2 Reasons You Should Thank Bank of America

"When it comes to mobile banking, Bank of America has always been on task and has included apps especially suited for tablet banking when peers Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase did not. It has continually worked to expand its base of mobile customers, realizing that doing so can be a real cost-saver.

Bank of America has also made progress with its website, which has been one of banking's most prickly, causing outages that have enraged consumers. New research shows that much work needs to be done in that regard, however -- and Bank of America risks losing customers if it doesn't take steps to keep its online presence viable." Continue Reading

Myths, misconceptions, and truths

"Consumer preferences are changing rapidly. Some misunderstandings were once true, but are simply outdated, while others are just plain myths. Perhaps the most egregious misconception is that young people have no use for the branch. While young adults transact digitally, they prefer to engage with their banks face-to-face.

This presents a challenge to banks, who must invest in both their branch and digital channels to remain competitive. Celent conducted an online survey among 1,059 U.S. internet users in June 2013, to get a current snapshot of channel usage and preferences. Key findings of our report include:" Continue Reading

Canadians' appetite for mobile banking on the rise

"Though online banking remains king when it comes to Canadians' preference for how they bank, an increasing number of Canadians are beginning to embrace mobile. According to a recent survey by ING DIRECT, 41 per cent of Canadians say they are open to doing more traditional banking functions, like paying bills, on their mobile devices, a number that has climbed from 38 per cent since 2012. One in 10 (10%) Canadians say they use their mobile device to do banking several times a week, a number that increases to one in five (20%) Canadians when looking exclusively at 18 - 34 year olds." Continue Reading

Online Banking Solutions (OBS) Announces Messenger Mobile Tablet Application

"Online Banking Solutions (OBS) today unveiled Messenger Mobile Tablet, a mobile application that will bring business customers of its Financial Institution clients the power and features of the OBS Messenger Financial Center©, wherever and whenever those customers require it.

Messenger Mobile Tablet will be launched at the AFP Annual Conference in Las Vegas on October 28th and will be commercially available later this year. The initial release will be for iOS platforms, with an Android version planned for early 2014." Continue Reading

Ethiopia: NBE Considers Revision of Mobile Banking Directive

"The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is considering a revision of the mobile and agent banking directive issued in January 2013. The directive, which opened the door for banks and microfinance institutions (MFI) to provide transaction-based mobile and agent banking services, was long-awaited for its ability to reach unbanked communities, according to executives who talked to Fortune at the time of the directive's launch.

The NBE, however, is now assessing whether the involvement level of foreign companies, which partner with local financial institutions by providing them with technology to launch mobile and agent banking, could be construed as an incursion into the banking business - a sector reserved only for Ethiopian nationals." Continue Reading

ABA Endorses Q2’s Virtual Banking Solutions as the “Architecture of Choice”

"The American Bankers Association – through its subsidiary the Corporation for American Banking – has endorsed Q2’s enterprise solutions for secure virtual banking. This endorsement establishes the Q2 platform as the architecture of choice to ABA members. 'As online and mobile banking continue to evolve, account holders increasingly expect a unified anytime, anywhere, any device experience,' said John Wolff, ABA executive vice president." Continue Reading

Chase’s mobile banking stands out for its ease of use: report

"Chase is once again the top overall scorer in a new report benchmarking consumer mobile banking offers, according to Keynote.

Keynote’s Fall 2013 Mobile Banking Scorecard found that Chase performed best when it comes to the ease of use of its mobile offerings as well as their quality and availability. The is the fourth consecutive time Chase took the top overall score." Continue Reading

How To Get The Most Out Of Mobile Banking Apps

"Most banks have a few years of experience in mobile banking now and are looking ahead to what their next upgrades to mobile will be. The question facing all of these institutions and their IT teams is how can they get the most out of their mobile channel, says Vijai Shankar, director of product marketing at Kony, a mobile applications developer.

It’s vital that banks take full use of the capabilities that mobile offers because mobile transactions are the cheapest for the bank to process, Shankar argues. For example, banks save an average of $4.15 in processing costs for every check that is deposited through mobile rather than the branch, according to a report released earlier this year by Javelin." Continue Reading

SOPHISTICATED ONLINE, INTERNET, AND MOBILE BANKING SOLUTIONS HELP BANKS DIFFERENTIATE AND CONTAIN COSTS

"The bank I mainly use for my daily banking needs does not offer that many examples of great customer experiences. The two reasons why my family continues to use that bank are the high number of ATMs in the area where we live and a very customer-oriented branch advisor. Our most recent interaction with that bank (but not with that advisor) delivered yet another example of “great” customer service across channels, an experience that will likely cause us to look for a new bank.

