International Mobile Banking Updates - Feb 13

Mobile banking helps to empower Tanzanian women
"The ability to exchange money and make payments with smartphones is placing power in the hands of women. The GSMA mWomen Programme is working in combination with Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) and Visa Inc. in five different countries in order to help to better use mobile banking to reach women who are underserved and whose needs can be directly met by this technology and its associated products."

Aircel, ICICI Bank launch mobile banking service
"Aircel and ICICI Bank have jointly launched a mobile banking service. Called Mobile Money, the service will be run on Visa’s mobile managed service. Mobile Money has been launched with a range of financial services on a mobile phone such as cash deposits, cash withdrawals and money transfer to third parties."

Leverage on developments in mobile banking — Gono
"THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono has urged the banking sector to leverage on the current developments in mobile banking as an effective distribution network for financial products to various segments of society. Mobile banking is a system that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct a number of transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistant."

Rakbank launches new services on Mobile Banking platform
"Rakbank, the leading retail and small business bank in the UAE, announced the launch of new services on its Mobile Banking platform that allow customers to conduct a wider range of banking transactions on the go via their handset. By introducing added services on its Mobile Banking Application and Service, customers can now use their mobile phones to order new cheque books, transfer balances, apply for supplementary cards, and even report a lost or stolen credit card. Rakbank Mobile Banking saves time when seeking investment details and when applying for an advance against salary."

HSBC enhances its mobile banking offering in its continued commitment
"HSBC has enhanced its mobile banking offering in its continued commitment to helping businesses streamline their banking needs. The new offering will allow customers to initiate payments to existing beneficiaries across the world. The facility adds to the extended suite of mobile solutions the Bank already offers its customers."

Standard Chartered kicks off 2013 Mobile Ventures Fellowship programme
"Standard Chartered Bank today signaled its ongoing commitment to talent development in financial services technology by announcing the 2013 Mobile Ventures Fellowship (MoVe) programme. Now in its second year, the MoVe programme was initiated as a part of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's (IDA) Company-Led Training Programme (CLT). It aims to train new infocomm graduates and professionals in emerging and critical technologies. In calling for new applicants today, Standard Chartered announced another 10 traineeships for young Singaporean technopreneurs (MoVeRs) in mobile banking technology."

Aussie smartphone owners gravitating toward mobile banking
"An Australian study has found that the proportion of that nation's smartphone users who conduct banking transactions on their phones is now greater than 20 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of smartphone users who bank online has dropped: Fewer than half of smartphone owners now use a computer for banking transactions, said the study from Roy Morgan Research."