Mobile Banking Updates - Oct 3

Western Union to Launch Mobile Money Transfer Service with State Bank of India
"Western Union, a leader in global payment services, and State Bank of India (SBI), the largest commercial bank in India, today announced that SBI accountholders will soon be able to receive cross-border money transfers in their bank accounts using just their mobile phones. In July, Western Union announced the introduction of the Account-Based Money Transfer (ABMT) service, to be launched in early 2011. This service will enable SBI customers with online bank accounts to pull a Western Union(R) Money Transfer(TM) directly into their accounts via the Internet or an ATM."

The power of ZeuS hammers mobile banking users says F-Secure
"According to Sean Sullivan, a security researcher with F-Secure, users of the Windows Mobile platform are being hit by a variant of ZeuS that steals mobile transaction authorisation numbers (mTANs) using a Symbian (.sis) or Blackberry (.jad) component. Although still quite rare in the UK – and so far used by Citibank's Egg operation and Sainsbury's Bank, Infosecurity notes – mTANs are increasingly used by European banks, using mobiles to receive an mTAN via text message."

Hancock to Offer NCR Mobile Option
"NCR Corp. said Wednesday that it is providing a mobile banking system to customers of Hancock Holding Co.'s Hancock Bank.
NCR, which is more commonly known for its automated teller machines and kiosks, said it can give banks a consistent experience across mobile phones, ATMs and online banking. Hancock, of Gulfport, Miss., also uses NCR's online banking system. 'It was very important to us to make sure our customer experience was integrated from the branch, to the ATM, to online banking and now to mobile banking,' Jeff Theiler, Hancock's senior vice president of risk management, said in a press release."

Monitise and DeviceFidelity Collaborating on Contactless Mobile Payments
"obile banking and payments technology provider Monitise, which announced this spring that it has more than two million users in the U.K. and U.S., today says it has a partnership with DeviceFidelity that will allow mobile phone users to conduct contactless Visa payWave transactions. Monitise has long been a partner with Visa and Visa has a longstanding partnership with DeviceFidelity, so this new link is not surprising. It means that Monitise will now be able to offer mobile banking and contactless mobile payments in an integrated product."

Mobile Banking Speaker Barred from Speaking at Money Conference
"A former Nokia executive, turned author and commentator on mobile banking services found himself being dropped from a conference just minutes before he was due to speak last week. According to his own write-up about what happened, he had been invited to talk about mobile money services to an international conference organised for people involved in printing money and minting coins, when he was inexplicably blocked from giving his presentation."