The chances that this yet-to-be-determined bank can offer better cross-channel capabilities at least at some point in the future are not bad at all: Many financial services firms are evolving beyond using just a single channel to get in touch with their customers." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Players Are Shaking Up China’s Cozy Oligopoly

"The biggest threat to Chinese banks’ cozy oligopoly may be in the hands of the nation’s consumers. Two online companies, Alibaba and Tencent, are making incursions into the country’s financial services market, providing an alternative to the capped deposit rates and sluggish service offered by the country’s big lenders.

The disrupters are taking on risks, and savers should be glad. Alibaba, the e-commerce group that just bought a 51 percent stake in the asset management company Tianhong for $193 million, is the banks’ main foe. By July, it had made over $16 billion in short-term loans to companies that sell goods on its sites. Its real-time records of borrowers’ cash flows and counterparties aid in lending decisions." Continue Reading

Wells Fargo Rebuilds Website, Mobile Apps for Corporate Clients

"Wells Fargo, which was one of the first banks to offer mobile banking apps to business customers in 2007, has been making some updates. First and foremost, it's created a browser-based, mobile-optimized CEO Mobile site. The site was built in-house in HTML5 using the open source YUI framework for building interactive web applications. All 89 web apps within the current CEO corporate portal are being re-architected and recoded for the new site." Continue Reading

How mobile banking stacks up to Web, teller

"Most Americans still prefer doing their banking over the Internet and in person, but mobile banking has become more popular and has eclipsed the popularity of the telephone and the mail, according to a survey released Thursday by the American Bankers Association. Eight percent of adults surveyed said they prefer mobile banking, a 30 percent increase from 6 percent in 2012, the ABA said." Continue Reading

Mobile, Tablet, Online: Why One Size Does Not Fit All

"Digital banking, which not long ago was synonymous only with “online banking,” has rapidly expanded to encompass three distinct, yet closely related channels: online, mobile and tablet. As a result of this evolution, credit unions that want to deliver the best member service are faced with delivering experiences tailored for each channel, while maintaining a thread of consistency throughout. 

Understanding where, how and why members use different digital banking channels positions credit unions to take on this challenge and exceed member expectations with robust digital offerings." Continue Reading

TD launches tablet banking app for Android

"TD Canada Trust announced today the launch of its new Android tablet app, offering customers an easy and interactive way to manage personal banking and direct investing needs within one app.

'We've already had great success with our existing apps, and are very excited to be launching our Android tablet app which offers our customers seamless access between their personal banking and wealth accounts - all with a single login, in a safe and secure environment,' said Rizwan Khalfan, Senior Vice President, Digital Channels, TD. 'We know our customers are increasingly looking to us to make banking easy and more convenient. Our Android app does just that, giving customers the ability to bank and trade using their tablet.'" Continue Reading

ICICI Bank launches Facebook app to tap mobile banking

"The joint ICICI Bank and Facebook app is known as Pockets and its focal feature is known as "Split n Share". As the name suggest, a customer can split and track group expenses, along with sharing them friends, reports bankingtech.com.

There is another feature called "Pay a Friend", and as the name suggests, allows a customer to pay a friend without having to know the recipient's bank account details. Additionally, there is also a prepaid mobile recharge feature and another feature to book movie tickets." Continue Reading

How to Ensure Mobile Banking App Security

"From our vantage point, there’s little doubt that mobile apps have become the newest area of extreme vulnerability for financial organizations, leaving them exposed to fraud, security breaches, and other acts of piracy. With users moving in droves from PCs and laptops to smartphones, it is inevitable that malware will migrate to the new device of choice, and in rapid succession.

The stats bear this out: for example, RSA detected 350,000 malicious Android app samples in 2012, up from just 1,000 in 2011. Banking trojans found on the desktop have morphed to mobile attack mode: the Citadel trojan, one of the fiercest banking attacks online, was modified to become CitMO (Citadel-in-the-Mobile), a worm that can install itself on Android devices and intercept one-time passwords and authentication messages sent by a bank to a mobile device." Continue Reading

Consumers don’t trust mobile payments study finds

"Fewer than one in four of UK consumers would use their smartphone like a credit card to make payments even if they had the relevant app, according to a new survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of outsourcing firm Firstsource Solutions.

