"It's no secret that a new generation of technology-enabled competitors -- both new companies such as Square or Dwolla and familiar players such as Google, PayPal and Walmart -- are shaking up the financial services business and attracting customers who aren't finding what they need from traditional banks.

But new research from Accenture suggests this upheaval is more extensive and happening more rapidly than many in banking may have thought. And the efforts banks are putting into efficiency, productivity and stronger financial performance, while essential, are not enough to stem the tide." Continue Reading

"Bankers have a lot to worry about these days: stress tests, bad loans, cutting costs and increasingly trying to drive their customers toward new technology in the hope that they can close more branches. But a recent conversation with a couple of senior Irish bankers revealed to me how worried they are about technology companies such as Google, Facebook, PayPal and Apple, who they see as potentially eating a large slice of the banker's lunch." Continue Reading

Wells Fargo puts mobile banking at center of new marketing campaign
"Wells Fargo has launched a multichannel marketing campaign that aims to educate consumers on the benefits of mobile banking. The Wells Fargo “Done” campaign includes television, online and mobile components and highlights multiple areas of the financial service’s mobile banking features, such as mobile deposit and transfers. The campaign is meant to show how mobile banking is a natural extension of what consumers already do on their mobile devices."

Mobile banking spurs growth at Michigan First Credit Union
"Michigan First Credit Union is looking for a few good employees, 14 right now to be exact. The Lathrup Village-based financial institution is looking for everything from tellers to human resources professionals to add to its staff of 225 people. However, technology pros are in especially high demand for the credit union. About a third of its new positions have some sort of tech angle, such as software developer or IT professional."

In 2017 one in four tablet users will be paying bills via their device
"With tablet adoption and user acceptance of ‘push’ mobile banking on the rise, it is thought that by 2017, one in four tablet users will be paying bills via their device, according to a new report from Juniper Research. The report suggests that these factors will drive users of transactional tablet banking services to almost 200 million in 2017; representing around 19 per cent of total mobile banking customers in 2017, as opposed to nine per cent in 2013. It is also noted in the report that the adoption of bill presentment and payment (MBPP) transactional banking by tablet users will be higher than mobile handset users, particularly in developed areas where there is a higher adoption rate of tablet devices."

Mobile Banking Plays Key Role in #1 Factor for Customer Loyalty, According to Yodlee Interactive Survey
"Banking convenience dominates all options amongst reasons to stay with banks, according to a new study conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Yodlee Interactive. With the convenience of online and mobile banking, more customers are utilizing these services, while banks are responding by reducing the number of physical branches. This survey was conducted among 2,219 Americans (ages 18+) between February 28 and March 4, 2013."

Bank of America to Offer New Mobile Banking Features
"Bank of America’s mobile banking user base of 12.5 million, rapidly growing at a pace of 55,000 new users per week, can expect several new features to come to the bank’s mobile banking applications. From May until the end of the year, Bank of America will roll out six new mobile banking features, which were first reported by American Banker."

BII REPORT: How Banking Is Going Mobile
"Over the years, retail banks have innovated to make personal banking more convenient and consumer-friendly. They've built sprawling branch networks, introduced credit cards, and developed automatic teller machines. In its latest evolution, banking is going mobile. With smartphones and tablets increasingly at the center of financial decisions — especially those of younger consumers — banks have to get their mobile strategies right. If they don't, they risk losing business to more mobile-savvy competitors, as well as tech companies like PayPal, that are developing their own payment and personal finance solutions."

Mobile banking expected to grow 18% annually through 2017
"The evolution of technology has brought on an onslaught of change to the banking industry, with banks becoming more convenient and consumer-friendly through mobile strategies, according to an article from Business Insider. The article says banks have become more competitive in order to stay ahead of other financial institutions. Currently, the mobile-banking user base is expected to grow 18% each year until reaching more than 1 billion users by 2017. By the end of this year, 590 million consumers will be using the technology."

Misys introduces new online and mobile banking products
"Misys has launched a new innovative range of online and mobile banking products, Misys BankFusion Digital Channels, to enhance the way banks provide products and services via the internet or mobile devices. Misys BankFusion Digital Channels comprises a range of proven and mature modules covering online banking, mobile banking, personal financial management and internet brokerage, which enable banks to extend their services and add more value to their customers."

BII REPORT: The Mobile Banking Ecosystem Explained
"Over the years, retail banks have innovated to make personal banking more convenient and consumer-friendly. They've built sprawling branch networks, introduced credit cards, and developed automatic teller machines. In its latest evolution, banking is going mobile. With smartphones and tablets increasingly at the center of financial decisions — especially those of younger consumers — banks have to get their mobile strategies right. If they don't, they risk losing business to more mobile-savvy competitors, as well as tech companies like PayPal, that are developing their own payment and personal finance solutions."

HOW TO BUILD A WORLD-CLASS MOBILE BANKING STRATEGY
"Mobile has gotten a lot of attention at banks recently. In fact, other teams in a firm’s organization are starting to feel like Jan Brady, the voices in their heads chanting “Mobile Mobile Mobile!” But there’s good reason for the increased focus on mobile banking efforts: mobile is the most important strategic change in retail banking in over a decade. It is shifting your customers’ behavior, raising customers’ expectations, and opening up new opportunities for banks, their competitors, and new disruptors."

