Mobile Banking Vendor Updates - Mar 6

Fiserv Acquires M-Com to Enhance Mobile Banking and Payments Capabilities
"Fiserv, Inc., the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that it has acquired Mobile Commerce Ltd. (M-Com), an international mobile banking and payments provider, to enhance Fiserv's existing mobile channel capabilities. The two companies have been partners since 2008, developing and delivering Mobile Money™ from Fiserv to hundreds of financial institutions. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed."

Texas banks launch mobile banking offering with First Data
"After a successful pilot period, two Texas banks have launched First Data’s Mobile Manager mobile banking service to offer customers greater flexibility and on-the-go access to their financial information. The service can be easily integrated into banks’ current online platforms, and provides an alternative to creating the mobile banking system in-house. It includes SMS, mobile Web and downloadable applications."

Mitek Systems Unveils Another New Consumer Application That Enhances Consumer Convenience in Mobile Payments
"Continuing to expand consumer options for convenience in mobile banking, Mitek Systems Inc. today rolled out another innovative application for mobile payments companies which offers consumers the most convenient way to enroll their checking accounts."

Sutherland and Tyfone Partner to Accelerate Adoption of Mobile Financial Services
"Sutherland Global Services (www.sutherlandglobal.com), a leading provider of technology-enabled Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services, announced a partnership with Tyfone (www.Tyfone.com), a global provider of unified mobile secure transaction infrastructure for mobile banking, mobile identity management and mobile contactless NFC payments."

Clickatell Engages Customers with SMS; Secures Funding for Mobile Banking
"From making donations to launching alerts about local emergencies, text messaging has far exceeded its original purpose of communicating with friends. Yet, harnessing the power of SMS technologies is not always easy or affordable for small businesses that may want to communicate en masse with its constituencies. Until now. Clickatell, a South African-based online SMS mobile messaging gateway provider, has launched a US small business SMS messaging package aimed at providing an accessible way to interact with and help customers via simple text messages."

CoCoNet unveils mobile banking app for corporate customers
"The new e-banking app is available for various smart phones and tablet PCs such as Apple iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android devices. The European multi-bank communications standard EBICS allows companies to connect to all their bank accounts at the highest level of service quality and security. Besides the well established channels through fat-clients and high sophisticated internet portals like MULTIVERSA IFP International Finance Portal users of corporate customers increasingly demand for mobile capabilities."

Mobile Banking Updates - Aug 11

How to Protect Your Smartphone's Valuable Data
"So you just lost your smartphone. It isn't the end of the world, but it sure feels like it. In addition to the specter of shelling out another couple hundred dollars to replace the hardware, you're facing the loss of all your contacts, your schedule, your to-do lists, your passwords (if you really weren't careful and stored them on the phone), and, oh yeah, the dicey photos you took at the bar last Friday.

All of that is gone, at least for the moment, but if your Apple iPhone, Google Android phone, RIM BlackBerry, or any other smartphone falls into the wrong hands, that vast archive of your personal information won't just be forgotten--it could be cashed in."

App Surge and Smartphone Growth Set Stage for Mobile Banking Uptick
"While an estimated 90% of U.S. consumers use mobile phones, far fewer use them for banking. In fact, a Gartner report released in June said that out of the group studied, only 15% had used mobile banking in the past month. This adoption rate might seem small compared to the overall use of smartphones and other mobile devices and in light of the buzz the channel has generated. However, industry participants say the potential is there."

M-Com Announces World First Plug-And-Play SaaS Platform For Mobile Banking, Alerting And Payments
"International mobile banking solution provider, M-Com, announced today the launch of a complete ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) version of its globally deployed mobile banking and payment platform – BankAnywhere. The new product has been labeled BankAnywhere ASP Edition.

'Having run ASP and multi-tenant mobile financial services since 2006, we have been focused on trying to create a full and complete ASP version of our award-winning product – BankAnywhere,' states M-Com CEO and Founder, Adam Clark. 'The team has worked very hard and the initiative has given our coffee machine a solid workout, but I can categorically say that M-Com now has the best mobile software-as-a-service platform in the world for banks and payment processors.'"

Apple's iOS Security Challenges and Opportunities
"One of the most controversial debates in the security world has long been the role of market share. Are Macs safer because there are fewer users, making them less attractive to serious cyber-criminals? Although Mac market share continues to increase slowly, the answer remains elusive. But it's more likely that we'll see the answer in our pockets, not on our desktops."

Sybase 365 Innovation Ensures Fastest Deployment, Increased Functionality and Widest Device Support for Retail and Corporate Banks
"Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc., the global leader in mobile messaging and mobile commerce services, today announced the expansion of its mobile commerce offering with version 3.0 of Sybase(R) mBanking 365(R) -- the recognised market leading and award winning mobile banking platform. The latest offering significantly enhances functionalities and simplifies the deployment process, enabling financial institutions to more quickly create a richer mobile banking experience and increase customer satisfaction."

