AT&T Releases New Mobile Identity API Toolkit

"ATT announced the availability of a new application programming interface (API) toolkit that can help businesses make mobile transactions safer and easier for ATT mobile subscribers. According to a release, the toolkit allows businesses to automate fraud avoidance queries and the completion of basic forms for subscribers during transactions." Continue Reading

AT&T's Bid to Intertwine Its Services with Mobile Banking Apps

"ATT would like to partner with banks on their mobile banking apps, providing a range of hosted services from call recording to videoconferencing to geolocation services to mobile identity verification. The telecom launched its first product in this vein, a mobile identity toolkit, in late December. In a way, it is following the footsteps of Verizon, which debuted a mobile identity offering in October." Continue Reading

Mobile Banking Updates - Aug 2

Isis mobile pay service may start trials in August
"Isis, a joint venture among Verizon Wireless, ATT, and T-Mobile USA, will likely start trials of its mobile-payment service in August, according to a person familiar with the launch plans. The August target, however, isn't set in stone. CNET has gotten indications elsewhere that the timing may change. A representative for Isis only said the service would begin trials in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas, this summer, pushed back from the prior forecast of a mid-year launch."

Great Potential in Mobile Services for Small Business Clients, FundTech Survey Says
"Bankers see SME (small and medium enterprise) clients as their biggest opportunity for growth, while regulations and compliance remain they're biggest concern, according to survey results released today by FundTech, a transaction banking solutions provider. The survey of 137 banking executives from more than 100 institutions was conducted at FundTech's annual North American Insights client conference in Arizona last month."

payvia Launches Bill-to-Carrier Mobile Payments Service
"payvia announced the launch of its next generation mobile payments platform and latest direct carrier billing agreements with Sprint and T-Mobile USA."

Visa: Mobile payments will hit mainstream in 2 to 3 years
"That vision of paying for goods and services with your phone anywhere you go? You shouldn't hold your breath. While there are trials and select deployments of payment terminals and cash registers that can accept mobile payments, the method won't hit the mainstream in the U.S. for another two to three years, according to Bill Gajda, head of mobile for Visa."

Braintree Wants to Make Mobile Payments History
"If you’ve ever searched Amazon (AMZN) using your i-Phone and decided you wanted to buy something, you’ll understand Braintree. And due to its unique technology, Braintree makes it easier for merchants to let you pay for those purchases quickly using your mobile."

Mobile Wallet and Payments - Jun 13

Smartphones get new duty — as wallets
"Picture walking up to the Dillard’s counter, two shirts in one hand, smartphone in the other. Phillip Vullo ATT Mobility Chief Executive Officer Ralph de la Vega said, 'We’re getting into a completely new line of business that we’re very excited about.' There’s no need to reach for your wallet, because all of the credit card information has been stored in your phone. One tap of the phone against a small mobile reader next to the cash register, and you’re out the door. Welcome to the new, more intelligent world of smartphones that can double as wallets."

If PayPal Offered a Mobile Wallet, 8 in 10 Consumers Would Use It
"Consumers who are interested in mobile wallets* would consider using alternative players to their primary bank for mobile wallets and for banking. These consumers also expressed strong interest in using a wide variety of services in their mobile wallet, such as search & shop, loyalty programs and real-time incentives. These are two major findings from a mobile wallet study conducted by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group (CG, www.carlisleandgallagher.com ), a management and technology consulting firm serving the financial services industry."

Big Banks Fear Losing Consumers to Mobile Wallets
"There’s more bad news for the beleaguered banking industry, and it has nothing to do with regulatory scrutiny or shareholder displeasure: Consumers who are interested in mobile wallets would consider using alternative players to their primary bank for both mobile wallets and banking. Mobile wallets are smartphones or tablet apps that store a consumer’s payment details on his or her devices or online to fund digital and in-store purchases."

