"Brandon McGee, Industry Insider, Mobile Banking Guru...He is not only the real deal, a genuine industry insider, but also knows exactly what's on the minds of financial service pros as they contemplate the various mobile options." - Jim Bruene, Publisher & Founder, Online Financial Innovations

"Going Mobile. Local executive carves niche as national expert on fast-growing banking-industry technology trend" - Scott Olson, Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ)

"Brandon McGee, the industry's unofficial ambassador for mobile banking" 

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Huntington Launches Text Banking

It's official! An inside source just confirmed that Huntington Bank has launched their text banking solution.

Of the Top 25 banks in the U.S. Huntington is only the 5th to publicly promote text banking, and only the 3rd to build a custom solution in-house.

This new service was designed to compliment Huntington's existing mobile banking solution, and is further proof of their commitment to providing their clients with anytime, anywhere access to their financial accounts.

Additionally, Huntington has coupled the solution with an industry leading microsite containing two custom designed interactive demos.

To learn more visit huntington.com/mobile, visit their mobile banking site at mobile.huntington.com, or check out the images below.

Huntington Text and Mobile Banking





Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 27

Online Banking Report Publishes Forecast
"A new research report from Online Banking Report examines current and future usage of online banking, mobile access and bill payment. The forecast covers U.S. adoption from 1994 through 2018."

Strong Consumer Interest in Mobile
"More than three-quarters of consumers want access to their bank account balances and other information at all times, and many are interested in using their phones to handle their finances, according to a survey report published Monday by Monitise Americas LLC."

ClairMail Appoints Pete Daffern as New CEO
"ClairMail, Inc., the leader in 2-way mobile banking and payment solutions that enable complete control over finances from any mobile phone, today announced the appointment of Pete Daffern as new Chief Executive Officer. ClairMail founder Joe Salesky will continue with the company as Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer."

Mobile banking service closes second stage funding
"MoBank, a new mobile banking service founded by former First Direct and Egg bankers Steve Townend and Dominic Keen, has successfully raised three-quarters of a million pounds in its second stage of funding."

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 25

Viewpoint: Mobile Solution to Problem of Stagnant Growth
"So where do U.S. and global institutions go for growth? The Internet, via mobile technologies, will allow U.S. banks to make reasonable margins on unbanked consumers and will even allow them to reach out to global populations in ways previously unimagined."

Cellphones as Credit Cards? Americans Must Wait
"The technology exists, and, in fact, people in Japan have been using it for the last five years to pay for everything from train tickets to groceries to candy in vending machines. And in small-scale trials around the world, including in Atlanta, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, nearly everyone has liked using this form of payment."

BlackBerry, iPhone Moves by Bank of America
"B of A claims 1.8 million active mobile banking customers."

100 Free iPhone Apps That Will Make You Smarter
"By now, you’ve hopefully realized that your iPhone is more than just a communication tool. This list of 100 free apps will prove to you that it’s also an outlet for learning other languages, playing games, discovering new music, being more productive at work, and a lot more."

Symbian Virus Targets Mobile Banking Service
"Anti-virus vendor, Kaspersky Lab says that it has detected a new malicious program capable of controlling a user’s mobile phone account. Last week, Kaspersky Lab experts detected the new malicious program for Symbian that targets customers of an Indonesian mobile phone operator."

Sybase buys payment firm for m-commerce push
"Sybase quietly acquired a mobile payments supplier last year, it has emerged today, paying an undisclosed sum for paybox Solutions of Germany."

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

New CEO at mShift

Additionally, I've also learned that mShift has a new CEO.

Scott Moeller - Chief Executive Officer
"As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, in 2009, Mr. Moeller returns to the roles he held with the company at it's inception. A decade earlier, in 1999, Scott founded MShift Inc., and under his leadership, the Company was able to raise two series of strategic investments, via investment groups in Japan and Taiwan." Learn More >>

Monday, January 19, 2009

Peter Daffern Joins Clairmail?

I have not been able to find an official press release, but the word around the industry is that Peter Daffern has been appointed the new CEO of Clairmail.

Again, I don't have a lot of details but I was able to find a Peter Daffern on LinkedIn and he appears to have similar credentials...CEO of a software company (Purisma) located in San Francisco.

