Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 25

Obopay Partners With Warid Telecom to Launch Warid Pesa in Uganda
"Obopay, a leading mobile banking and payment solution provider globally, today announced its collaboration with Warid Telecom, an Abu Dhabi Group company. Together the companies are set to launch a mobile banking and payment service, Warid Pesa, in Uganda. Launched in the wake of growing demand for mobile payments in Uganda, Warid Pesa provides a prepaid account that enables customers to perform e-money transactions, pay for goods and services as well as settle accounts."

The Value Of Mobile Payments Is Beyond Transactions
"All of this comes at a time when there is no single standard for new mobile payments technology. Isis and Google are backing conflicting versions of the same technology (Near Field Communications, or NFC), and equally significant players like PayPal are going entirely different directions with cloud-based (rather than hardware-based) mobile payment initiatives. Square and Intuit have circumvented the traditional payments network with their own respective additions to the transactional process (Square’s reader and Intuit’s GoPayment device)."

Help Desks Face Increasing Pressure to Support Mobile Banking
"Support desk staff are likely to find themselves under increased pressure from customers and co-workers needing assistants with mobile banking, with a study from Juniper finding that the number of people using the channel will almost double by 2013. The finance sector has been one of the pioneers of internet and more recently mobile service provision, meaning that trends it follows are likely to be mirrored by other industries at a later date."

FTSI Announces New Professional Services Division For Credit Unions and Community Banks
"FTSI, the leader in independent, self-service technology solutions in the Western region, is debuting six new professional services for credit unions and community banks. These new services complement FTSI's core competencies: ATM product sales, maintenance services and cash management. The new services, which offer financial institutions cost effective technology solutions that drive savings to the bottom line, have been developed based on FTSI's industry expertise and fostering relationships with key partners."