Mobile Wallet - Nov 16

Next Android Version Includes E-Wallet for Real World Purchases
"Android 2.3, codenamed Gingerbread, will be released in a “few weeks,” Schmidt said on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit conference in San Francisco. Schmidt showed off how so-called Near Field Communication would work using an unnamed smartphone he called an unannounced product. Using the software from Android and a NFC chip in the phone, Schmidt was able to “check in” to the conference, launching Google Maps, by touching the phone to a conference sign that had a built-in antenna."

U.S. Carriers Create Pay-By-Phone System, for Real This Time
"You know that thing where you just tap your credit card to pay for stuff at the store? That functionality will be coming to smartphones in the U.S., this time apparently for real, via a national phone payment network called Isis, spearheaded by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Besides negating the need to pull out your credit card, the "mobile wallet" in your phone is planned to incorporate reward cards, coupons, tickets, and transit passes. Isis will use near-field communication (NFC) technology to make payments. NFC encrypts data for very short-range transmission – a matter of inches. When you need to pay, just launch the Isis app, wave your phone over the machine and you've paid up."

Does iWallet iPhone mean Apple versus PayPal?
"We've talked before about Apple's plans for the iPhone as an iWallet, now it looks like former ally turned foe, Google's preparing to take Apple on in the same space, with big boss Eric Schmidt telling a panel at the Web 2.0 conference his company feels its got to get NFC (Near Field Communication) into Android's life. Will PayPal endure the new war?"

Mobile Banking Updates - Aug 3

CSCU Expands Electronic Payment Offerings With Mobile Banking Partnership
"Card Services for Credit Unions (CSCU) has expanded its portfolio of electronic payment products to include mobile banking, through a partnership with MShift, Inc., adding more value to the member cardholder experience.

CSCU is committed to providing more than 3,000 member credit unions with the latest industry trends and services that keep them on the leading edge. As a part of that commitment, CSCU has partnered with MShift, leveraging their exclusive patented technology to bring member credit unions a holistic solution that's carrier and content agnostic. By leveraging this new strategic partnership and CSCU's pooled volumes, member credit unions will be eligible for significant savings and superior value."

Carriers move to supplant credit cards with smart phones
"Three of the nation's largest wireless carriers are working on a joint venture that should give mobile banking and contactless forms of payment a major boost.

According to Bloomberg though, AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc. are all working on a smart-phone payment system using near field communications (NFC) that would displace credit and debit cards.

While the new service would reportedly keep Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and American Express Company out of the mix, Discover Financial Services would be the payments network that processes all of the transactions. Barclays Plc is lined up to manage the accounts, according to Bloomberg, which cited three anonymous sources for the story."

Mobile Carrier and Bank Convergence
"Yesterday’s report about AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Discover and Barclays potentially working together on a mobile payment service in the U.S. brings up a a topic (banking and mobile industry convergence) that Bart Narter has blogged about, and about which I have added my two cents’ worth."

Plastyc Launches Full-featured Mobile Banking Service for Prepaid Account Holders
"Plastyc, Inc. launched today a new service enabling anyone with a browser-enabled cell phone to manage money on the go -- including writing checks, sending money to friends and locating the nearest retail location to add cash to their cards -- using Plastyc's iBankUP and UPside prepaid Visa services. While viewing balances and receiving alerts by cell phone is becoming common, people who rely the most on their cell phones and the least on personal computers have not had complete mobile access to their money until now."

Why mobile phones can transform banking
"70 per cent of the BRIC population don’t have bank accounts. But what many of them - and an estimated billion people in all emerging markets - do have are mobile phones.

So investors are eyeing big growth in “mobile payments”, where people use their phones to perform transactions. Last week Actis bought out Egyptian chip-maker MSCC to get in on the action.

Now Arthur D Little is forecasting the market in mobile payments will be worth $60bn by 2015. It predicts that, within five years, the number of people using mobile banking will rise from 32m people today to 290m. That’s more than a million new users each week."

