International Mobile Banking Updates - Nov 21

Visa, Fundamo unveil emerging markets MCommerce product
"Visa, the world’s largest credit and debit card network, has unveiled a new product that allows people to access a prepaid account through their mobile phone. The product, which appears to be nameless, was developed in conjunction with Fundamo, a leading South African mobile money platform bought out by Visa for $110m earlier this year."

Global Banks Offer Surprisingly Few Good Mobile Apps
"The mobile applications of Deutsche Bank and the French bank Caisse d'Epargne come out as winners in a benchmarking of a total of almost 200 mobile apps, offered by the world´s top 50 banks (see table below). In the MyPrivateBanking survey Deutsche Bank’s apps scored especially well for the comprehensive content and the integration with other online media like Facebook, Twitter and the bank’s own website."

Mobile banking on the rise among young Canadians
"Nearly half of Canadian smartphone users, or 49 per cent, are expected to do banking from their devices in the next year or two, a new survey from ING Direct says. In a release, ING said that number reaches 64 per cent when looking at smartphone users between 18 and 34 years old."

Rural Women Banking By Mobile Phone
"Collecting the monthly subscriptions for her co-operative has always been a headache for Thelma Nare, 41. This is because Nare lives in Tshitshi, Plumtree in rural Zimbabwe, about 60 kilometres away from the humdrum of the nearest town centre where banks are located."

Mobile Banking Updates - Mar 22nd

Monitise, Carphone sign mobile banking software deal
"British mobile banking technology firm Monitise Plc and mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse formed an alliance to provide Monitise's mobile money software on handsets, the companies said on Thursday. No financial details were given. The alliance also covered a wide variety of initiatives including 'in store' and 'online' promotions and incentives for consumers to get linked up to their money 24/7, Monitise, which counts HSBC, NatWest and Alliance & Leicester among its customers"

Monitise plc: Monitise India Now Open For Business; Monitise To Launch Mobile Money Platform in India
"Monitise has announced the formation of MonitiseIndia, a new organisation that will deliver a multi-bank, multi-operator mobile money platform for India. The company will bring together a consortium of investors from across the financial services and mobile technology market. ICICI Bank, India's second largest bank, has expressed its intent to participate and invest in Monitise India, subject to the appropriate approvals."

Fundamo: MTN chooses Fundamo for the largest global roll-out of mobile wallet capabilities
"Fundamo, the world's largest specialist mobile financial services provider, today announced that leading African operator the MTN Group has chosen Fundamo's Mobile Wallet solution to power its "MTN MobileMoney" service, which will be available to a subscriber base of over 80 million users across 21 countries in Africa."

Juniper Research: Mobile coupons to increase by 30% during the next two years
"The research company identified two key drivers for the mobile coupons - on one side shoppers need to make economies in their spending, while on the other, merchants are keen to make sales in tough economic times. In that sense, both parties are attracted to the idea as they can be targeted at specific groups of customers and can be matched against particular interests and purchasing patterns."

Clickatell SMS receipts offer better security for mobile banking
"Bulk SMS provider Clickatell uses text messaging to help prevent fraud and identity theft for mobile banking. Clickatell SMS Receipts use text messages to notify users whenever one of their accounts is used for a transaction. The customer can then either verify or cancel that transaction. This service allows customers to cancel transactions at the point where they occur. As such, it prevents fraud from either on-line identity theft or from actual physical theft of wallets, cards and checkbooks."

Deutsche Bank bringing mobile payments to 80 countries
"Deutsche Bank’s Global Transaction Banking (GTB) unit recently announced an introduction of mobile phone payments service to its clients in 80 countries across Europe, Middle East and Asia. Europe-based mobile payment provider, Luup, is selected to be the bank’s “partner in crime” and the two companies will enable consumers to securely transfer money from any mobile device with any mobile network."