Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 27

ING Bank Slaski releases corporate mobile banking app
"ING Bank Slaski has launched a mobile banking application for corporate customers - ING BusinessMobile for iOS and Android platforms is based on the Comarch Mobile Banking solution. The system is designed primarily for corporate customers as it offers convenient and quick transaction authorization. In addition to the four-eye principle, it allows to create secure transactions on the basis of pre-defined and templates orders."

First Niagara launches mobile banking app
"First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) launched a new mobile banking app for iPhones, Android phones, and BlackBerrys. The app allows users to access account information, pay bills, execute internal transfers, and find branch and ATM locations. The banking company plans to add more features throughout 2013, including remote deposit capture, person to person payments, and an iPad app."

Mobile banking users set to almost double
"A new report from Juniper Research finds that over one billion mobile phone users will have made use of their mobile devices for banking purposes by the end of 2017, compared to just over 590 million in 2013. While the forecast of one billion users represents just under 15% of the mobile subscriber base, Juniper notes that around half of all mobile subscribers remain unbanked, with limited access to traditional financial services."

Era of online and mobile banking
"Banks are killing off branches by the thousands. Overall, banks closed 2,267 branches last year and opened only 1,149, according to research firm SNL Financial. That resulted in a total loss of 1,118 branches nationwide -- the highest level since 2005, when the firm began tracking closures. Looking to cut costs, many banks are aggressively shuttering branches they deem unnecessary and encouraging customers to shift to online and mobile banking instead, said Nancy Bush, a bank analyst and contributing editor at SNL."

If You Use Chase Mobile Banking, You’re Probably Richer than All Your Friends Who Don’t
"The world of banking has changed significantly over the past few decades, especially with the introduction of mobile and online banking. With this technology, individuals can take a more active role in their finances. In fact, it appears that banking online has not only made it easier for people to track their transactions, but according to a new study, bank customers are actually saving more money when they jump on the digital bandwagon."

Mobile Banking Updates - Jan 11

Banks Can Keep Customers, Make Money With Mobile
"Bankers who want to cut customer churn and make money should look no further than the mobile device in their pockets, argues Yankee Group in new research. Generally, banks have largely viewed the channel as a way to generate savings by diverting customer service away from call centers or interactive voice response. But at some point, they have to look beyond saving overhead and use mobile as a revenue generator."

Consumers Don't See Mobile Banking As Secure
"The report, titled "2008 Mobile Banking Security Standards," said 47% of nonparticipants did not sign up because of security. Despite the lack of large-scale mobile phone attacks, 73% of consumers fear hackers could remotely access their phones. "

La Caixa reaches 1 million mobile banking customers in 2008
"Spanish bank La Caixa has reached 1 million mobile banking customers in 2008, exceeding its goals for the year."

Young families keenest on mobile banking - Monilink
"Monilink, the people that provide the mobile money services for customers of many of the UK's high street banks, today revealed that young families and new home owners are the main users of mobile banking services."

Mobile Banking Updates - Dec 16th

Mobile finance business models do they exist? Are they even important?
"Everywhere I go I hear bankers’ refrain “When will we see a viable business model for mobile banking?” Mid-market and smaller banks, credit unions and card issuers that have yet to mobilize their business are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward mobile account access."

Chase Adds iPhone Mobile Banking Application
"JP Morgan Chase & Co. has released Chase Mobile, a new iPhone/iPod Touch application available for downloading from the iTunes Apps Store."

Citi’s Mobile Money Ventures Sets U.S. Rollout for Early ’09
"Mobile Money Ventures, the Citi-backed mobile banking and payments joint venture with South Korea’s SK Telecom, plans a U.S. rollout of an iPhone application in January, followed by a mobile Web-based service that will for the first time create a carrier-neutral banking service for Citibank customers. "

Oman Arab Bank Achieves Revenue Growth and ROI from SMS Based Banking Services
"Derdack, provider of mobile messaging platforms and notification workflow software today announced that Oman Arab Bank, a leading bank in Oman, has achieved significant efficiencies in customer service and the opening of new revenue streams from SMS-based mobile banking."

mBanking Panel 1 - Driving Mass Market Customer Adoption
"The first panel of the roundtable on mobile banking for the bottom billion included two panelists, Brian Richardson from WIZZIT, South Africa and Bold Magvan from XacBank, Mongolia."

