SBI, Axis, ICICI and UCO Bank are the only ones charging for IMPS transactions

"Would you like to save on mobile banking transaction charges? Then, you need to know that only four banks out of 59 banks charge customers for using the interbank mobile payment system and even NPCI charges just 25 paise per IMPS transaction from the remitter bank." Continue Reading

Mobile Payments and Wallet - July 28

Visa, Movida, ICICI Bank expand mobile banking services to make India cashless
"Visa Inc. and Monitise’s joint venture, Movida, has partnered with India’s largest bank ICICI Bank to expand its mobile payments service. The mobile payments company launched last December after partnering with India’s second largest bank, HDFC. With the addition of ICICI, Movida will be able to reach more Indian consumers."

The Future of Mobile Payments and Banking
"The role of traditional banks continues to change, and more rapidly than before. Where we once would have had to queue up in a bank on the high street to pay utility bills or withdraw cash to make payments, we can now complete almost all of our transactions online without ever needing to set foot in a branch. So the role of the bank as a venue or outlet has already changed and continues to evolve to ensure it remains a relevant customer channel."

ProfitStars Introduces iPay OneClick Consumer Online Bill Pay and Andiamo, a Fast, Cost Effective Way to Deploy Mobile Services Without Core Integration
"Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (NASDAQ: JKHY) is a leading provider of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for the financial services industry. Its ProfitStars® division today introduced iPay OneClickTM and AndiamoTM from iPay Solutions™."

Illinois bank will allow Diebold ATM withdrawals via mobile wallet
"An Illinois bank has rolled out a service that will enable customers to use their cellphones to withdraw cash from Diebold ATMs. Mobile Cash Access, from Wintrust Financial Corporation, will use the Paydiant and FIS mobile wallet solution."

International Mobile Banking Updates - Oct 9

Transactional Banking and Mobile Payments in China: An Emerging Opportunity
"When Chinese shoppers flocked to Apple stores for the new iPhone launch earlier this year, news reports highlighted the reaction as another sign of the dynamic and rapidly evolving mobile market in China. Indeed, analysts said, China is now not only largest overall mobile phone market in the world, with more than 900 million subscribers -- it also is the largest smart-phone market in the world, moving past the U.S. Apple itself noted that iPhone sales in Greater China were up fivefold in the firstquarter of 2012, compared with a year ago."

Mobile Money "On the Move" In Africa
"In developing markets like Africa, innovation and ingenuity play an important role in finding solutions to problems that cannot be resolved through traditional approaches. Advancements in technology, and especially in telecommunications, have resulted in access to basic utilities being made available and the enhancement of lives of millions of people globally."

ANZ to Spend $1.53 Billion Upgrading Australia Business
"Australia's third-largest lender by market value said Thursday it would extend refurbishments of its domestic branch network and launch a number of new mobile-banking applications to help increase efficiency."

Cognizant and Monitise Form Mobile Money Alliance to Help Global Financial Institutions Capitalize on the Mobile Money Opportunity
"Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) and Monitise (LSE: MONI) today announced a global alliance that will help financial institutions embrace the mobile channel of interaction, and develop effective and innovative mobile banking, payments, and commerce solutions. Combining Cognizant's extensive financial services and mobility expertise with Monitise's leading mobile money platform, the alliance will help global financial institutions speedily respond to the mobile money opportunity that is gathering significant momentum."

Rwanda: Airtel to Introduce Mobile Money Platform
"Airtel Rwanda is set to launch its mobile banking platform dubbed "Airtel Money" by the end of this year as it steps up efforts to increase market share following the launch of its operations in Rwanda early this year. Marcellin Paluku, Country Manager Airtel Rwanda, said the platform will provide rural tailored innovative mobile financial solutions to both financially excluded and the banked population, a move that is likely to boosting initiatives to promote cashless economy."

Turkcell Launches the Most Advanced Mobile Wallet Solution that Works on all Mobile Phones
"Being a global first with its feature that enables physical or online shopping by just using the mobile phone number, instead of the credit card; Turkcell Wallet is a SIM based application, working on all mobile phones. The transactions can be initiated through the SIM menu on all phones, or with a native application on smartphones, and it supports contactless payment on NFC-enabled phones. This unique service is also available for all Turkcell customers, whether they are bank customers or not."

Money goes mobile
"Bangalore-based network security professional Ashish Rao started using mobile banking earlier this year, and he has largely transacted through the ICICI Bank’s mobile banking application (app) since then. “Be it sending money to parents or to any of my other account(s), I largely transfer funds through the mobile. I also shop on e-commerce sites and book movie tickets through the mobile, as it can be done anywhere, anytime,” explains Dilip."

CARE, Mwanga Community Bank and Vodacom Launch Mobile Banking in Tanzania
"The global poverty fighting organization CARE, Mwanga Community Bank and Vodacom Tanzania have launched a program that will connect remote community savings groups in Mwanga, Tanzania to banks using mobile phones. This innovative partnership is only the second-of-its-kind anywhere in the world. The first was launched in March by CARE and partners in Kenya."