Banking on M-banking
"More than half our population lives in rural and semi-urban areas and falls in the category of 'unbanked and under-banked' people. These people are mostly financially excluded, leading insecure lives, without any access to basic banking services. The central government and the Reserve Bank of India have therefore been promoting the idea of 'Financial Inclusion' (FI) for large segments of our population through the use of IT-based, e-governance initiatives since a few years now."

Mobile Banking Updates - Apr 19

M-com Launches Mobile Banking And Payments Platform For Emerging Markets
"International mobile banking solution provider, M-Com, announced today that it has launched an Emerging Markets edition of its flagship product – BankAnywhere. 'BankAnywhere has been servicing banks in developed countries since May 2002,' comments M-Com CEO and Founder, Adam Clark. 'Given the specific needs and constraints of banks within emerging markets, we decided to tailor some of its core functionality. We have made it easier than ever for consumers in developing economies to pay bills, top up, receive vouchers and send each other money through the trusted brands of their financial institutions. In other words, for banks in developing nations, this is an M-Commerce platform in-a-box.'”

U.S. Mobile Banking Grew 20% in Q1 2010
"Mobile banking adoption in the U.S. is grew by 20% last quarter according to research we have done on large and regional banks in the U.S. USAA is a good published example of this industry growth we think is fueled by the proliferation of smartphones and a growing consumer comfort and familiarity with mobile technology. USAA reports having 17% mobile banking adoption at then end of Q1 2010 up from 14% at the end of 2009. Other banks for whom we cannot report numbers grew at a similar rate."

Qatar National Bank Introduces Mobile Banking Application
"Qatar National Bank (QNB) has launched mobile banking application in the country, for BlackBerry mobile users as part of its continuous drive to develop new products and services for its customers.
An extension of the QNB’s eazylife suite of electronic banking services (e-services), the QNB mobile banking application (eazymobile) is a multi-purpose tool that gives customers an access to range of banking services through any mobile phone, as well as the recently added BlackBerry handsets."

M Banking on ms Platform
"MBanx, a mobile banking solution based on the Microsoft platform, was successfully deployed by Synapsys, an IT services and solutions company. This was marked by the official launch of 'MBanker' doorstep banking service by DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB), which chose MBanx as the mobile applications platform that would drive its mobile services. With the use of mobile terminals running MBanx Client Application over GPRS or 3G, DVB's banking executives will now visit and serve customers in their own environs providing great convenience to the customer, and, at the same time busting queues at bank branches."

Mobile Banking from Fiserv M-COM in the News

Fiserv White Paper on Profitability of Mobile Financial Services
"Fiserv has published a new white paper titled 'How to Achieve a Compelling ROI from Mobile Financial Services' that explores 'how a strategic approach to mobile banking and payments can provide financial institutions with a tangible return on investment.'"

Fiserv Offers Fast-Track Mobile Banking
"Fiserv Inc. on Monday introduced Mobile Money FastTrack, a streamlined version — with implementation cycles as short as 90 days — of its mobile banking software aimed at midsize to large financial companies."

NZ software company rated one to watch in US
"A New Zealand software developer selling cellphone banking technology to the world has been named one of "Ten Tech Companies to Watch" by an American trade publication. M-Com is a graduate of Auckland University's Icehouse business incubator. Its software - enabling customers to do such things as check their balances, transfer money and pay bills using their mobile phones - is now in use by most of the big New Zealand banks. Last year it won a deal to supply Fiserv, a Fortune 500 company which sells technology to more than 10,000 banks globally."

Mobile Banking Updates - Apr 30

Western Union, Consumer Portfolio Service and VeriSign Team to Offer Mobile Bill Payment Solution
"The Western Union Company, together with Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. (CPS) and VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Division, today announced a pilot project enabling CPS customers to trigger their monthly car payment directly from their mobile phone. Unlike mobile payment services that direct the consumer to a website or interactive voice response system (IVR), the new service allows consumers to quickly and easily initiate their payment using their phone’s text messaging service based on debit or credit card information entered online."

M-Com and Fawry team on mobile banking in Egypt
"Based on M-Com's globally leading mobile payments and banking solution - BankAnywhere - Fawry Banking and Payment Technology Services will enable banks to offer a broad range of mobile payment, alerting and banking services to their customer base."

Fronde Anywhere Expands Presence in Asia
"Fronde Anywhere, the leading provider of innovative mobile payment, banking and security products is expanding its in-market presence in Southeast Asia. 'Our solutions really seem to be hitting the mark with clients in Asia’', says Caroline Dewe, CEO, Fronde Anywhere, 'our partnership with Logica in this region has proven very successful in generating regional references for all our offerings and we are expanding our on the ground resource in order to further increase our Southeast Asian footprint.'"

NCR Unleashes Remote Check Deposit by Using Mobile Phone Cameras
"NCR Corporation is allowing consumers to deposit checks safely from wherever they can get reception on their data-enabled mobile phones, such as an iPhone or Blackberry. The company today announced an agreement with Mitek Systems, Inc., an innovator of image analytics and mobile imaging software, to integrate Mitek's ImageNet Mobile Deposit software into NCR's APTRA Passport family of remote deposit capture solutions."

Have a Plan for Text Banking?