Comerica Bank Introduces Mobile Banking Services
"Comerica Bank has introduced Comerica Mobile Banking(SM), a new service that allows customers to utilize their mobile phones to securely view balances, check recent account activity, perform funds transfers, pay bills and locate Comerica ATMs and banking centers. With Comerica Mobile Banking, Comerica Web Banking(SM) customers can typically bank everywhere they have cell phone service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Mobile Banking Updates - July 11

Usably Secure, Low-Cost Authentication for Mobile Banking
"This paper explores user authentication schemes for banking systems implemented over mobile phone networks in the developing world. We analyze an authentication scheme currently deployed by an Indian mobile banking service provider which uses a combination of PINs and printed codebooks for authenticating users. As a first step, we report security weaknesses in that scheme and show that it is susceptible to easy and efficient PIN recovery attacks. We then propose a new scheme which offers better secrecy of PINs, while still maintaining the simplicity and scalability advantages of the original scheme. Finally, we investigate the usability of the two schemes with a sample of 34 current and potential customers of the banking system. Our findings suggest that the new scheme is more efficient, less susceptible to human error and better preferred by the target consumers."

AT&T Enters Mobile Payment Acceptance Market
"AT&T recently announced that it has joined forces with Apriva to turn smartphones into point-of-sale devices that accept credit and debit card transactions. 'Sales increase when small businesses accept payment cards,' said Michael Antieri, president, advanced enterprise mobility solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. 'And given that an overwhelming majority of small businesses use smartphones, offering a mobile application that ties together payment cards and smartphones makes perfect sense.'"

PayPal head of mobile on the future of money
"PayPal has been doing its bit this week to raise awareness of the growing online retail opportunity in Australia. It seems overseas competitors are currently taking around 40 per cent of Australia’s online spend – it’s the kind of statistic that should have Aussie online entrepreneurs rubbing their hands together. Of course PayPal wants to see more online sales since its business is primarily concerned with how people will pay for the stuff we’re increasingly likely to buy online."

Are Mobile RDC Concerns Overblown?
"I like mobile banking. It's convenient, real-time and makes me feel savvy. So I appreciate, from a consumer perspective, JPMorgan Chase's announcement this week to move into the mobile remote deposit capture space. With Apple's iPhone application for remote deposits, Chase is stepping out ahead of the curve, trailing only a handful of other U.S. financial institutions. The most notable competitor in the space, USAA, last August launched its iPhone option for check-image deposits."

RaboDirect moves towards mobile banking
"RaboDirect has started development on a mobile internet banking platform for its customers, but general manager Greg McAweeney has flagged customer security as a primary concern in the mobile banking space. "The rise in mobile banking is definitely [a trend in Australian IT]. All of the major banks and even some of the second tier banks are now offering transactional mobile banking services. Clearly, the rise of smartphones are helping to drive that," he said. McAweeney said that RaboDirect is in the planning stages of developing a mobile platform, in tandem with a revamp of its public website."

Using your cellphone can make banking easier and faster
"Adrian Vermooten, Absa's head of mobile banking and messaging, says the bank has more than six million clients who are registered to receive notifications on their cellphones of bank transactions, more than two million active cellphone banking customers and more than 1.2 million internet banking customers. Christo Vrey, the managing executive of Absa's digital channels, says the bank has more than 1.7 million log-ons to its SMS banking service each month. Since it launched absa.mobi just over six weeks ago, more than 500,000 users have accessed the mobile portal, Vrey says."

A Boost in Mobile Banking
"The percentage of mobile users in the United States that utilize mobile banking via their mobile devices is not currently very big, but the practice looks to be picking up steam as consumers become more comfortable utilizing their cell phones in transacting business. About a month ago, ComScore released some data that showed in the month of April of 2010, 13.2 million people accessed bank accounts through a mobile site, which is almost a 70% increase from a year ago."

StanChart starts mobile banking in Oman
"Standard Chartered Bank has recently launched its mobile-phone banking service, 'm-banking', in Oman. m-banking will provide Standard Chartered Bank's customers with access to banking 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere in the world all through their mobile phone. This service offers customers greater flexibility and convenience while the ability to receive sms alerts on every activity or movement within their bank account or credit cards provides enhanced security."