ASB Bank apologises for technical glitch
"ASB Bank has apologised after a technical glitch this morning (Mon) caused headaches for customers using its Eftpos, mobile and online banking services. Customers took to the bank's Facebook page to vent their frustration, with one saying he was unable to pay for parking because his Visa debit card was not working."

1.0m brought under mobile banking: Atiur
"Around 1.0 million subscribers have come under mobile technology-based financial services, said Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman Tuesday, reports UNB. 'Through this service, transaction worth around Tk 10 billion (1000 crore) in each month and around Tk 330 million (33 crore) per day is being settled. Each month, the transaction volume through mobile banking is increasing by 15 per cent,' he said."

International Mobile Banking Updates - Oct 2

MOBILE BANKING (First of two parts)
"THE popularity of cell phones in the Philippines is undeniable and palpable. Ask any person on the street if he has a cell phone, and 7 out of 10 would probably say yes. Sadly, while access to mobile phone services has rocketed in recent years, access to financial services remains a major barrier to economic growth. If only banks here were as easily accessible as cell phones, particularly in the rural areas!"

Anytime-anywhere banking, courtesy RBI
"Customers can now pay for their taxi rides, pizzas, kirana store purchases anytime, anywhere with their mobile phones, reports CNBC-TV18's Gopika Gopakumar. Have you run out of cash while shopping? Don't worry! You can pay anyone including your neighbourhood kirana store with your mobile phone. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the organisation set up by the RBI for all retail payments, has now launched the inter-bank mobile payment service for all merchants. This will allow customers to pay their bills for as little as 25 paise for each transaction."

Mobile banking expands in rural areas 
"In 2011, Philippine rural banks processed over P4.9 billion (roughly $116 million) worth of banking transactions which were enabled by mobile banking. In fact, the former head of the Microentrepreneurs Access to Banking Services (MABS) program John V. Owens said a 58-percent increase in the volume of transactions through mobile banking has been noted in the first four months of 2012. Since mobile banking or access to banking services through the mobile phone technology was introduced in 2006, a total of P16 billion (approximately $363 million) had been processed."

KBank boosts mobile and cyber-banking services
"Art Wichiencharoen, first senior vice president of Kasikornbank, said that the company usually invests about Bt100 million to keep the bank's technologies up to date in order to provide a wide new range of secure cyber-banking and mobile-banking services. Currently, the bank has more than 1.4 million users of its cyber-banking services, with 400,000 active users per month. Meanwhile, it has more than 1.2 million registered users of its mobile-banking service, with about 500,000 active users per month."

SBI, ICICI lead the pack as m-banking gains currency
"Mumbai: Anand Chaturvedi, a 27-year-old analyst with a brokerage firm in Mumbai, started using his mobile phone for banking about six months back “because it is easy to use and accessible from anywhere”. When in office, he does Internet banking, but uses the mobile banking (m-banking) services of ICICI Bank Ltd and HDFC Bank Ltd when travelling. Vinaya Venugopalan, a 26-year-old information technology (IT) manager with an Indian bank, started using m-banking in May. He is comfortable with the service, but limits it mostly to checking his bank balance."

Australians slow to embrace mobile banking
"A cashless future where the bulk of consumers rely on mobile phones for their banking needs may be further away than many in the financial services industry claim. That's because consumers in Australia have not shown wide acceptance of mobile banking at a time when technical barriers persist and the challenge of an ageing demographic looms."

Way to beat a cash economy
"In a predominantly cash-run economy, electronic payment methods that provide convenience to users while lowering the transaction cost of banks make immense sense. Mobile banking, or m-banking, that started with small SMS transactions, is one such mechanism. Today, with more than 900 million cellphone subscribers in the country and hundreds of tablet PCs, there should ideally be many takers. According to a August Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report, in fiscal 2012, however, only 13 million people across 49 banks used m-banking services, and made 25.6 million transactions valued at Rs.1,820 crore."

Capitec mobile banking hits 2 million clients
"South African commercial bank Capitec Bank Holdings reported on Wednesday (26 September), that it had signed up more than two million clients to its mobile banking service. 'Capitec promotes the use of mobile banking, and at the end of August 2012, in excess of 2.0 million clients were registered for this service.'"

Mobile tellers take banking by storm
"Since taking the reins as chief information officer for Westpac, Clive Whincup has presided over the launch of the bank’s first iPad application; a trial to turn Android smartphones into contactless payment devices; the introduction of an iPad app to replace printed board papers; a 1000 iPad pilot for bank executives; and a St George innovation that allows payments to be made from a smartphone using only the recipient’s mobile number."

Mobile devices change the face of banking
"How about taking a picture of a cheque with your smartphone to deposit it? What about getting online advice about your investments when you're on your tablet? And then there's paying for small purchases with smartphones. The use of smartphones and tablets in consumers' everyday lives is helping push changes in how they bank, pay for bills and even how they can get investment advice, say experts."

The rise of mobile money is driven by the poor 
"As Google, Apple, Paypal, Mastercard and the entire banking community fights over mobile money, we decided to look to the power users to find out what the near future of monetary exchange might look like. The World Bank’s treasure trove of open data on mobile banking is a well stocked pantry for the data hungry. Welcome to our first data snack and enjoy the graph we created below."