Fears that personal bank details will not be secure are the reason given by 80% of respondents for their decision not to use mobile payments. One in five said that they wouldn’t use it because they don’t trust the battery on their smartphone to last." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Crossroads: Strategic Moves Banks Must Take to Remain Competitive

"Financial institutions have spent the past few years implementing a wide range of mobile banking solutions as consumers continue to spend more time using their mobile devices to manage nearly all facets of their lives. While mobile banking was initially viewed as an important service to provide to customers, simply offering basic mobile banking services is no longer enough to remain competitive.

FIs have begun to realize that investing in mobile technology as part of a larger digital strategy can reap significant rewards in terms of winning new customers, preventing attrition and churn, and opening up new paths to revenue." Continue Reading

Westpac set for first SmartWatch banking app

"Westpac New Zealand is poised to release the first integrated mobile banking app for a SmartWatch device.The app, initially available exclusively on the Sony SmartWatch, will later be extended to other smart watches as they become more widely available in New Zealand.

Westpac says this development offers unrivalled convenience for customers and helps answer the most frequently asked question in banking, “What’s my balance?” at the touch of their wrist." Continue Reading

The Mobile Generation and Banks that Stand Still

"I went to a banking technology seminar just over a year ago where the main focus of the presentations was how to create a single universal payment message type and the issues around customer ID&V.

The subject inevitably turned to the UK Payments Council new Scheme - since Account Switching is going live end of this month and they needed something new to sink their teeth into - P2P Mobile Payments being made available to the whole of the UK. The big 5 were the 1st to sign up, with some of the key new players in Retail Banking hot on their tail, as well as some of the main online payments engines." Continue Reading

Made in IBM Labs: Two-Factor Security for Mobile Transactions

"IBM scientists have developed a new mobile authentication security technology based on the radio standard known as near-field communication (NFC). The technology provides an extra layer of security when using an NFC-enabled device and a contactless smartcard to conduct mobile transactions, including online banking and digital signatures when accessing a corporate Intranet or private cloud." Continue Reading

Citi Launches Tablet App for Commercial Clients

"Citi (C) is pulling the trigger on its commercial banking application for tablets -- CitiDirect BE Tablet. The cousin of its similarly named mobile and desktop versions, CitiDirect BE for tablets does everything treasury clients might expect on their PCs.

The iPad app lets users schedule transactions, check accounts and authorize payments. Yet, all of these functions are optimized for touch-screen computing." Continue Reading

Banking Apps & the Move into Mobile Shopping

"Banks are edging closer to mobile shopping.This is a move from the mobile payment end right into the shopping and product selection part. I sat down recently with Lisa Stanton, President of Americas at Monitise, the technology company that enables mobile banking, with more than 300 financial institutions as customers.

The company last week announced a deal with U.S. Bank to accelerate the delivery of a shopping service that provides a way for top-tier retailers to let consumers buy from leading brands via mobile." Continue Reading

RBS Citizens Adds Wire Transfer, Positive Pay to Mobile App

"When RBS Citizens first launched a mobile banking app for its corporate customers in 2010, James Gifas, head of RBS Citizens Treasury Solutions, had been inspired by a business customer's story.

The customer had had a tough time on a road-trip vacation because she was the only person in her office who could approve wire transfers over a certain dollar amount. She kept having to pull over to the side of the road, boot up her computer, and release payments. Gifas wondered if a mobile app could help solve this problem. (Presumably with another driver at the wheel.)" Continue Reading

BofA Grows Mobile Banking As Cost Cuts Lift Earnings

"Bank of America's (BAC) mobile banking customers surged 26% in Q3 from a year ago to 14 million, promising to reduce expenses and boost earnings further. Paying bills and checking balances anywhere via smartphones and tablets are convenient for consumers and businesses.

Because it replaces branches, tellers and ATMs,it can also cut costs per transaction for the bank, contributing to bottom-line growth. BofA earned 20 cents per share in Q3 vs. a break-even quarter a year ago, exceeding Wall Street's target by 2 cents." Continue Reading

Study: Real-Time Payments Expected By 2018

"Financial industry professionals believe that real-time payments and a fuller corporate mobile/tablet banking solution will be universally available by 2018, a newly released survey from electronic payments provider ACI Worldwide revealed on October 9.