Bluepoint Solutions Launches Mobile Remote Deposit Capture
"Bluepoint Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing and enterprise content management software technology for financial institutions, announced the release of QwikDeposit To Go, a sophisticated mobile remote deposit capture application. Powered by Mitek Systems patented IMagePROVE technology, Bluepoint Solutions QwikDeposit Mobile Capture application completes Bluepoint’s existing suite of Check 21 capture points."

Mobile Banking Updates - Mar 23

AT&T reveals more details on Dell Aero smartphone
"After the official unveiling yesterday of the Dell Aero smartphone, AT&T has posted some additional details about the company’s first Android-based handset, including dubbing it as the 'lightest' Android smartphone yet.

According to the new product page, the Aero will host a 3.5-inch display with nHD resolution. Besides being available on the 3G network, the smartphone also comes with built-in GPS and Wi-Fi."

How banks can use social media and mobile apps
"How are leading banks applying social media and mobile devices in ways that drive revenue and customer value? Spain's BBVA provides an excellent example of how this can be done.

Spain's BBVA, one of the world’s largest retail banks, is offering its customers Tú cuentas (“you count”). It's a web and mobile delivered personal finance tool with all the usual functionality. But it goes further by allowing customers to manage their personal finances better. Tú cuentas offers analysis tools so customers can better understand, set goals and qualitatively improve their own spending and savings habits."

Verizon Wireless Plans eCommerce Mobile Payment Service
"Verizon Wireless and Danal, Inc., the global pioneer and leader in charging eCommerce transactions directly to mobile phone accounts, said today that Verizon Wireless plans to launch Danal's BilltoMobile™ payment service later this spring, enabling Verizon Wireless customers to charge online purchases of digital goods directly to their monthly Verizon Wireless bills.

Verizon Wireless customers will be able to pay for online content and digital goods that are downloaded and consumed on their personal computers from Danal's participating network of popular eCommerce merchant partners. A secure connection and integration between Verizon Wireless and Danal will provide features important to online consumers and merchants, including robust subscriber authentication and fraud protection, among others."

New report examines the case for NFC microSD cards
"'The report starts from the premise that NFC is just one of the features that consumers may demand alongside a wider range of functions and apps such as cameras and games, and that they are unlikely to go out of their way to purchase a mobile handset with NFC until there is a range of stable, attractive services that are easy and convenient to use that make use of that capability,' says Dr Spencer. 'Handset suppliers need the assurance of demand before they will commit to the high development and deployment costs that can only be justified if NFC devices can be manufactured in sufficiently high volumes. We look at whether the introduction of the technology via different form factors, such as unpowered (passive) NFC stickers and NFC-enabled microSD cards could be the answer.'"

Mobile Device Updates

Study: 40 Percent Of Blackberry Users Want iPhones, One-Third Want Nexus Ones
"I came across an interesting study today that claims Blackberry users are wishing for other smartphones in large numbers- particularly the iPhone and Google’s Nexus One.

While, like most studies, the data should be taken with a grain of salt, the study indicates that roughly 40 percent of BlackBerry users would rather have an Apple iPhone, while one-third are eying Google’s Nexus One as their next smartphone purchase, according to the study released by Crowd Science."

Google announces AT&T-compatible Nexus One
"Google’s Nexus One smartphone is the flagship of the Android fleet. Sold by Google itself via its online store, the phone was unveiled in January for use on the T-Mobile network, with future versions planned for other carriers. On Tuesday, the first of those took its bow as Google announced a Nexus One compatible with AT&T’s 3G network.

Unlike the T-Mobile version of the Nexus One, the AT&T-compatible model isn’t available at a subsidy from the carrier. Customers have to buy the unlocked AT&T-compatible version of the phone, which costs $529. By contrast, those who wish to use the phone on T-Mobile have the option of buying a T-Mobile-compatible unlocked phone for $529 or signing a new two-year commitment with T-Mobile and getting the phone for a discounted price of $179."

