International Mobile Banking Updates - July 23

Over 80 million people in Middle East and Africa will turn to mobile banking by 2017
"Experts predict that mobile banking in the Middle East and Africa will jump from 19,8 million to 82,1 million users by 2017. Over the last five years the developing world has experienced substantial growth in the adoption of mobile technology. Emerging markets offer not only new possibilities for traditional banking but major potential for transformative banking."

BMI Bank launches mobile banking service
"Bahraini retail and commercial banking institution, BMI Bank recently announced the launch of a new service to help enhance its customers experience when interacting with the Bank. mBanking, the Bank's new mobile banking service, will enable customers to carry out most of their regular banking transactions in a convenient, safe and secure environment simply using their smartphones."

China Mobile and China UnionPay present NFC payments service
"Chinese bank card association China UnionPay and China Mobile, a mobile network operator, have rolled out their NFC payments service in over 14 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou in the country. Available for Android devices, customers can send and receive mobile payments at participating merchants equipped with UnionPay QuickPass contactless POS terminals with the help of an NFC SIM card and mobile wallet application, as reported by the Nfcworld.com."

New tax sparks fears for the future of Uganda's mobile banking
"The Ugandan government has levied a 10 percent tax on mobile banking transactions, in a move some have criticized as being short-sighted and potentially harmful to the country's expanding mobile money industry. The country's finance ministry hopes to raise $12m from the mobile banking tax, which went into effect in early July. At least some of this money will come from remittances, which, according to finance minister Maria Kiwanuka, amounted to $767m last year. But the vast majority of mobile banking customers live in Uganda, and faced with rising transaction costs, many are starting to rethink the system altogether. This could spell trouble for Uganda's emerging mobile banking industry and the economic potential it represents."

FNB strides towards mobile banking
"FNB says that 10% of its banking clients accessed its website via a smart device over the past year to June 2013, up from 4% previously. The bank went live with its revamped website on Sunday (14 July 2013), aimed at an improved user experience and a responsive design enabling scalability to multiple devices. 'At least 900,000 clients have accessed FNB.co.za via a smart device and 10% of banking clients are accessing via a smart device…and growing. It was only 4% last year,' FNB CEO of Online Banking Lee-Anne van Zyl told BusinessTech."

Malaysia’s New Mobile Banking Platform: Poised for Success
"Bank Negara Malaysia has recently launched a new mobile payment channel called MyMobile through its wholly owned subsidiary Malaysian Economic Clearing Corporation (MyClear). For the kickoff, MyMobile has teamed up with the country’s three largest banks, CIMB, Maybank and Public Bank, as well as the three largest mobile operators, Maxis, Celcom and DiGi, who collectively represent 93 percent of the country’s market."

Paying mobile dividends, digital payments giving banks a run for their money
"Australia's big four make up a cosy oligopoly without any real competition, say the critics. But now cashed up global giants are muscling in to the mobile payment space. The likes of Apple, Google and PayPal are on the offensive giving consumers and merchants plenty of new options to choose from."

Judge dismisses legal action to shut down Safaricom’s M-Shwari service
"An injunction sought by Faulu Kenya, a Kenyan micro-finance provider, to shut down Safaricom’s M-Shwari mobile banking service – pending the outcome of a court case – has been dismissed by a judge according to local press reports. As part of its push to broaden the range of M-Pesa services, Safaricom launched a banking service last November in partnership with the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA). Dubbed M-Shwari, which runs on the M-Pesa platform, the service offers loans and interest on deposit accounts."

RBC announces RBC Secure Cloud: The first cloud-based mobile payments solution in Canada
"RBC today announced its RBC Secure Cloud mobile payments service (patent-pending). This new technology, a first in Canada, will allow clients to more safely and securely pay for purchases using their mobile devices. Keeping sensitive client data secure with RBC in the cloud, not on the phone, makes RBC Secure Cloud a safer, faster, more flexible solution. RBC will bring RBC Secure Cloud to market by the end of the year with debit and credit on a number of smartphone platforms."

TD thanks customers for eighth straight J.D. Power Award in customer satisfaction
"A leader in responding to customers evolving needs, TD Canada Trust has built a stellar reputation for exceptional customer service and convenience. Building on its commitment to delivering convenience to Canadians, TD Canada Trust has received the highest ranking in customer satisfaction among the Top Five banks for the eighth straight year by the J.D. Power 2013 Canadian Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction Study(SM). TD Canada Trust performs well in all seven factors, including channel activities; account information; facilities; product offerings; fees; financial advisor; and problem resolution."

International Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 13

FNB launches new mobile payment method
"Pay2Cell is FNB’s latest mobile banking offering, which take a lot of admin out of making deposits and transfers into FNB accountholder’s accounts.