Conducted this September at Sibos 2013, the study uncovered that 83 percent of financial industry professionals agree that real-time payments will be widely available within the next five years. Sixty-five percent said a corporate mobile banking solution would be on the market by that time." Continue Reading

Comarch launches Mobile Business Banking solution in the UK

"Global software & IT specialist Comarch today launches its Mobile Business Banking solution which allows banks to offer their corporate, SME and microbusiness customers dedicated business banking services on the go. The service is already being used by major financial institutions, such as ING Bank." Continue Reading

Popularity of mobile banking is climbing

"The telephone and mail are now the two least preferred banking methods as customers continue to seek more convenient ways to manage their accounts, according to a recent survey by the American Bankers Association. For the first time, mobile banking has eclipsed the popularity of phone and mail and is now preferred by 8 percent of customers, the survey said. That’s up from 6 percent in 2012." Continue Reading

Banks Catch on to Mobile Banking

"Mobile banking has been declared the “future of banking” more than once over the past few years. Frequent appreciation of mobile banking’s potential to make personal finance more convenient has accompanied its evolution from initial text-based banking services to the sleek apps that exist today. In recent years, evidence has accumulated that supports these notions and points to increased adoption among mobile phone owners.

An August Pew Research report showed that, as of July 2013, 35% of cell phone owners were using mobile banking, an increase of 17% from the same period in 2011. Rising usage, especially amongst specific demographics, such as Latino mobile users in the US, is putting pressure on banks to reevaluate their traditional practices and look for innovative ways to serve their customers." Continue Reading

Slow Page Loads Kill The Online & Mobile Banking Experience

"Online and mobile banking users have zero patience for sluggish load times. They won’t even wait a couple seconds before giving up on you. In the 1990s, banking consumers had to drive down to their institution’s branch during business hours, fill out forms and stand in line to meet with a teller — a time consuming, tedious and often frustrating process.

Fast forward to today. Banking is increasingly branchless. Fueled by the ease and omnipresence of digital devices, more and more consumers are accessing online and mobile banking sites with greater frequency and confidence." Continue Reading

Mobile banking reaches Kiwi businesses

"Kiwi businesses can now do the banking they need most while out of the office thanks to a new mobile banking application recently launched by Kiwibank Business Banking.

Kiwibank’s head of Business Banking, Mark Stephen, said the new application was the only one designed to do the things businesses owners most need to do while on the road." Continue Reading

Mobile banking can be easy, but risky

"Since the arrival of ATMs, the role of the traditional brick-and-mortar bank has been changing. Consumers shifted from paper money to plastic and now to digital numbers on a smartphone screen. 

With mobile apps, customers can check balances on the go, transfer money between accounts or even deposit a check without a bank employee ever touching it.That same information could be vulnerable to hackers." Continue Reading

It’s starting to come together

"Every year Gartner comes out with a fascinating graph detailing the “hype cycle” of scores of new technologies, plotting them on a time curve that traces them through various stages, starting with “innovation trigger,” “peak of inflated expectations,” “trough of disillusionment,” “slope of enlightenment,”—and ending with the “plateau of productivity.”

Some of the technologies listed are familiar to bankers. Gamification, for example, now is seen topping off at the peak of inflated expectations. Near-field communications now is sliding down deep into the trough of disillusionment. Location intelligence now has progressed all the way to the border between slope of enlightenment and plateau of productivity." Continue Reading

Mobile Payment Startups Face Reluctant Indian Consumers

"When Mrugank S., 33, an information technology professional in Bangalore, Karnataka, ordered five teaming carts of produce from Big Basket, an online grocery store, he chose “card-on-delivery” as the mode of payment. But when the two deliverymen wheeled up to his flat on the 14th floor of a tower, he pulled out a wad of bills.

Mr. Mrugank often uses his credit card, but that afternoon, nervous of a botched delivery, he turned to a reliable habit and pulled out 6,000 rupees, or $97, in cash, as most Indians do. 'It is a little bit safer,' he said." Continue Reading

4 Companies Embracing a Major Technological Shift

"Banks are closing branches around the United States as the consumer banking model shifts. Many have begun focusing their efforts and technology on their mobile banking offerings, and investors could benefit from owning the banks with the best apps.

Let's look at who's doing the best job so far with the new technological wave. The 'Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2013' study from the Federal Reserve released this past March found mobile banking adoption among consumers in the U.S. was at 29%, up from 21% last year." Continue Reading

Cross-channel banking: beyond the app

"Understanding and embracing cross-channel communication behaviours will become increasingly critical to success in the banking industry, writes Steve Dille. Customer interactions today are happening to a greater extent across multiple devices and channels because smartphones, tablets and even desktop PCs are multi-channel devices that give users multiple options (i.e., check information or execute a transaction via a mobile app, tablet app, email, SMS text, desktop browser, mobile browser, etc.).

