International Mobile Banking Updates - May 30

Where Does the Future of Mobile Banking Lie?
"Karl Rieder, Director of Research & Development at The GFT Group, is chairing the Marketforce and the IEA Annual Future of Mobile Banking Conference 2012, on Tuesday 29th May in London. 'This is an extremely interesting time to be in mobile banking,' Karl Rieder comments, 'While mobile technologies have significantly changed our lives and businesses, mobile banking has yet to take a real foothold as compared to other industries, but we are at a tipping point, and some big things are right around the corner.'"

The Future of Mobile Payment Systems: Rise of the Mobile Wallet 2012-2017
"Currently there are over 30 different mobile payment solutions each with their own technologies, advantages, and disadvantages. Existing mobile solutions are categorized based on the payment settlement methods that are prepaid (using smart cards or digital wallet), instant paid (direct debiting or off-line payments), and post paid (credit card or telephone bill)."

Q and A: Barclays looking to extend Pingit into full blown mobile banking
"Barclays told CBR that will be extending the functionality of its Pingit money transfer app over the coming months, with an eye to releasing a ‘full’ mobile banking app. CBR spoke to Barclay's Richard Martin, managing director, payments and cash management products, and Mike Walters, head of UK corporate payments product management about the future of its smartphone app, Pingit."

Nigeria: RenCap Seeks Policies for Mobile Banking Growth
"Renaissance Capital (RenCap) has called for policies that will stimulate the growth of mobile banking in Nigeria. The international financial advisory firm in a report Tuesday expressed concern that why the use of the banking platform has recorded significant success in Kenya, same could not be said of Nigeria. It added: 'The structure of Kenya's economy and regulatory environment supported the development of mobile banking. Following the introduction of mobile banking the number of Kenyans with bank accounts has increased from 1 million to 15 million.'"

Westpac to develop technology in-house
"Despite cutting several hundred jobs and being accused of planning to offshore the majority of its IT operation, Westpac technology chiefs say the development of new mobile applications and innovative solutions for the banking group must be handled in-house. Chief information officer Clive Whincup and chief technology officer Jeff Jacobs used a technology media briefing last week in Sydney to unveil two new iPad apps developed in Australia by a team of about 50 staff. The team, comprised primarily of former St George Bank developers and additional personnel, bases app features on insights garnered from consumer and user behavioural research."

Push to go mobile keeps bankers appy
"MOBILE banking is quickly becoming the new battleground for major banks as an explosion in the number of Australians using smartphone apps threatens their grip on customer payments. The big four are scrambling to keep up with customer demand for hyper-mobility with the number of smartphone users expected to increase globally to 631 million by 2015, up from 172 million in 2009, according to the World Retail Banking Report 2012."

Dial M for mobile banking apps
"Smartphones are revolutionising personal banking and throwing up some bizarre juxtapositions of old and new. In the United States, where cheques are still common, Chase Bank has developed an iPhone app that lets customers photograph the front and back of cheques and submit the images, via their iPhone, to the bank to be deposited into their account."

Absa online banking crashes - on payday
"It is not the first instance of a South African bank apparently failing to manage the huge migration of customers to online banking. In March First National Bank had to weather a storm of protest when it suffered a systems failure for several hours. On Friday an Absa spokesman said the bank's system engineers were trying to resolve the problem, but by 3.45pm the website was still not accessible after being unavailable all morning."