Mobile World Conference 2009

Bill Gates donates $12.5 million towards mobile banking
"The ultimate goal is to supply 20 million unbanked people with mobile financial services by 2012 in hopes of reducing theft rates, and therefore crime as a whole."

Visa will present mobile payment technology at GSMA World Congress
"Visa is expected to demonstrate Visa Mobile, its first commercial service in mobile offers that is enabled on Android powered mobile devices. Also, Visa will showcase NFC-based and SIM-based contactless payments which will enable customers to carry out mobile point of sale payments through their Visa payWave enabled mobile devices."

Sybase 365 launches SMS mobile advertising, geo-location services
"The mobile advertising service for content publishers, advertisers, carriers and consumers features dynamic, targeted, ad-funded content across SMS communication channels, with MMS to follow later this year. Enterprises can also use the mobile advertising service to promote its own offerings."

Ballmer Pushes New Microsoft Mobile OS
"So it was no surprise that the boss, Steve Ballmer, in his keynote address here at the 2009 Mobile World Congress took aim squarely at rivals Apple, Google, Research in Motion, Palm and all the other comers."

VASCO Data Security Demonstrates How to Leverage Mobile Platforms for Authentication
"VASCO Data Security International, Inc., a leading software security company specialising in authentication products, launches DIGIPASS(R) for Mobile 3.0 today at the Barcelona Mobile Conference."

Mobile Banking Updates - Feb 15

INSIDE Contactless Working With Qualcomm to Accelerate NFC Mobile Handset Rollouts
"'This alliance is significant not only for our MicroRead NFC solution, but for NFC technology and the mobile payments market in general. We believe the availability of these reference designs will provide a significant boost to the deployment of NFC-enabled 3G handsets worldwide,' said Rémy de Tonnac, chief executive officer of INSIDE Contactless. 'We look forward to creating these reference designs with Qualcomm and contributing our expertise and ideas to further the development of the emerging NFC ecosystem.'"

Symbian Foundation recruits more supporters
"The not-for-profit organisation - which has been set up to unify Symbian, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) software; and administer, oversee and develop the resulting Symbian mobile OS in its altered open source state - has added a further 14 voices of support to its endeavour. These include Bank of America, HP, MySpace, Qualcomm and SanDisc."

UK government throws more money at banking (this time it's mobile)
"The International Development Secretary will set out how modern technology is transforming the way banks work in the 21st century and explain that this could benefit the developing world most, with people gaining access to financial services for the first time ever."

Co-Op Financial Services unveils mobile banking, contactless card payments solutions
"CO-OP Financial Services is now offering credit unions a turnkey entry into mobile banking and contactless card payments, according to a news release. CO-OP announced its mobile banking offering in Oct. 2008, with the selection of mFoundry's financial services platform to deliver mobile banking offerings to credit unions via a downloadable client application."

Mobile Banking: Fact or Fiction?
"It doesn't take much imagination to see how mobile phones can improve the way we manage money and make payments...This leads me to my next point: Haven't we been here before? Didn't customers already tell us they are not interested in mobile banking?"

Mobile money in tough times: still a good bet for operators?
"The global economy is sliding. The OECD predicts 2009 will be the worst year for the world economy since 1974. The mobile industry is already feeling the effects. Operator revenues grew by 5% in 2008, down nearly half from 2009, and are expected to soften further to 4.5% in 2009, according to Wireless Intelligence. And this is on top of the continual slide in ARPU (average revenue per user) which emerging market operators have seen for several years, as they pick up customers who are now disproportionately lower income. What does mean for mobile financial services?"

Walmart Mobile Applications

A good friend, Mustafa Patni (formerly with WaMu now with T-Mobile), just dropped me a note that Walmart is now promoting their mobile application. Check it out >>

Mobile Banking Updates - Feb 12

Phone virus that steals money
"A virus that attacks the mobile phones in Russia and 'steals money' by sending unauthorised SMS texts to gain control over the bank
account, could spread global, experts here have warned."

FirstBank Appeals To Young, Mobile Skiiers
"Once upon a time, banks feared customers wearing ski masks. But in today's mobile phone age, at least one bank welcomes them."

Standard Chartered launches Mobile Banking in Kenya
"Standard Chartered Bank is the first bank in Kenya to introduce ‘mBanking’ on the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) platform to the market. This new product will provide Standard Chartered Bank’s customers with access to banking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – anywhere in the world, at any time- all through their mobile phone."

Prepaid Card Follow Up - Aite

"Prepaid Debit Cards: A Credible Alternative to Checking Accounts
A new report from Aite Group, LLC argues that prepaid debit cards represent a competitive threat to banks' checking account relationships. It also provides insights into how banks, prepaid debit card providers, payday lenders and other parties can take advantage of prepaid debit cards."

Mobile Banking and Prepaid Cards

Keep an eye on the convergence of mobile banking and prepaid cards. This is a really hot topic right now, and could help generate some revenue until someone is able to move NFC payments forward.

M-Cube launches mobile pre-paid card system
"Prepaid card outfit M-Cube has lunched a mobile banking application for consumers using pre-paid cards in the UK and Ireland.

Subscribers to the service can carry out a range of transactions directly from their mobile phones without the need to sign into their account via a computer. The secure SMS-based application enables cardholders to activate cards, arrange account top-ups, check balances, order a mini-statement, and report lost or stolen cards. The app also includes facilities for live chat and foreign currency transfer."

Mobile Banking Updates - Feb 8

Bank of America close to 2 million mobile banking users
"Bank of America's web-based mobile banking service is close to reaching 2 million users, up 1 million over May 2008. The number of mobile banking users represents 10 percent of the bank’s 29 million online banking users"

Barclays tightens mobile banking security
"Barclays has become the first UK high street bank to offer free security software to its mobile banking customers, in a deal with anti-malware vendor Kaspersky Lab. Customers logging into the Barclays.mobi site can download the free software, which includes anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-theft protection, by clicking on the 'Kaspersky offer' link."

Is This the Year Mobile Banking Goes Big?
"2009 is shaping up to be the year that mobile banking takes off. Again. Yes, we know you’ve heard this one before. Soon everyone will be checking their account balances and transferring funds from their cell phones. But whereas in the past the only thing banks had to show for these claims was mobile services that they’d spent millions developing, this time they’ve got a crucial asset in their favor: customers."

Smart Phone Mobile Tools Seen as Client Magnets
"Banks and aggregators say that mobile financial services, and especially tools that run on smart phones, are not just a way to improve customers' access to their accounts but also are a lure for new customers."

Branching Out: Mobile Banking Finds New Users
"You may not want to learn how much smaller your bank account has gotten. But banks are making it easier than ever for consumers to access account information on their mobile devices. Big banks are offering new services or improving existing ones that allow people to access their accounts while on the go."

Gemalto and mChek Join Forces to Serve Mobile Payment Markets in South Asia
"Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, today announced its partnership with India-based technology partner mChek, a leading provider of mobile security, banking and payment applications, to bolster the range and choice of secured mobile banking solutions available on Gemalto SIM cards to markets in South Asia."

Industry Analysis on Mobile Banking Now Available From The Mobile Marketing Association
"The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) (www.mmaglobal.com) today announced the publication of its Mobile Banking Overview; an educational resource designed to provide analysis of the unique marketing opportunities and attributes that the mobile channel represents for the financial sector."