As a result, the communication behaviours of banking customers are evolving fast. For example, 34% of consumers have started a banking activity on their desktop and picked it up later on another device." Continue Reading

Jeff Gelles: PNC 'concept branch' integrates technology

"A common frustration during the Internet era's version of the Cambrian explosion - the sudden appearance, in the six years since the iPhone's launch, of about a million mobile apps - boils down to this: We've developed this amazing thing. How do we get people to try it? It's a huge challenge for a small inventor.

But even the largest businesses don't find it easy, which may explain why something new popped up recently on Route 202 in Malvern: a PNC "concept branch" that showcases how the $300 billion bank hopes to integrate technology into a business bound by hundreds of years of tradition." Continue Reading

Seen At 11: Direct Mobile Payments Catching On

"You can now use your smartphone to settle up the dinner check or pay the babysitter or person who mows your lawn. As CBS 2′s Kristine Johnson reported, person-to-person payments are the latest craze in mobile banking. 'Banking is turning into a companion activity,' said Gavin Michael, head of digital for Chase Bank.

'You’re doing it while you’re out and about, while you’re doing other things, while you’re living your life.' Customers can use their phones to send payments directly to someone else’s bank account. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Chase all have such mobile banking programs." Continue Reading

Mobile Malware Hits the 1M Mark

"Android-based mobile malware and high-risk apps have reached the one million mark, according to a study from Trend Micro. At the end of the second quarter of 2013, the firm found there to be 700 thousand malicious and risky apps in the wild, leading it to predict that Android malware would reach the dubious one million milestone by the end of the year. But that day has arrived one quarter early." Continue Reading

Treasury Services 2.0: RBS Citizens Goes All in on Mobile

"According to Jim Gifas, there's no reason a bank's corporate clients can't benefit from the convenience technology has afforded consumers. 'People want to conduct business the same way that they live,' says Gifas, executive VP, head of treasury solutions for RBS Citizens (Providence, R.I.; $118 billions in assets).

On that note, RBS Citizens has invested heavily in mobile banking services for corporate customers. Its corporate mobile system, accessMOBILE, debuted in 2010; is supported by iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices; and was one of the first corporate mobile banking systems in the U.S. The app, built on the SAP/Sybase platform, lets corporate clients approve pending transactions, release wire transfers and view previous-day transactions, among other functions." Continue Reading

Banking: get mobile or get left behind

"Up to 80 percent of South Africans use a cellphone, and there are more active SIM cards in the country than there are people. For many years now, more South Africans have used cellphones than desktop computers to do their banking.

Arthur Goldstuck, the managing director of World Wide Worx, says only about 30 percent of cellphone users in South Africa use a smartphone (see “Techie terms”, below). Even if your cellphone is not a smartphone, you can use it to perform some basic banking and prepaid transactions." Continue Reading

Zapp: putting banks back in the m-payments picture

"Among the more than 1,500 exhibitors at the Money2020 in Las Vegas this week, Zapp, the mobile payments initiative, is probably one of the few that is aiming to put banks firmly back into the middle of the payments process.

Formed earlier this year as a separate subsidiary of VocaLink, the UK payment processor, Zapp expects to launch next year with the backing of most of the major UK retail banks, Peter Keenan, chief executive of the venture, says that at the time of launch the Pay by Zapp service will be available to 40% of UK current account holders, and it will have the backing of 50% of the nation’s online and mobile retailers – including well-known brands." Continue Reading

Mobile payments – the tipping point

"There comes a tipping point when market readiness, social behaviour and technology combine to create a sudden, ubiquitous change of behaviour. For mobile payments the tipping point may have arrived – but will there be a dominant solution, asks Paul Stoddart.

VocaLink has completed one of the largest pieces of research into mobile usage by asking more than 10,000 adults across the United Kingdom (16-65 year olds) about their habits and behaviours. The research was designed to understand usage of and attitudes to mobile payments in both general and specific scenarios (such as paying for parking and retail) and to explore consumers’ views on the aspects of trust, reliability and security." Continue Reading

Do-it-yourself becomes new banking norm

"Your bank at your home at the click of a button. High speed internet, easy-touse smartphone apps and secure usage tools have made this possible, making more people shift to alternative channels of banking. For instance, in ING Vysya Bank, 80% of demand draft volumes now come through RTGS (real time gross settlement) and NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer). For HDFC Bank, 82% of all transactions originate through non-bank channels , with net banking and mobile banking accounting for 44% of all transactions." Continue Reading

Eighty-three Percent of Financial Industry Professionals Predict Real-time Payments Will Be Universally Available Within Five Years

"Real-time payments are expected to be universally available across financial services institutions within five years, reveals a recent survey by ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW). More than 200 financial industry professionals from around the world participated in this September 2013 survey, and more than 80 percent believe the shift from batch to real-time--authorizing and executing transactions, securely and immediately--is within sight." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Security

"Since the arrival of ATMs the role of the traditional brick-and-mortar bank has been changing. We shifted from paper money to plastic, and now to digital numbers on your smart phone screen.

