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 29

ClairMail launches mobile banking app for iPhone
"Last month, I wrote about plans by banking and security products company Diebold to launch mobile banking services in the U.S. Today, Diebold’s partner, ClairMail, a Novato (Calif.)-based company, announced another effort to proliferate mobile banking: Smart Client. This free application for the iPhone is now available to banks, which will offer it to consumers later this year, and aims to make it easier yet for smart phone users to register for and use mobile banking."

U.S. Bank Introduces Downloadable Mobile Banking Application
"U.S. Bank has launched the Mobile Wallet, its new free downloadable mobile banking application that allows more convenient banking access on the go to its customers. The bank is collaborating with Firethorn Holdings, LLC, a Qualcomm company, to provide the technology behind the Mobile Wallet."

35% of mobile subscribers will use m-banking in 2014, study predicts
"Some 35% of mobile users in Latin America will perform mobile banking transactions in 2014, predicts consultancy Signals Telecoms Consulting. Though the future of mobile banking is expected to involve consumers using their mobile terminals to carry out all sorts of transactions, removing the need to carry cash, cards and other means of payment, Signals market research director Carlos Blanco claims that the mobile banking concept encompasses a broader range of areas, including the categories of remote payments, authentication processes, bank account maintenance and payment orders."

CASHEDGE SIGNS FIRST ROUND OF BANKS FOR POPMONEY
"CashEdge, Inc. (www.cashedge.com), the leading provider of Intelligent Money Movement™ services, announced today that four financial institutions, including a top 10 bank, are adding POPmoney™ (www.popmoney.com) to their customer offerings. All are expected to be live with the new service by the end of 2009. POPmoney is the first email and mobile person-to-person payments (P2P) service for banks."

Internet Is Top Banking Method
"Online is now the No. 1 method of banking, according to an August 2009 survey of US consumers by the American Bankers Association (ABA). One-quarter of respondents preferred banking online to using branches, ATMs or any other channel."

Internet banking moves onto your phone
"WITH the rise in popularity of 3G mobiles, banks will soon offer their facilities anywhere you can get a phone signal. The world of banking has come a long way since we all queued up at bank branches to transfer money or withdraw cash. Since the first automatic teller machine appeared at a London branch of Barclays in 1967, banking has steadily evolved from a Dickensian-style, paper-based industry requiring rubber stamps on every transaction, through the telephone banking revolution of the 1990s to today's hi-tech digital operations where, with the right equipment, many of us need never visit a bank branch again."

M-Com Presents Interactive Webinar on Mobile Banking and Payments: Winning Strategies for Banks
"Global mobile banking and payments solution provider M-Com is to host a series of webinars on how banks can make money from mobile banking and payment services. Hear from industry experts at M-Com about what is working and what is not in the Mobile Financial Services space based on our 10 years of experience helping banks make the most from the mobile channel. This is not a product pitch but rather a review of key issues facing the segment, opportunities for revenue generation in the near-term and best practice approaches for delivering world class Mobile Financial Services solution in your market. Strategies discussed will be applicable to both developed and developing markets based on M-Com’s experience delivering winning mobile banking, payments and m-commerce solutions that help banks capitalize on revenue generation, cost mitigation and competitive differentiation opportunities."

First Bank Launches Free Mobile Banking
"In an effort to better service clients, FirstBank has launched free mobile banking to all account holders in the United States & British Virgin Islands. FirstBank’s mobile banking service will give clients instant connectivity to accounts anywhere, anytime using the browser on their mobile devices. FirstBank is pleased to offer clients yet another delivery channel for accessing their account information. The Bank continues to take a proactive leadership role in providing clients with the technology to meet their needs not only today but in the future."

ClairMail Extends Mobile Banking Platform
"ClairMail, Inc., the leader in mobile banking and payment solutions, today announced Version 4 of its industry leading mobile banking platform. The new platform includes cutting-edge technology designed to help financial institutions realize the strategic potential of mobile banking. This new release of the product delivers game changing capabilities in the three most critical areas of mobile banking solutions, the ability to use mobile to drive to 100% coverage of the bank's customers, the ability to proactively deliver personalized content to deepen customer engagement, and the need for a simple, yet powerful, converged customer experience to deliver comprehensive services and technology through a unified and streamlined customer interface."


CellTrust SecureSMS to Meet the Stringent Mobile Banking Requirements
"CellTrust Corporation, the world's largest provider of SecureSMS for mobile phones, announced today its SecureSMS platform meets the new and stringent SecureSMS security requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
With approximately 53% of the adult population in Nigeria financially excluded, the Central Bank of Nigeria has been working feverishly to spur innovation within the financial services sector."

HSBC and SMS Banking

I have recently learned that HSBC has now launched an SMS based mobile banking solution for their business clients. To read more click here.

Also, sources tell me that this is the first of many pending announcements where banks that have already launched one type of mobile banking solution will be following up with a secondary offering. In order to keep an updated record of which institutions have implemented which solutions I have developed this Top 10 tracking page. Each time a new announcement is made I will update this page with the most current information. Please be sure to add this page to your favorites and check back frequently.