Mobile Banking - International Updates - Nov 4

Majority of Young Adult Canadians Anxious About Demands on their Time: Scotiabank Study
"Scotiabank recently polled Canadians to better understand their time commitments and attitudes toward them. The study, conducted by Harris/Decima, found that more than half of Canadians (57 per cent) agree that their daily schedule is more hectic today than it was five years ago, but this statement is most true for those aged 25-44 (74 per cent for those 25-34; 78 per cent for those 35-44). This young adult age group was also more likely than other Canadians to feel they would be much better off with an extra hour of free time each day (78 per cent for those 25-34; 80 per cent for those 35-44 vs. 63 per cent national average)."

BoComm to launch mobile banking services for iPad
"Bank of Communications, the fifth-largest lender by market value in mainland China, will become the first commercial bank to launch mobile banking services for iPad this month, only one month after iPad's launch in China, sources reported."

China Unicom to launch iPhone banking services with China Merchants Bank
"China Unicom and China Merchants Bank have signed a cooperation ag reement to jointly launch mobile banking services through the Apple iP hone. The two parties established a strategic cooperation partnership to develop the mobile Internet in July, 2009."

Mobile banking quickly reaching maturity in Europe, really?
"Then ask how many people do mobile banking on their phone. 3% to 5%. And that corresponds exactly to recent statistics from the US where banking channel usage preference is shown as 50% via the internet, 25% via branches, 15% via ATMs and 5% via mobile. I know we all like to juggle with statistics when we’re trying to sell something and that’s fine when we talk about forecasts. That’s what we pay our analysts for, right? But to come out with statements like this about mobile banking maturity today goes a bit far, does it not?"

YellowPepper Receives IFC/ World Bank Group's First Equity Investment in a Latin American Mobile Banking Firm
"YellowPepper [www.yellowpepper.com] announced today that it received the first equity investment in a mobile banking firm in Latin America by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. IFC provided $3 million and helped mobilize an additional $2 million. This brings the total investment in YellowPepper to more than $15 million."