With mobile apps, customers can check balances on the go, transfer money between accounts or even deposit a check,without a bank employee ever touching it. But that same information could be vulnerable to hackers." Continue Reading

Mobile banking security: Is it vulnerable to hackers?

"ince the arrival of ATMs the role of the traditional brick-and-mortar bank has been changing. We shifted from paper money to plastic, and now to digital numbers on your smart phone screen. With mobile apps, customers can check balances on the go, transfer money between accounts or even deposit a check,without a bank employee ever touching it. But that same information could be vulnerable to hackers." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Used To Steal Thousands From OKC Business

"Mobile banking is supposed to make our lives easier, but for a local businessman it seems to have allowed a former employee to steal thousands of dollars from him. He says the employee used mobile banking to deposit the same check over and over again.

'You don't have to have a gun to rob a bank, just a mobile phone and take a picture of your checks,' said an exasperated Jimmy Paris. According to Paris, the owner of Paris Limo, it was just that easy for a former driver to steal over $15,000 since the beginning of the year." Continue Reading

Mobile banking app usage grows in Canada

"A survey by BMO Bank of Montreal has found that mobile banking apps are growing in popularity in Canada. BMO said two-thirds of the 1,000 Canadians it surveyed in August have downloaded a mobile banking app in the last year. 'There has been a significant rise in mobile banking app usage in Canada,' Christie Christelis, president of the Canadian research firm Technology Strategies International, told Mobile Payments Today. 'People are getting more confident about using mobile banking apps.'" Continue Reading

Gitex 2013: Gemalto Showcases Innovative Solutions Shaping the Middle Eastern Digital Landscape

"Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, will be returning to GITEX 2013 (Software Hall 7, Booth A7-35) with an array of innovative solutions and services designed to enable banks, mobile operators and governments in the region, to offer trusted and convenient digital services to their end users. With live demonstrations highlighting four main innovation areas, visitors will get first-hand experience of solutions for mobile NFC payment, Machine-to-Machine applications, Mobile ID and the latest banking technologies, which are set to shape the Middle Eastern digital landscape." Continue Reading

RBC looks to clear the air on mobile app privacy fears

"Facing customer complaints about the privacy settings in its new mobile banking app, Royal Bank of Canada promises that it does not sell client data and guarantees that its requests for access to information on the mobile devices simply lets the app function as advertised.

The concerns emerged this week after RBC launched an updated version of its mobile banking app. Customers with smartphones powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system who attempted to install the program quickly realized RBC requested permission to access their call logs and contacts, as well as pinpoint their location via GPS." Continue Reading

RocketBank takes $2 million for mobile banking with global ambitions

"RocketBank, a Moscow-based banking application startup, announced that it received $2 million in funding from Runa Capital, a Moscow-based fund operating internationally. RocketBank’s application, currently available only on iOS, allows users to complete money transfers that necessitate no bank details of a recipient, simply an e-mail address or e-wallet number, which the startup calls 'mobile address-book money transfers.'

RocketBank is not a bank in and of itself and, as such, there are no associated RocketBank branches. Instead, it has partnered with Intercommerz Bank to support its mobile banking services. Users receive a Visa debit card in addition to its iOS application and benefit from free card loading and cash withdrawal at any ATM worldwide and money transfers, among other services." Continue Reading

Navy Federal Introduces New Experience in Mobile Banking

"Navy Federal Credit Union today announced the launch of its mobile application on the iPad device. Building on the success of its current mobile services, the credit union developed unique features for its latest mobile banking offering-the ability to transfer money between accounts from a single screen, a tracking tool for savings and spending, and an embedded calculator. The iPad app also takes a step beyond traditional mobile banking content to include resources for learning, links to news from the credit union, and even entertainment." Continue Reading

New FI-MOBILE Remote Service Delivery Platform Helps Credit Unions Grow Membership