If you're still unsure if text banking should be a part of your mobile solution check out these numbers:

* Verisign predicts..."a record of more than 1.4 billion mobile messages are expected to be delivered nationwide on Inauguration Day"

* Latest figures in the UK - 17.7 billion SMS/MMS messages in Q2 2008.

* Over 12 mobile banking transactions conducted every month per consumer.

And, if you're not sure where to start here are 3 alternatives:

Clairmail

Sybase

M-COM

Mobile Banking Updates - Aug 5th

Fundtech and Firethorn to Provide Mobile Corporate Cash Management
"Fundtech Ltd., a market leader in global transaction banking solutions, and mobile commerce enabler Firethorn Holdings, LLC, a Qualcomm company announced today that the two companies will work together to add mobile connectivity to Fundtech's CASHplus cash management system."

The Grameen-Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative
"Obopay Inc., a service provider for payments via mobile phones, and Grameen Solutions, the company globally recognized for promoting economic and social development through information and communications technology, have announced an alliance - 'The Grameen-Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative', to use mobile technology to deliver banking services to a billion of the world's poorest people by 2018."

Banks Down Under Monetize Mobile
"The National Bank and ANZ, related New Zealand banks, have been charging for mobile services—as have all their competitors—since they went live with the offering more than a year ago."

Mobile Payments - NFC Sticker Follow Up

On Thursday I received a call from Serge van Dam (Head of Marketing - MCOM) in response to the article I posted last week about NFC stickers.

Somewhat to my surprise I learned that not only was M-COM familiar with the solution, but had also recently conducted a pilot.

Here are just a few of their key findings:

* The trial was run in conjunction with Paymark (New Zealand’s largest payment switch) and retail bank ASB (a subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia).

* The findings confirm what we have always believed about payment channels – convenience is king” claims Adam Clark (CEO - MCOM). “Convenience and ease of use were considered the biggest drivers of preferred payment instruments for consumers prior to the trial, and over 75% of participants declared afterwards that the contactless mobile payment experience was more convenient that card based and cash transactions.”

* Cash was the most substituted payment instrument during the M-Com trial, largely due to the low average transaction size during the trial (coffee and snacks were the most frequently purchased items).

* Users also stated that they had an interest in applying contactless mobile payments across other regular purchase types they partake in - namely; parking (72%), vending machines (69%), public transport (63%) and convenience stores (61%).

* “Participating merchants felt that once the technology was in place, including staff familiarity, it delivered a faster and easier payment process for their low value transactions. Ultimately, they were able to push through more purchases, which means more revenue and more profit”

* M-Com is currently working through assessing the technical feasibility of various near-field communications (NFC) deployment models. Later in 2008, M-Com plans to integrate its contactless payment capabilities into its mobile banking platform – BankAnywhere – to enable retail banks to seamlessly offer mobile banking and payment services to consumers off a single technology investment.

Recap from Mobile Commerce Summit - Part I

As I review my notes from the 14 sessions on mobile banking there is one common theme that resonated through out the conference..."How do I make money?" And as one might expect the answers covered the spectrum:

Bob Egan (Chief Analyst - TowerGroup): Make money using analytics to sell products/services.

Steven Kietz (EVP - Citi; CEO - MMV): Focus on Innovation. Expedite the new account opening process. Innovate around your rewards program - acquisition, tracking, spending.

Brandon McGee (i.e. Me): Incorporate targeted banner messages to cross-sell new products and services to existing clients. Do you have marketing messages on your website and within your online banking service? They should be in your mobile channel as well.

Mark Uicker (VP & Co-Founder - Clairmail): Focus on expense reduction in the form of 1) lower call center volume and 2) reduction in paper which can double as a "green" initiative.

Adam Green (Senior Product Manager - FIS): Opportunities via expedited payments, loyalty and using SMS messaging to increase debit/credit activation and usage.

Serge van Dam (Head of Marketing - MCOM): Making the product FREE is not mandatory. Bank of New Zealand gives away mobile to the top 10% of their client base but then charges $2/month and $0.35/transaction to the remaining 90%.

Bob Hedges (Managing Partner - Mercatus Partners, LLC): Look for compelling use cases out of the commercial, cash management, and treasury departments. Focus on receivables, purchasing, and disbursements.

So what's the correct answer? All of the above. A business strategy consisting of even two of the ideas listed above will generate a positive ROI. Combining 3 or more will lead to very meaningful impact to the bottom line.

Mobile Commerce Summit 2008

Just a quick reminder that the Mobile Commerce Summit is coming up later this month.
Date: June 23-24
Location: Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

If you're interested in the mobile channel - this is THE place to be.

Looking for a vendor? They'll all be present including:
* Tripp Rackley (Firethorn)
* Joe Salesky (Clairmail)
* Drew Sievers (mFoundry)
* Lisa Stanton (Monitise)
* Serge Van Dam (M-Com)

Need to "compare notes" with a fellow banker? They're attending.

Like to hear from the analysts? Bob Egan (TowerGroup) and Bruce Cundiff (Javelin) will be presenting.

Hope to see you there!