Motorola Enhances Mobile Commerce Solutions for Consumers
"First M-Wallet solution deployment in China marks a milestone in Motorola's M-Commerce development"

Citibank Korea launches mobile banking service in English
"Citibank Korea Inc., or CKI, is prepping the launch of their VM mobile banking service for web-enabled mobile phones."

Mobile Banking Announcements for BAI

Citi and Firethorn Launch Citi Mobile for Cards
"Today, Citi and Firethorn Holdings, LLC, a Qualcomm company (NASDAQ: QCOM), introduced Citi Mobile for Cards, an advanced mobile solution that allows Citi credit card customers to quickly, easily and securely access real-time credit card account information on their mobile phones. Citi Mobile for Cards is now available to AT&T subscribers as part of AT&T Mobile Banking, and to Verizon Wireless customers who download and use the free mobile banking application on Get It Now."

Mobilearth and Cooperative Services bring Mobile Banking to the Credit Unions of Georgia.
"Mobilearth, a provider of Mobile Banking software for financial institutions is pleased to announce a reseller agreement with Cooperative Services, Inc. to provide mobile banking to credit unions throughout the state of Georgia. A unique pilot program over the summer gave credit unions in the Atlanta area the opportunity to try out mobile banking without no strings attached."

Monitise Americas Announces 23 New Mobile Banking Partnerships
"Monitise Americas has announced that 23 additional financial institutions have signed agreements with Metavante to provide mobile services to their customers and members. These new agreements add to the growing list of financial institutions that have chosen the Monitise Americas solution for their mobile needs. Metavante is a leading provider of banking and payments technology."

S1 Corporation signs tenth FI mobile banking customer
"S1 Corporation (Nasdaq: SONE), a leading global provider of customer interaction software solutions for financial and payment services, today announced that ten customers have licensed S1 Mobile, which enables financial institutions worldwide to drive mobile banking and payments revenues from their retail and business customers."

Sybase 365 Announces Partnership with paybox Furthering Mobile Commerce Globally
"Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc., the global leader in mobile messaging services, today announced a partnership agreement with paybox, a leader in mobile payment solutions, that will extend mobile payments and mobile money services to customers worldwide."

FIS to Offer Obopay Mobile Payments to its Bank Customers.
"Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) is to offer Obopay's mobile person-to-person payment service to FIS's roughly 1700 bank customers, the pair announced at BAI's Retail Delivery show. Jacksonville, Fla.-based FIS is starting to sign up interested banks, Kishore Bayyapureddy, senior vice president of FIS told BS&T."

ClairMail Customers See Rapid Growth and Adoption of Mobile Banking
"ClairMail, Inc., the leader in 2-way mobile phone-based customer interaction, today announced that the ClairMail System is processing millions of monthly mobile banking transactions and seeing tremendous adoption and continued growth, with over 12 mobile banking transactions conducted every month per consumer."

CPNI integrates P2P m-payments system with Sun technology
"CPNI (CPNI) today announced that it will offer Financial Institutions the integration of CPNI's Phone Authorized Transfer (PAT) mobile commerce software with Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS)."

Mobile Banking Updates - Oct 2

iPhone heading to EVDO/Verizon for 2009?
"According to him, Apple will be announcing iPhones for Verizon Wireless in 2009, perhaps as early Macworld 2009. Negotiations between Apple and Verizon are ongoing but they expect to hammer out agreements by the end of the year."

FSTC completes first phase of m-payments project
"The group is examining various technology models supporting mobile payments today and expects to make recommendations that will facilitate an interoperable mobile payments infrastructure in the near future."

Security, Compliance Top Concerns in Bank Survey
"Community bankers are spending more than ever on technology, according to survey published Wednesday, and their biggest concerns are data security and compliance."

Mitek intros Mobile Deposit Application for Apple iPhone
"The Mobile Deposit iPhone application is available to financial
institutions or mobile banking software vendors looking to add Remote
Deposit Capture (RDC) to their mobile banking platform."

ATMIA publishes mobile banking best practices
"The ATM Industry Association has launched Best Practices for Mobile Device Banking Security."

Japan's Influence on Mobile Banking in the U.S.?

In recent days, there have been numerous articles, references, and stories related to Japan and how they could influence the future of mobile banking and payments here in the U.S.