"FI-MOBILE today announced the release of its newest mobile banking platform that makes it easy for financial institutions to deliver a wide variety of banking and promotional services, further unifying their offerings. Services can include remote deposit capture, account opening, instant loan applications, knowledgebase, marketing, and customer service. As a result, banks and credit unions can better engage and grow membership through the mobile channel by making sure their products and services are available when and where their customers might need them." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Players Are Shaking Up China’s Cozy Oligopoly

"The biggest threat to Chinese banks’ cozy oligopoly may be in the hands of the nation’s consumers. Two online companies, Alibaba and Tencent, are making incursions into the country’s financial services market, providing an alternative to the capped deposit rates and sluggish service offered by the country’s big lenders. The disrupters are taking on risks, and savers should be glad. 

Alibaba, the e-commerce group that just bought a 51 percent stake in the asset management company Tianhong for $193 million, is the banks’ main foe. By July, it had made over $16 billion in short-term loans to companies that sell goods on its sites. Its real-time records of borrowers’ cash flows and counterparties aid in lending decisions." Continue Reading

Pennsylvania sees biggest national loss in bank branches

"The Internet remains the most popular way to bank but mobile banking is the fastest growing, according to a survey of 1,000 U.S. workers by The American Bankers Association. And that is probably one reason why the number of bank branches continues to recede. Pennsylvania experienced the largest net loss of branches between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, according to data from SNL Financial.

The ABA study asked respondents which method they used to manage their bank accounts. Internet banking was by far the most popular at 39 percent in 2012 and 2013. Branches were second at 18 percent—also the same as 2012—followed by ATMs at 11 percent (down from 12 percent last year). Mobile banking was the only banking method that increased in popularity over the past year, moving from 6 percent to 8 percent and, in the process, passing mail and telephone banking." Continue Reading

Indian central bank sets up mobile banking committee

"The Reserve Bank of India has set up a Technical Committee on Mobile Banking to examine the feasibility of introducing encrypted SMS-based funds transfers across all mobile handsets. The Committee will conduct an in-depth study of the challenges faced by banks in taking mobile banking forward and the hurdles to introducing an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel for person-to-person payments." Continue Reading

Statistics Reveal That Technology is Transforming Mobile Banking, Firstnumber Comments

"Mobile phone technology is quickly changing the manner in which we pay our bills, monitor our accounts and communicate with our bank. What's more, most high street banks are currently investing a great deal of money in development of new technologies to make banking on the move even more rapid and convenient. According to recent figures published by the Office for National Statistics, around 50% of all UK adults and over 75% of 25–34 year olds manage their funds over the Internet. About one in five adults admits to having made at least one payment via their phone; while a quarter of us use our phones to check bank balances." Continue Reading

Snap-To-Pay From Fiserv Makes Mobile Bill Payment A Snap

"Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced recently the launch of its Snap-to-Pay capability for select Fiserv mobile banking and payments solutions, which enables consumers to pay bills quickly and easily with a snap of their smartphone cameras. Essential bill information, such as the company to be paid and the amount due, is captured by taking a picture of a paper bill, and then used to automatically populate the appropriate fields on the smartphone screen. Snap-to-Pay leverages mobile imaging technology from Top Image Systems (TIS), which enables mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to accurately capture information from documents of all types and sizes." Continue Reading

Study: Mobile close to equaling ATM as preferred banking channel

"The popularity of mobile banking continues to grow, according to a recent study by the American Bankers Association. A survey of 1,000 U.S. adults revealed that while the Internet remains the most popular banking method, mobile banking has eclipsed the popularity of "snail mail" and landline, and is now preferred by 8 percent of customers, while ATMs are still the preference of 11 percent of customers." Continue Reading

Small S.C. Bank Hires Mobile-Banking Execs from Verizon

"Independence Bancshares (IEBS) in Greenville, S.C., has hired two former Verizon executives to broaden its mobile-banking services. Aditya Khurjekar and Humphrey Chen have joined the $115 million-asset company's executive team to lead its mobile-technology efforts, the company announced Tuesday.

Khurjekar will focus on software and mobile technology, and Chen will focus on business development and emerging technologies. Before joining Independence, Khurjekar was responsible for leading several of Verizon's mobile-payments projects, including ISIS, a joint venture between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Earlier, he held positions with CGS Systems, Lucent Technologies and Bell Laboratories." Continue Reading

Mobile Payments Today releases State of the Industry report

"The mobile payments industry has continued its long, slow march toward ubiquity in the past 12 months, according the 2014 Mobile Payments State of the Industry Report. The third annual report from Mobile Payments Today includes consumer and industry surveys, and for the first time, tracks in-store mobile payments.

