Westpac Smart Watch app goes live

"Westpac New Zealand has released the first integrated mobile banking app for a SmartWatch device, available exclusively on the Sony SmartWatch.

The Cash Tank app was used nearly 40 million times over the last year, with this development designed to offer convenience for customers and help answer the most frequently asked question in banking, “What’s my balance?” at the touch of their wrist. Westpac Head of Digital Simon Pomeroy says smart watches are the next frontier of app development as customers continue their uptake of mobile devices." 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

NZ smartphone users ahead of Aussies in mobile banking uptake

"New Zealanders have been slower to take up smartphones than their Trans-Tasman counterparts-but once they get one, they are more likely to bank on them, the latest Digital Universe report from Roy Morgan Research shows. Just 38.6% of New Zealanders 14+ have a smartphone, compared with 59.7% of Australians 14+. But while Australia may be home to over eight times as many smartphone users overall, New Zealand's 1.4 million are more likely to use them for mobile banking activities.

In the first half of 2013, 33.5% of New Zealand's smartphone users did one or more banking and finance activity on their phone in an average four weeks, compared with 30.6% of Australian smartphone users." Continue Reading

International Mobile Banking Updates - May 8

Online and mobile banking: your rights when something goes wrong
"Nationwide customers were left without access to some banking services twice last week due to IT failures. Online and mobile banking was unavailable for several hours and angry customers took to social media sites to vent their frustrations. But Nationwide isn't the only provider to have been plagued by technical faults. Last year thousands of RBS customers were completely cut off from their bank accounts for several days."

Two million Kiwis now using online banking
"More than two million New Zealanders now use internet banking, an increase of nearly 18% over the past four years. Approximately 2.05 million Kiwis use online banking, up from 1.74 million in 2009, according to data released by Statistics New Zealand. While younger generations are the most likely to transact online, internet banking is popular among all age groups."

Africa: Nigeria Stumbles After Kenya
"More people in Africa use their mobile phone to bank than in any other region in the world. The continent's banking revolution began in March 2007 when Kenyan telecoms operator Safaricom launched M-Pesa, a service that allows users to send, receive and save money using a cellphone. Since then M-Pesa has spread to Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Mobile banking now exists in 33 African countries, according to GSMA, a trade association."

Fear and loathing of m-banking
"There was nothing unusual about that morning, until on my way to work that group walking on the road caught my eye. I had seen them many times before but probably not noticed them this way. Whether on foot or cramped together in a vehicle, they prefer travelling in groups every morning to their respective workplaces. They carry their lunches in cloth potlis or plastic thailis and come from villages and hometowns far away to earn livelihood. And they can, perhaps, be clustered into one defined group - they are a part of India’s significant migrant population, of which many are also unbanked."

Subscribers warm up to new cellphone banking application
"Six months ago, Jane Adhiambo Achieng walked into a local Kenyan bank with the hope of getting a loan for her small grocery business. After providing all the paperwork and after weeks of back and forth between her and bank officials, she was turned down. 'They just told me I don't qualify. My income was too little,' said 42-year-old Achieng, who was asking for some $250, about half her monthly turnover, to expand her fruit and vegetable stall in the Kenyan capital. But in early March, she applied for the same amount through a different source and got the money in a matter of minutes."

Citibank Bahrain steps up online security...
"The bank said 'dynamic multi-factor authentication' on online and mobile banking platforms comes in the form of one-time pins (OTP). Being offered through the bank's Internet banking (Citibank online-CBOL) and mobile banking (Citi Mobile) facility - the new one-time pin service sends a unique number to customers in the form of a mobile text message every time they log on to CBOL and Citi Mobile. Clients can perform multiple transactions within each Internet session."

Mobile Banking For The Unbanked
"In sub-Sahara Africa, more than 80% of people have no access to traditional financial services. This has been one of the great challenges in fighting poverty in South Africa. Given the lack of developed infrastructure in many parts of Africa, how is it possible to provide millions of unbanked people with basic banking services? Standard Bank of South Africa has found the answer! Standard Bank discovered that one of the biggest impediments to opening a new account for many of these people was their lack of ability to provide proof of residence. However, at the same time, Standard Bank also found that a large percentage of unbanked people had access to mobile phones!"

International Mobile Banking Updates - Mar 20

Commercialbank names winners of online, mobile banking campaign
"Some eight lucky Commercialbank customers have been named as the winners of the bank’s recent online and mobile banking campaign. The eight week promotion, which was open to all new and existing customers registered for Commercialbank’s online banking and mobile services, highlighted the 'flexibility, security and range of banking services' that the bank’s customers have access to from their mobile phone or computers. Commercialbank’s mobile banking platform is compatible with iPad, Android and all smartphones, in addition to the iPhone, BlackBerry and mobile web."

RBS launch mobile banking app days after second card network crash
"From today, customers using the RBS/NatWest mobile phone app will be able to send a payment of up to £100 to anyone with a Visa card, by entering their mobile phone number. The announcement comes just days after the banking group apologised to customers for its second computer hitch in a year. A hardware fault left RBS Group customers blocked from using cashpoints for several hours last week, while online and telephone banking services were also disrupted. As well as currently having more than two million active users, the RBS/NatWest mobile banking app has 13 million logins per week."

