Telco MERCHANTS ENCOURAGED TO GET MOBILE BY GOOGLE AND MOBANK GROUP
"Mobile technology company, The MoBank Group has been confirmed as a vendor for Google’s “Get Mobile” or GetMo initiative. GetMo is a Google-led initiative dedicated to helping UK businesses ‘Get Mobile’ by providing them with the tools and resources they need to make their websites more mobile friendly. It aims to make the integration onto mCommerce easy for businesses by providing them with recommended technology and expertise. As part of this, MoBank, as a supplier in the mCommerce space is confirmed as a vendor for Google’s newly launched GetMo initiative in the UK."

NAB upgrades mobile banking app
"The Bank says this is more secure than using an Internet banking password. The new versions also now allow customers to set future-dated bill payments and funds transfers, without having to log-on via a PC. According to NAB's executive general manager of direct banking, Sam Plowman: 'Mobile banking is NAB's fastest growing channel, with 300 percent growth in the last year and one in three NAB Internet banking logins are now done on a mobile device.'"

SBI to allow mobile banking without a/c
"Mumbai: State Bank of India has started a pilot project that would allow banking through mobile phones even if the customers do not have a bank account. The scheme, called ‘Mobicash’, had been introduced in New Delhi and Mumbai. The service, much like a mobile prepaid cards, allows money to be “loaded” on customer’s mobile that he can then spend. “We have launched the product on a pilot basis and will introduce them in more cities in a few week,” said Praveen Kumar Singh, assistant general manager, New Business, SBI."

Eko’s Mobile Banking: Demonstrating the Power of a Basic Payments Product
"Eko was the first company dedicated to a mobile phone-based basic savings account and payment service for the unbanked in India. Launched in 2007, Eko has carefully developed a mobile-based service usable on the most basic of handsets and continually revised and re-fashioned its approach. At first, Eko experimented with a basic deposit and payment service from one Eko account to another."

Go slow on mobile wallet
"Airtel Money’s latest advertisement is hard to miss. For the first time, the virtues of mobile banking are being conveyed to customers. Banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Standard Chartered are offering this service. However, not many know the manner of transacting or the kind of transactions that can be done using mobile phones and the charges involved."

Mobile-Banking-in-Pakistan
"Globally,-Mobile-Banking,-or-mbanking,-has-emerged-as-a-commercially-viable-and-customer-friendly-alternate-distribution-channel-for-financial-services.-Generally,-mobile-banking-is-about-using-one's-mobile-handset-to-avail-financial-services,-which-include-banking-services-like-account-transactions-&-balance-inquiries,-and-other financial services like brokerage and stock market transactions."

Macalla honoured in sixth annual International Business Awards
"Macalla, leader and innovator in mobile payments solutions, has announced that it has earned a Certificate of Finalist Recognition in the category of Best New Product or Service of the Year - Computer Hardware or Software in the 2009 International Business Awards."

Yes to mobile banking, no to paying for it
"Despite 59 percent of consumers stating that online banking on their mobile phone is important to them, they are not willing to pay for it, KPMG's Global Consumers and Convergence survey reveals."

Mobile Banking Without Your Bank
"British consumers who want to conduct mobile transactions and P2P payments no longer have to wait for their bank to offer the functionality. A new disintermediator, dubbed MoBank and built by First Direct and Egg bankers Steve Townsend and Dominic Keen, now gives Apple iPhone users a broad range of mobile commerce functionality."

Bank Of Mexico Issues Rules For Mobile Payment Services
"The Bank of Mexico said Monday that it has issued rules for mobile payment services as part of a broader initiative by the central bank and the government to make financial services available to more people."

Mobile payments: Will Colombo keep its leadership in South Asia?
"A recent Central Bank (CB) statement that a framework for mobile payments would be finalized in 2009 raised much interest in financial and communication circles in the region. The press statement does not make the objectives absolutely clear but it is expected to be an advance on what is available today in the Sri Lankan market."

Mobile Marketing Security
"In less than 12 months, the Apple App Store has revolutionized the global mobile industry. It has helped usher in a new wave of applications and services which, combined with the greater availability of open mobile networks, lower mobile data costs and the wider variety of Smartphones, has helped create a new type mobile communications experience…one dominated by a new generation of content, entertainment and social networking."

Are you ready for small to be the new big?
"We’re all fashion victims. Mobiles are basically fashion accessories with electronics inside. Technology itself has fashions, at the moment the pendulum has swung towards thin architectures and cloud services for example. But at some point thick clients will return to stride the techno-catwalk again, and we’ll all rediscover how nice it is to have a user interface that isn’t a browser."

Mobile payment madness grips North America
"With fresh venture capital flowing to mobile payment enablers and signs of a viable cashless marketplace developing, will US wireless carriers soon commandeer the person-to-person payment space? Kirk Laughlin reports."

Mobile Financial Services Climbing Out of the Crisis Mire
"Yesterday, I was took part in a panel discussion hosted by InformationWeek, BS&T’s sister publication, about mobile banking and payments. Along with myself were Doug Brown, Bank of America’s SVP, mobile product development; Charles Landry, VP and general manager with VeriSign, the event’s sponsor; and Lori Beck, director, product management, with Western Union."

New mobile banking service, MoBank, set to launch using txttrans system
"MoBank - the brainchild of Steve Townend (ex First Direct and Egg) and Dominic Keen (ex Egg) - is a brand new mobile banking service that works with an existing bank account to let users buy and pay for items using a mobile phone. It works by connecting users, via the Internet on a mobile phone, to a secure transactional payment system developed by txttrans. Users pre-register a debit or credit card, and receive a secure PIN to access the MoBank service from a mobile phone, so they don’t have to enter card details every time a transaction is made."


Wincor Nixdorf and Sevenval form m-banking partnership
"This partnership will allow Sevenval, a leading technology specialist in mobile Internet portals, to expand its international activities. As one of the world's leading suppliers of IT solutions for banks, Wincor Nixdorf is expanding its PC/E Retail Banking Solution Suite with Sevenval's multichannel output technology. In the future this will allow Wincor Nixdorf to map retail banks' Internet portals and services on mobile terminals and home entertainment systems."

Online Banking Report Publishes Forecast
"A new research report from Online Banking Report examines current and future usage of online banking, mobile access and bill payment. The forecast covers U.S. adoption from 1994 through 2018."

Strong Consumer Interest in Mobile
"More than three-quarters of consumers want access to their bank account balances and other information at all times, and many are interested in using their phones to handle their finances, according to a survey report published Monday by Monitise Americas LLC."

ClairMail Appoints Pete Daffern as New CEO
"ClairMail, Inc., the leader in 2-way mobile banking and payment solutions that enable complete control over finances from any mobile phone, today announced the appointment of Pete Daffern as new Chief Executive Officer. ClairMail founder Joe Salesky will continue with the company as Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer."

Mobile banking service closes second stage funding
"MoBank, a new mobile banking service founded by former First Direct and Egg bankers Steve Townend and Dominic Keen, has successfully raised three-quarters of a million pounds in its second stage of funding."