The report finds that more people have smartphones — 95 percent this year compared to 66 percent a year ago — and they're routinely using their mobile devices to access the Internet: 93 percent of respondents reported doing so, up from 65 percent in 2012." Continue Reading

RBS Citizens Treasury Solutions Continues to Lead Corporate Mobile Banking Evolution with Upgrade to Award-Winning accessMOBILE

"Corporate treasurers spending more time on the road now have an enhanced new tool for making their offices even more mobile: RBS Citizens Treasury Solutions today announced the launch of its second-generation corporate mobile banking application, accessMOBILE.

With accessMOBILE, RBS Citizens is one of the first commercial banks in the U.S. to offer a corporate mobile banking app that allows users to deposit a check remotely through a system that is integrated with their other cash management systems, initiate wire transfers from templates, and decision positive pay items and use other new functionality.

In addition to iPhone, today’s launch also includes apps for iPad and for Android devices and a new mobile-optimized website delivering full accessMOBILE functionality to web-enabled mobile devices such as Blackberry and Windows Phone." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Matures and Keynote Announces Who Does It Best – Overall Adoption Reaches 33%, Mobile Payments Expected to Reach $90 Billion by 2017

"Keynote®, the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud testing and monitoring, today announced the results of the Fall 2013 edition of the Keynote Mobile Banking Scorecard, first launched in 2011 and the standard in benchmarking consumer mobile banking offerings. In the latest Scorecard, Chase achieved its fourth consecutive win for Overall Score.

Also repeating were Wells Fargo in second place and Bank of America in third, with U.S. Bank moving into the top tier, tying with Bank of America. Leaders for individual mobile modes included BB&T, repeating as the leading provider of SMS (text) banking capabilities and Bank of America repeating for the leading Android banking app.

Looking across the four modes -- Text, Mobile Web, iPhone App and Android App -- the Scorecard found that Chase performed best in two of the four categories, Ease of Use and Quality & Availability, while Bank of America took first in Functionality and Wells Fargo led in the Privacy & Security category." Continue Reading

Western Independent Bankers Selects Q2 as Preferred Vendor for Virtual Banking Solutions

"Today Western Independent Bankers (WIB), a regional trade association that informs, educates and connects community banks with the resources and services needed to achieve their goals, announced its strategic partnership with Q2, the leading provider of enterprise solutions for secure virtual banking.

The endorsement places the Q2platform in front of WIB’s 200 community banks across 13 Western states. The addition of a virtual banking partnership provides WIB members with continued value and relevance among their existing customers, while providing them with opportunities to attract new ones." Continue Reading

Mobile Wallets, Tailored For Credit Unions

"CU Wallet, a mobile payments technology provider, has launched a credit union-centric mobile wallet application. Since the announcement of the product, 15 credit unions have signed an agreement with CU Wallet, the company said. Credit unions will be able to advertise, gain insight into members’ needs, offer incentives, and broker connections back to business partners using the app, CU Wallet says.

Local and national merchants and billers will partner with CU Wallet for direct connection to credit union members through the application. Credit Unions will be able to advertise by using geo-location and transaction details to present offers and incentives inside the application on the payment module hosted by CU Wallet." Continue Reading

More banks start offering photo check deposit mobile apps

"Two large regional banks in the Boston market have introduced mobile apps that allow their customers to deposit checks by using their smartphones. TD Bank, which has a big presence in Massachusetts, updated its mobile app for retail customers, so they can now take a photo of a check on their phone and deposit it into their account, without having to visit a branch or an ATM.

RBS Citizens Bank of Providence recently unveiled its next generation corporate mobile banking app that allows its business clients to use similar deposit technology. Citizens Bank does not have the mobile deposit technology available for its retail customers yet." Continue Reading

What makes a good mobile banking app?

"We recently pooled our expertise in the office to look at mobile banking experiences, paying attention to issues such as security, set-up and the range of banking tools. These are the top 4 areas to look at, to provide customers with a useful and easy banking app..." Continue Reading

A short overview of Android banking malware

"As more and more people use their mobile phones to do their online banking, money transfers, and so on, cyber crooks wielding banking malware are increasingly turning to targeting mobile users.

'Banking Trojans on mobile were largely successful targeting older generation operating systems like J2ME and Blackberry, but haven’t made the headway they’d probably like to on Android and iOS,' says Malwarebytes' Armando Orozco." Continue Reading