International Mobile Banking Updates - Jul 11

New Mobile App Tool Encourages Canadians To Make Small Sacrifices For Long-term Savings
"ING DIRECT today announced a new addition to its existing mobile banking app for Apple® and Android™ devices. Called Small Sacrifices, this new tool helps Canadians visualize how foregoing everyday indulgences and redirecting that money through small incremental deposits can lead to big savings over the long term. In a new poll commissioned by ING DIRECT, 52% of Canadians surveyed said that if they could better visualize what foregoing their daily, weekly and monthly spending on non-essential purchases would save them over the short and long term, they would change their spending habits."

Boon to mobile banking in PH
"Mobile banking— one of the key tools rural banks regularly utilize to serve its clientele in the countryside—gets a much-needed shot in the arm after the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) recently collaborated with Citigroup Inc. to further encourage the use of mobile banking in rural communities in several countries, including the Philippines."

Chart: Transactions Vs Amount Using Mobile Banking In India During Aug 2011-May 2012
"The number of transactions using mobile banking in India have gone up by 68.86% while the amount has increased by 102.65% taking into consideration the period from August 2011 to May 2012. The average amount per transaction stood at Rs 731.83, though we believe that the transaction information shared by the RBI with us includes both payment and non payment related transactions."

CBA launches new mobile banking innovations
"The Commonwealth Bank is making mobile banking more accessible to small businesses, rolling out a number of new innovations to its social payments app CommBank Kaching this week. Since launching Kaching for the iPhone last year, the app has been downloaded over 365,000 times and seen over $1 billion worths of transfer made. Now, the Commonwealth Bank has announced that the ‘peer-to-peer’ mobile payment app is now available for Google Android smartphones."

Use of Mobile Banking Services Expected to Triple in Finland
"According to a survey conducted by TNS Gallup, the use of mobile banking services is expected to triple in Finland. During the last 12 months, 11% of Finns aged between 16 and 60 years have used mobile banking services and 30% would like to use them in the future. Mobile service is seen as a complementary channel and will not, however, replace other service channels in the near future*."

Kenya's mobile payment revolution
"The mobile banking revolution has already happened, but it has nothing to do with Apple, Google, or Microsoft, and isn't in the US, Europe, or Japan. Instead, it started with a service called m-Pesa that launched in Kenya in 2007. Just three years later, the service had been used by more than half the Kenyan population and as of March of this year it had been used by 15 million people in the country."

BDO, Smart bring mobile banking to new heights 
"BDO Unibank Inc. has been making banking more convenient for the public with the use of mobile phone technology. With the mobile phone and a Smart prepaid card, BDO customers can practically do bank transactions anywhere, anytime. With the help of leading telecommunications provider Smart Communications Inc. (Smart), BDO introduced the Smart Money prepaid card that also serves as an automated teller machine (ATM), and a debit card."

Retail Banking in Slumdog City Seen Booming With Wireless
"For a good look at the future of retail banking -- and mobile-phone profits -- in the developing world, consider the competition between corporate giants in Dharavi, the Indian shantytown that was the setting for the film 'Slumdog Millionaire.' And also consider that they are copying a strategy already used, with great success, in Kenya.