Mobile Banking Updates - Oct 20

Mobile Banking: Security Is A Problem
"I got an exclusive opportunity this week to attend the Mobile Financial Services Forum in Arlington, Va. Hosted by BITS and the Financial Services Technology Consortium, both divisions of The Financial Services Roundtable, the two-day forum attracted a nice mix of payments vendors, mobile providers and financial institutions. It also brought together a number of security professionals, and the overarching theme across all of the presentations and panels? Mobile is vulnerable, to things we don't even know about yet."

ING DIRECT USA LAUNCHES TWO ANDROID™ MOBILE APPLICATIONS
"To help Americans continue to bank and trade on the go, ING DIRECT USA, the nation’s largest direct bank, today launched their Android mobile banking and ShareBuilder mobile investing applications. The Android apps add to ING DIRECT’s suite of banking and investing iPhone® and Blackberry® apps and Android ATM locator app, which were launched earlier this year."

Is Barcode Scanning the Next Must-Have Feature for Mobile Banking/Payments?
"Barcode scanning via mobile phone has been around for a a while. But until Amazon.com added it to its mobile app this week, I hadn't experienced it firsthand. Target's iPhone app also supports barcode scanning, powered by RedLaser. And it's impressive. Unlike mobile remote check deposit, where the trial-and-error method of getting a good picture can be tedious, barcode scanning provides real-time feedback so you know exactly when the camera is positioned for a successful scan."

Smartphone Apps Go (Truly) Viral
"In early 2009, Citigroup (C) launched a new mobile banking application for the iPhone. It let customers check their account balances and pay bills while on the go. Thanks to a bit of sloppy code, it also could have let hackers access the banking information for 118,000 customers who downloaded the app."

M-banking gaining popularity in Pakistan
"In its initial stages, the mobile banking in Pakistan has gained tremendous popularity among customers with rapid pace as colossal amount of Rs 10 billion was transacted through a single cellular operator in a year. Telenor Pakistan, the subsidiary of Norwegian telecom giant, with its various m-banking services recorded over six million transaction carried under its brand “EasyPaisa” by the end of first year. "

CBA: Telcos stifling mobile banking ubiquity
"Telcos need to address mobile Internet costs to encourage uptake of online banking services, according to the CBA. At the AIIA’s Mobility Innovation in Financial Services roundtable, representatives from Telstra, the banking and insurance sectors gathered to discuss the future of delivery of financial services through mobile devices. Banking on mobile phones, particularly smartphones, has become increasingly popular in recent times as remote Internet browsing proliferates."

Mobile Banking: Guidance on the Way
"BITS, a division of The Financial Services Roundtable, is taking a close look at mobile. In October, BITS is hosting a conference dedicated to security concerns surrounding mobile banking and mobile payments. William Henley, the senior vice president of regulation for BITS, who formerly served as the director of IT examinations for the Office of Thrift Supervision, says banking institutions can within the next 12 months expect new federal guidance regarding the use and application of mobile financial services."

Think Firm: Banking Texts in Upward Surge
"Global volume of SMS text messages for mobile banking is expected to triple in the next five years, according to Juniper Research. New types of mobile banking alerts will help drive that number to nearly 90 billion per year by 2015, up from about 30 billion per year now, according to Howard Wilcox, author of a new white paper for the think firm based in Hampton in the United Kingdom."