Bank Alfalah, Warid launch mobile banking solution
"Monet – an independent mobile financial services company – partnered with Fundamo – Visa’s subsidiary and one of the world’s largest specialist mobile financial service providers – to launch a mobile money network in Pakistan, the press release said. Monet – which was set up by the Abu Dhabi Group last year – had secured approval from the State Bank of Pakistan to build its network, which is being offered to local firms planning to launch mobile money services."

The Benefits of Mobile Health, on Hold
"The world now has 5 billion mobile phones – one for every person over 15. Africa has a billion people and 750 million phones, and mobile is growing so fast there that in a few years there will be more phones than people. In some countries this is already true — South Africa has 47 million people, but 52 million SIM cards. The mobile phone is doing more than revolutionizing communication. It has the potential to improve many aspects of life in poor countries: commerce, health, agriculture, education."

Polish FI rolls out mobile banking, payment solution
"Polish financial institution PKO Bank Polski has launched its first mobile payment solution, called IKO. Based on the mobile payment platform of Swedish company Accumulate, the product supports mobile banking and payment services at the point of sale, real-time peer-to-peer payments and cardless withdrawals from ATMs."

Mobile banking a game changer, says SBP governor
"State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Yaseen Anwar has said that developments in branchless banking across the country have been so far marvelous, leaving nobody in doubt about the potential of mobile phone banking to be a game-changer in banking, m-commerce and financial inclusion. Speaking at the 6th International Conference on ‘Mobile Banking in Pakistan’ at a local hotel on Thursday, he said that developments in m-banking and m-commerce will lead us to connect the unbanked segment of our population to financial services, thus contributing to their empowerment."

Mobile phone-banking is failing to meet its potential
"India's 840 million mobile phone connections are emerging as knights in armour in the financial inclusion challenge—they hold the promise of providing banking access to the large swathe of India's unbanked population. Yet, today, less than 20 million people in India are using mobile banking services offered by some 50-odd banks, even though the National Payments Consortium of India (NPCI) has rolled out a gateway for inter-bank mobile payment services (IMPS)."

Shell-Backed Solar Company Bets on Phone Banking for Africa
"M-KOPA Kenya Ltd., backed by a Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA)-funded charity, sees sales of its solar-lighting system that allows users to pay by phone surging 13-fold as mobile operators roll out banking services in Africa. The system, a panel powering lights and a phone charger, links to mobile banking services to allow customers to pay 40 Kenyan shillings (46 cents) a day to use it, M-KOPA says. The company plans to boost clients in Kenya to 100,000 from about 7,500 now, and expand abroad in future, Managing Director Jesse Moore said."

Kiwis double up on mobile banking
"The proportion of New Zealand's smartphoners who use their phone to conduct online banking transactions has almost doubled in the past year, according to Roy Morgan's latest Mobile Phone Monitor. While a majority of smartphone users (58%) still bank online using a computer, 16% now conduct banking on their mobiles—up from 8.3% in January last year."

Mobile banking service expanding in Bangladesh
"Mobile banking is gaining ground among the people in Bangladesh within a short span of time for facilitating its easy transaction services. Some 3.0 million people make now the use of different services under mobile banking. There are about 70,000 outlets of mobile banking service-providers, making the services available to the users. The extent of such services and the volume of transactions involve a sizeable amount of money, between Tk 300 million and Tk 350 million, per day, according to the data of the Bangladesh Bank (BB)."

Mobile banking technologies catch on in Russia
Portable terminals and personal finance management services are sweeping the global banking market. In Russia, the mobile- and online-banking segments are growing, introducing similar innovations to the market. Some banks are ready to invest in these innovations, while others wait for these new technologies to become actual drivers for the industry."

ANZ launches enhanced mobile banking app
"The ANZ Bank has launched more enhancements to its mobile banking application, goMoney, which the company says makes it the “first bank in Australia” to integrate personal and business accounts into a single mobile banking application for customers using an iPhone. Nick Reade, ANZ General Manager Small Business Banking, said small business customers wanted to do their banking “when and where it suits them,” and increasingly customers were using mobile devices."

Santander UK Launches Mobile Banking App for Android
"Santander has launched a brand new mobile banking app for customers who use Android smartphones and tablets, including the Kindle Fire, as well as updating the iPhone/iPad app the bank originally launched in January 2012. The new apps provide a secure service for banking on the go, including a helpful single platform where customers can see information for all their Santander current accounts, savings and credit cards. The apps are available from the Apple App Store and the Android store (Google Play) and free to all of Santander's personal banking customers."

Visa Europe signs new three-year deal with Monitise to expand its mobile banking services across Europe
"Visa Europe has signed a new three-year deal with Monitise to develop and expand its various Mobile Money solutions, which support mobile banking, payments and commerce networks, to more leading financial institutions across Europe. The extended partnership means that Monitise is guaranteed minimum revenues of €45 million over the next three years, with the chance to go beyond that provided 'certain user generated thresholds are achieved.'”