and have higher retention rates than other financial apps because once a consumer opens an account with a bank or financial institution, he tends to stay with that financial service provider a long time and use its app to monitor account activity and conduct routine tasks, such as paying bills or transferring money, Tuchinsky says.

“Mobile banking is one of the most important strategic changes in retail banking of the last decade,” he says.  The top three apps on the SimilarWeb index are from the three largest U.S. banks by assets as measured by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Aside from banking apps, Credit Karma is the most-used personal finance app in the index. The Credit Karma app helps consumers manage credit by providing them with credit scores, credit reports and credit monitoring for free. Based on a consumer’s credit information, the app then recommends her credit cards or loans. Credit Karma makes money by collecting a fee for each new account opened through its site and app.

The Credit Karma app also includes a Credit Score Simulator feature, allowing a consumer to see how certain actions such as opening or closing a credit card account is likely to impact his credit score.

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