Let me know what you've heard -

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 13

Mobile Banking Revenue Outlook Strong
"Mobile banking vendors' revenues will nearly double this year, to $26 million, if the number of deployments doubles as the vendors expect, according to a report from Aite Group LLC. For the report, the Boston research firm evaluated questionnaires completed in October and November by 14 mobile banking vendors operating in the United States, including Clairmail Inc., Harland Financial Services Inc., mFoundry Inc. and Verisign Inc."

Mobile Banking Tools: Still Not Quite There

"For as much as people in the industry chatter about mobile banking, the offerings are still less than stellar. At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, nearly every vendor touted the cell phone as the hub of a consumer’s electronic life. That’s not surprising, considering iPhone sales have been one of the few bright spots for an industry heavily hammered by the recession. And now, more than ever, people want to know what’s going on in their bank accounts at all times."

Banking Processors Quietly Grab Market Share in Mobile Services
"Mobile-banking installations grew by 44% last year, and should more than double in 2009 as the technology picks up even more momentum. But the vendors serving this market, often startups without other product lines, now face potent competition from processors that have entered the business only recently and are already grabbing market share. That’s according to a report released this week by Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based research firm."

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 11

Banks Can Keep Customers, Make Money With Mobile
"Bankers who want to cut customer churn and make money should look no further than the mobile device in their pockets, argues Yankee Group in new research. Generally, banks have largely viewed the channel as a way to generate savings by diverting customer service away from call centers or interactive voice response. But at some point, they have to look beyond saving overhead and use mobile as a revenue generator."

Consumers Don't See Mobile Banking As Secure
"The report, titled "2008 Mobile Banking Security Standards," said 47% of nonparticipants did not sign up because of security. Despite the lack of large-scale mobile phone attacks, 73% of consumers fear hackers could remotely access their phones. "

La Caixa reaches 1 million mobile banking customers in 2008
"Spanish bank La Caixa has reached 1 million mobile banking customers in 2008, exceeding its goals for the year."

Young families keenest on mobile banking - Monilink
"Monilink, the people that provide the mobile money services for customers of many of the UK's high street banks, today revealed that young families and new home owners are the main users of mobile banking services."

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Net.Finance 2009


This year I'm being very selective with my travel but one event I'll definitely be participating in is Net.Finance 2009.

The location for this years event is the JW Marriott Resort, Las Vegas

The agenda is topic-notch including a mobile banking panel discussion on Day 2 featuring:
Doug Brown (SVP - Bank of America)
Ginger Schmeltzer (SVP - SunTrust)
and myself titled "In the Hot Seat."

Other speakers include:
Steven Kietz (CEO - Mobile Money Ventures)
Ilieva Ageenko (SVP - Wachovia)
Mark Middlebrook (SVP - City National Bank)
Helen Loh (VP - Charles Schwab)
Jim Van Dyke (President & Founder - Javelin)
Mickey Mencin (VP - Key Bank)
Matt Wilcox (VP - Zions Bank)

Register to attend today >>

Monday, January 5, 2009

Defining a Text Message

There's an article out by Michael A. Goodman and David K. Tomar titled "Is a Text Message a Phone Call, an E-mail, Neither, or Both?"

Unfortunately, I don't have permission to share the content, but I encourage you to get a copy from CounselorLibrary.com

Sunday, January 4, 2009

#1 in Mobile Banking - 2008 Awards


While last year was certainly challenging, I believe there were also a number of significant accomplishments within the mobile banking industry. That said I'd like to offer up the following awards for 2008:

#1 Text Mobile Banking - Clairmail

#1 Browser Mobile Banking - mShift

#1 Mobile Banking Wallet - Firethorn

#1 iPhone Mobile Banking - mFoundry

#1 3-Channel Mobile Banking - MCOM

#1 Mobile Banking News & Information - Bank Systems & Technology

#1 Mobile Banking Adoption - Bank of America

#1 Mobile Banking Marketing - Bank of America

#1 Overall Mobile Offering - JP Morgan Chase

#1 Mobile Banking Innovation - Citi/Mobile Money Ventures

#1 Business Mobile Banking - Wells Fargo

#1 Mobile Banking Research - Tower Group

#1 Text Banking Aggregator - Verisign

#1 Mobile Payments - First Data

#1 Mobile Banking Development Tool - Device Anywhere

#1 New Mobile Banking Technology - Mitek