Mobile Banking Updates - Nov 22

Mobile Money Ventures and CPNI Partner to Provide Financial Institutions Innovative Mobile Payments
"Mobile Money Ventures (MMV) and CPNI Inc. (CPNI) today announced they will be working together to offer financial institutions a comprehensive solution that integrates CPNI's mobile commerce solutions into MMV's mobile financial services platform. The multifaceted relationship will combine CPNI's PATsend(TM) remote mobile payment technology into MMV's next generation mobile platform, with the opportunity to integrate PATbuy(TM) mobile purchases in the next phase.

A leading global solutions provider, MMV's current offering enables consumers to handle all of their financial activities-banking, bill payments, stock trades, tracking and budgeting-on any mobile handset or wireless carrier. By incorporating PATsend, and in the subsequent stage PATbuy, into its existing platform, MMV will be able to provide turnkey solutions for financial institutions and increase the speed at which their customers can quickly begin making convenient remote mobile purchases and payments down the road."

Frost Unwraps Mobile Banking in Time for the Holidays
"Customers of Frost Bank will now be able to bank by mobile device through Frost Mobile, a new service unveiled just in time for the holidays. 'The best gift we can give our customers for the holidays is the convenience, ease and peace of mind of mobile banking,' said Bobby Berman, executive vice president. 'This will enable our customers to manage their finances anytime, anywhere, safely and securely.'"

Judge rejects AT&T's bid to pull Verizon ads
"A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by AT&T to force competitor Verizon Wireless to pull its "There's a Map for That" commercials. But the judge scheduled a Dec. 16 hearing to give the AT&T attorneys another chance to make their case. AT&T filed the lawsuit in federal court in Atlanta earlier this month and asked for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to stop the ads. It contends they are misleading and amount to deceptive trade practices."

MasterCard Connecting the Mobile Banking Dots
"In MasterCard Inc.'s vision of the future, mobile phones have become versatile financial tools that offer a broad range of payments capabilities. This week, the Purchase, N.Y., company took several steps that, together, demonstrate exactly how it plans to realize that vision. MasterCard announced initiatives that included payments projects in Norway and Brazil and plans to expand its existing person-to-person transfer service globally. Taken separately, they might look like incremental moves in discrete markets, but considered as a whole, they show how the company is starting to connect the dots required to make mobile financial services both widely available and easy to use."

Visa Mobile Banking App for Android Now Available For U.S. Bank Customers
"US Bank and Visa announced yesterday that the new Visa Mobile app for phones carrying the Google Android mobile operating system. Visa Mobile is the first mobile banking app to combine alerts, offers and a locator into one convenient app."

Make mobile banking pay its way - Clairmail Whitepaper

Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 13

New Hurdle For Mobile Commerce: Success?
"With all of the various reasons to explain why mobile commerce has gone almost nowhere with major American retailers thus far, AT&T and Apple-especially AT&T-are illustrating yet another. The M-Commerce movement may prove to be the latest corporate example of "Be Careful What You Wish For."

Consumer media have been filled with reports this month of major problems with iPhone 3G performance, illustrated by dropped calls, extremely slow connections and a generally unpleasant experience, especially in places where-ironically-the iPhone is most popular, such as New York City."

The ROI of Small-Business Mobile
"A new report from Aite Group, LLC analyzes the types of mobile banking transactions small businesses are most willing to adopt, and how that willingness varies by business size. Based primarily on the results of a July 2009 survey of 283 U.S. small businesses (defined as any business generating less than US$10 million in annual revenues), the report also points out challenges, such as misperceptions about mobile security, that banks will have to overcome to ensure a successful deployment. Finally, the report examines small-business willingness to pay for mobile banking/transaction service, expected adoption rates and estimated deployment costs and potential revenues for banks seeking to calculate return on investment (ROI)."

Mobile Receipt from Mitek Systems Climbs to #1 in the App Store
"Mitek Systems, Inc. today announced its Mobile Receipt (TM) application climbed all the way to the number one paid finance application in the App Store (SM) on September 8, 2009 and is consistently in the top five application in its category. Mobile Receipt converts the photo of a receipt taken with the iPhone camera into a high quality image and, with a single tap, converts the data into a professional looking expense report. Mobile Receipt saves time, enhances productivity and can help speed reimbursements."