Specifically, here are a few of the ones that caught my attention:

Aug 8 - Many Inputs as Citi Thinks Mobile in the U.S. - American Banker
"In Japan, more people go on the Internet from mobile devices than from computers, Mr. Kietz said.

'The common wisdom is that what is happening in Japan today is going to be happening in the developed world two years from now,' he said. 'There are going to be more, cool phones available, and use of the mobile browser is going to increase substantially.'"

Aug 18 - Mitsubishi UFJ to buy California bank - International Herald Tribune
"Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, one of the largest banks in Japan, agreed Monday to buy the remaining part of UnionBanCal that it did not already own for about $3.5 billion.

The transaction values UnionBanCal, which owns Union Bank of California, one of the 25 largest banks in the United States, at about $10.1 billion.

Mitsubishi is trying to expand beyond its relatively stagnant home market as Japanese companies seek to broaden their presence overseas and take advantage of a weaker dollar."

Aug 19 - Japan's Mobile Tech Too Quirky To Succeed Overseas? - Washington Post
"For all of the cutting edge mobile technology that Japanese consumers have routine access to, surprisingly little of it has made its way outside of the country. Its government, however, wants to change this, and will begin an "aggressive push" to market the technology overseas, reports AP."

Personally, I agree with Mr. Kietz and I'm excited to see Mitsubishi acquire an institution in the U.S. Their resources, knowledge, and experience will lead to significant advancements in technology and could help expedite the development and adoption of NFC.

Recap from Mobile Commerce Summit - Part 2

One of the most interesting sessions from the Mobile Commerce Summit was titled "NFC Mobile Payments Ecosystem and Applications - An Update of Pilots around the World."

Here are a few of the comments that caught my attention:

1) When Dom Morea (SVP - First Data) was asked the question, "Who will pay?" (i.e. how are the carriers compensated in the new model) He responded, "If incremental value is created people will pay."

In other words, don't worry about specifying "who" right now because the fact is everyone will be willing to pay if the solution generates revenue and creates shareholder value.

2) James Anderson (VP - Mastercard) then added the following:
* If the only solution is to take dollars from an existing player - we're dead.
* Look at your customer base. Figure out who will pay for NFC and then sell to them.
* 80% of the value will come from 20% of the market
* The banks that lead will begin to take good clients from other institutions. That's the benefit that will cover the upfront cost until the value is proven.

Everlink and Monitise to Provide Mobile Banking

Everlink Payment Services, a leading provider of electronic transactions and payments services to the Canadian Financial Services marketplace, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Monitise Americas, LLC, a leading mobile banking and payments service provider. Everlink will offer the Monitise Americas mobile banking platform to financial institutions throughout Canada, including 375 credit unions, several domestic and foreign subsidiary banks and Independent Service Organizations (ISO’s). Learn More >>

Mobile Banking Announcement - PSCU

St. Petersburg, FL, January 8, 2008 – PSCU Financial Services, the nation’s largest credit union service organization (CUSO), announced today that it is adopting mFoundry’s award-winning mobile financial platform to deliver mobile banking and payment services to credit unions and their membership. This service is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2008. Click to read the full story >>

Chase Ahead of Mobile Marketing Curve

It's official - Chase has launched a revolutionary mobile marketing initiative. To view a copy of the full promotion email click here.


To learn more about the program, FAQs, or view participating merchants - click here.

Wow! I would love to learn more about this program. Could it be that Chase has actually figured out a way to boost their card purchase volume while simultaneously generating a new stream of revenue?

Part 2 - Chase SMS Mobile Banking

I have spent some time digging through the entire site page by page and even the fine print, but still no reference to a vendor. It's missing some of the functionality that comes standard with the big vendors such as: transfers and custom nicknames for functions (i.e. the ability to use just the letter "b" to request a balance instead of the full "bal"). Then again, maybe this is just phase one and the other features will be coming at a future date.

Here are screen prints of the enrollment process. They did a nice job it's quick, easy to understand and simple to complete.

There's also a very sharp interactive demo. I tried to upload a snippet but my camera did not do it justice so I pulled it down. You'll have to check it out.

Chase Launches SMS Mobile Banking

This news is HOT! Chase has launched an SMS based mobile banking solution, but you will not find any information on their homepage. The links are only contained within online banking. Once you are in the system look for the link along the right-hand margin.