Pay2Cell allows FNB accountholders to make payments to other FNB clients using only the recipient’s cellphone number- no branch code or account number required, allowing customers to keep their banking details private. This could be yet another innovative idea that will see the migration of banking clients moving towards more technological means of making payments."

TD Canada Trust poll says only 8% of Canadians use mobile banking
"A recent survey from comScore suggested that 12.3% of Canadian mobile subscribers (24.5 million) have accessed banking, credit card, insurance or brokerage account information from their device. They didn’t give a breakdown of how many were for each category but TD Canada Trust stepped up today with their own poll. The 'Everyday Banking Poll' reached out to 1,000 Canadians between August 3rd – 9th and found that only 8% actually use mobile banking."

UPDATE: Rogers Communications Files Application To Start Bank >RCI
"Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI), Canada's biggest wireless phone company, plans to start a bank, primarily focused on credit, ...
--Rogers intends to start a bank
--Move into nascent, fast-growing mobile-banking market
--To be called Rogers Bank"

Banking on m-banking
"Like in many other countries, people in Bangladesh started believing in mobile banking, which was introduced on May 15 by Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd (DBBL). BRAC Bank introduced the service on July 21. Mercantile Bank and Trust Bank are also going to introduce m-banking throughout the country with the help of the government union information centres.

A total of 12 banks are in the race to introduce the service, while two are in the final lap of implementation. It was possible for approval from Bangladesh Bank and the telecom operators have also come forward to help the banks."

Mobile banking fast replacing cash and cheque transactions
"Financial transactions involving cash and cheque are gradually diminishing with currently only 49 per cent of all deals being carried through this medium. This is happening due to the increasing adoption of alternative channels like credit and debit card, ATM, online transactions and now the mobile. According to a report by Boston Consultancy Group, the share of traditional cash and cheque-based transactions is to fall to a low 15 per cent by 2020."

Mobile Banking in Canada

Lately, I've been noticing a lot of mobile banking news coming from Canada. Here are a few of the articles that caught my attention.

Ready to bank on your smart phone?
"Less than 10 per cent of Canadians are using mobile banking, but experts say it won't be long before the service is more popular than online banking. Research suggests that consumers in this country would prefer to check their bank balances, transfer money, or pay their bills while sitting on their morning train commute or standing in line at the coffee shop rather than at their office or home computer."

Mobile banking and investing coming
"A growing number of investors have turned to their computers and online brokers for cheaper, more efficient handling of their portfolios. Will the smartphone be next in their arsenal of investment tools? Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce made a splash recently when it claimed to be the first major Canadian bank to offer a mobile banking application for Apple's iPhone."

Canadian firms finally getting into wireless: Analysts
"Krista Napier, a senior analyst at IDC Canada covering Canadian competitive intelligence and emerging technologies predicted, that enterprises here will embrace wireless business applications more than ever, while banks will allow wireless banking for the first time.

'We expect to see the big five banks either announcing or launching their mobile banking initiatives,' Napier said in an interview after the event. 'Scotiabank will be the first in the spring, and we expect the others to be making announcements later in the year.' [CIBC already offers mobile banking.]"

Scotiabank Introduces Mobile Banking Services
"Scotiabank has announced two new mobile services to help keep customers informed. The first is Scotia InfoAlerts, a service that notifies customers via text message or e-mail of transactional activities in their accounts. The second is an application for the iPhone and iPod touch or Blackberry smartphones, providing Canadians with a GPS locator for Scotiabank branches and ATMs."

Zoompass Trials Mobile Payment Tag
"Zoompass, a mobile payment service launched last year by a consortium of Canadian telecom players, is branching out with the introduction of a wireless payment sticker that can be attached to a mobile phone, effectively turning it into a “tap-and-pay” debit card system. Zoompass was developed by EnStream, a partnership among Canada’s three major telecom companies: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp. The service allows members to send money to friends or family with their handheld device via an iPhone app, BlackBerry app, etc., and to pay for products and services through a credit card linked to their Zoompass account."

Mobile banking continues to rise with Canada’s Telus and ATB Financial
"Telus today announced that ATB Financial has adopted the Telus Mobile Banking system. After a 90 day pilot period, the service will be rolled out for free to all ATB customers. The services will be used to provided access to secure account management and information over your mobile.

ATB customers will be able to view account balances, see recent transactions and transfer funds using SMS or mobile web, so the service can be used from virtually any mobile phone."

Mobile Webpages for Banks in Canada:
Scotiabank

RBC Royal Bank

TD Canada

CIBC

Visa, North America & Mobile

"Visa, the global leader in payments, and eight leading North American financial institutions - PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo in the United States, and Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity in Canada - have agreed to initiate a pilot program with up to a total of 2,000 participants to test the delivery of real-time notification alerts on Visa accounts." Continue Reading >>

RBC Royal Bank



TD Canada Trust