Barclays revamps mobile banking site
"The first area of improvement is to the online banking log-in pages which have been optimised for access and viewing on mobile devices. In addition, a new 'quick access' log-in has been added for customers who purely want to view their balance, statement or to make a transfer. Research undertaken by Barclays has shown that complex logging in processes put many customers off using a mobile phone for online banking."

Creating New Revenue Streams With the Mobile Channel
"Since the late 1990’s analysts have asked how and when mobility will impact the established financial landscape. The Silicon Valley boom at the end of the 20th century boosted online commerce, while making household names out of organizations that still thrive today. People are less likely to know, however, that one of these brands, PayPal, started out as a Palm-based mobile payment solution. PayPal quickly moved beyond mobile and ultimately found its niche to help change the way consumers purchase goods online. More importantly, they spurred a stream of consciousness from Denmark to Israel and back to Silicon Valley where the dream originally hatched. Today, eBay-owned PayPal is the No. 1 online “alternative” payment method and enjoys hundreds of millions of customers worldwide. "

For m-Commerce to Work, We Need to Embrace Mobile Payments (Part 2)
"Interestingly enough, the "comfort factor" in using a mobile to make a purchase is more of a problem here in the developed world. In developing markets, however, where critical infrastructure like bank branches and high-speed internet is often lacking, people use mobile phones for all sorts of things including mobile banking, mobile money transfer, mobile education, and mobile medicine."

ATT Now Wide Open

It used to be that I only read the USA Today at a hotel while on a business trip. However, last month I was flipping through the paper and saw an ad promoting the mobile version of their site. Needless to say, I now check out the site 3-5 days/week and have become a fan.

This morning as I was scrolling I was very pleased to discover a story written by Leslie Cauley titled "AT&T flings cellphone network wide open." The ironic part is that exactly 7 days ago (nearly to the minute) I posted an article where in I applauded Verizon for being "open" and was critical of AT&T. So...I'd like to take this opportunity to now applaud AT&T for opening their network.

To be honest I'm glad they made the move. I'm nearing the end of my AT&T contract and want to stay with them because of the iPhone. A little hypocritical -yes- because the iPhone is closed, but cut me some slack it's the iPhone.

To tie my November 19th article about Google, Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T's wireless business stated, "Everything that Google has promised to bring to the wireless market a year from now AT&T is doing today, de la Vega says. 'We are the most open wireless company in the industry.'"

Press Releases for BAI

Within the last few days there have been a slew of press releases pertaining to the mobile banking industry. Without further delay here is the run down.

Announcing the SRM Mobile Wallet

BTN Announces the Innovators for 2007


Open Solutions, MShift Announce Partnership Agreement to Enable Mobile Banking and Bill Pay with Financial Institutions


AT&T Launches Mobile Banking Nationwide

ClairMail Chosen as Mobile Commerce Innovator at BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo

Proliferation of Mobility PR and Marketing

The other day I received my AT&T mobility magazine and was excited to see the resources that they are utilizing to create awareness about downloadable applications. The two images below are pages 22 and 23 of the magazine, and I feel that they do a decent job communicating to customers that a mobile device can be much more than just a phone. Specifically they say, "Turn your phone into a personal assistant, a problem solver, an entertainment hub - and more!"




In fact, it motivated me to visit www.att.com/mediamall for the first time and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the content. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I was under the impression that they only offered Gen Y ring tones and games. However, after visiting the site I realized they they have a little something for everyone. For example there were applications for:
* Rachael Ray Recipes on the Run
* Fox Sports Mobile Pro
* The Weather Channel
* MapQuest Mobile
* MySpace Mobile

Click here or on the image below to see all of their offerings.


On a similar note - I discovered a link to this CBS Early Show video clip on the Payments News site.

ATT Launches New Mobile Banking Page

Here is a piece of the new page just launched by ATT promoting mobile banking.



Also, please take note of the institutions listed below the fold. The branding value that these institutions are receiving is tremendous!