VIDEO: HOW TO PLAY THE MOBILE BANKING REVOLUTION
"I visited Fox Business Network on Thursday, March 21, to discuss my recent column on the “cashless craze” and some stocks that investors can buy to play the trend. We hop around a bit, but the stocks highlighted here include:"

Fed: Mobile banking on the rise
"Mobile banking is continuing to gain a foothold in the United States, according to a new survey from the Federal Reserve. The percentage of mobile phone owners using that technology for banking and other financial purposes was on the rise at the end of 2012. Twenty-eight percent of all mobile phone users, and nearly half of smartphone users, reported they had used their devices for banking purposes in the last year. Those numbers represent a 33 percent increase from the last Fed survey on the issue at the end of 2011."

Startup Prepares Alternative to Online, Mobile Banking Passwords
"As banks struggle to move past passwords, a Silicon Valley startup is taking a stab at a fingerprint and facial recognition standard backed by some heavy hitters — PayPal and Lenovo among them. Nok Nok Labs, which was created a year ago by the founder of the data security vendor PGP, says it will eventually sell server software that will make the process of verifying the identity of online and mobile bank customers easier and more effective. The company plans to release its developer tool kit in March."

Is Mobile Banking Ready For Business?
"Though mobile has become an indispensable channel in banking, it hasn't quite become a "must-have" among corporate customers. Part of that is because of the limited screen size of most smartphones; corporate treasurers need to access large amounts of information, which could prove inconvenient and awkward to display on such a small device."

What’s holding us back from using mobile banking?
"If data were to be believed, a lot of you would have graduated from using Internet banking to mobile banking already but a lot of us have still not made the leap. Though the number of transactions through mobile banking increased by 64% in the April-December 2012 period, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), 67% of overall banking transactions still happens through cash, according to a 2011 Deloitte-Assocham study."

Banks boost mobile banking efforts
"More financial institutions are promoting their mobile banking offerings as a way to attract customers and also reduce expenses related to customer service calls and branch visits. While mobile banking has been around for five or six years now, The Wall Street Journal said banks are boosting their efforts to add new features, such as bill-paying capabilities, as customers become more comfortable using their mobile phones to conduct basic financial transactions."

Mobile Banking by Voice Next Up? Print Preview
"The question is fundamental: which is faster, and easier? Inputting commands into a smartphone by typing on glass or by talking them into the device? The fact is these are phones that were developed so that users could talk into them. Other features such as data input via typing, for instance, got added on later."

MOBILE BANKING (First of two parts)
"THE popularity of cell phones in the Philippines is undeniable and palpable. Ask any person on the street if he has a cell phone, and 7 out of 10 would probably say yes. Sadly, while access to mobile phone services has rocketed in recent years, access to financial services remains a major barrier to economic growth. If only banks here were as easily accessible as cell phones, particularly in the rural areas!"

Anytime-anywhere banking, courtesy RBI
"Customers can now pay for their taxi rides, pizzas, kirana store purchases anytime, anywhere with their mobile phones, reports CNBC-TV18's Gopika Gopakumar. Have you run out of cash while shopping? Don't worry! You can pay anyone including your neighbourhood kirana store with your mobile phone. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the organisation set up by the RBI for all retail payments, has now launched the inter-bank mobile payment service for all merchants. This will allow customers to pay their bills for as little as 25 paise for each transaction."

Mobile banking expands in rural areas
"In 2011, Philippine rural banks processed over P4.9 billion (roughly 116ドル million) worth of banking transactions which were enabled by mobile banking. In fact, the former head of the Microentrepreneurs Access to Banking Services (MABS) program John V. Owens said a 58-percent increase in the volume of transactions through mobile banking has been noted in the first four months of 2012. Since mobile banking or access to banking services through the mobile phone technology was introduced in 2006, a total of P16 billion (approximately 363ドル million) had been processed."

KBank boosts mobile and cyber-banking services
"Art Wichiencharoen, first senior vice president of Kasikornbank, said that the company usually invests about Bt100 million to keep the bank's technologies up to date in order to provide a wide new range of secure cyber-banking and mobile-banking services. Currently, the bank has more than 1.4 million users of its cyber-banking services, with 400,000 active users per month. Meanwhile, it has more than 1.2 million registered users of its mobile-banking service, with about 500,000 active users per month."

SBI, ICICI lead the pack as m-banking gains currency
"Mumbai: Anand Chaturvedi, a 27-year-old analyst with a brokerage firm in Mumbai, started using his mobile phone for banking about six months back “because it is easy to use and accessible from anywhere”. When in office, he does Internet banking, but uses the mobile banking (m-banking) services of ICICI Bank Ltd and HDFC Bank Ltd when travelling. Vinaya Venugopalan, a 26-year-old information technology (IT) manager with an Indian bank, started using m-banking in May. He is comfortable with the service, but limits it mostly to checking his bank balance."

Australians slow to embrace mobile banking
"A cashless future where the bulk of consumers rely on mobile phones for their banking needs may be further away than many in the financial services industry claim. That's because consumers in Australia have not shown wide acceptance of mobile banking at a time when technical barriers persist and the challenge of an ageing demographic looms."

Way to beat a cash economy
"In a predominantly cash-run economy, electronic payment methods that provide convenience to users while lowering the transaction cost of banks make immense sense. Mobile banking, or m-banking, that started with small SMS transactions, is one such mechanism. Today, with more than 900 million cellphone subscribers in the country and hundreds of tablet PCs, there should ideally be many takers. According to a August Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report, in fiscal 2012, however, only 13 million people across 49 banks used m-banking services, and made 25.6 million transactions valued at Rs.1,820 crore."

Capitec mobile banking hits 2 million clients
"South African commercial bank Capitec Bank Holdings reported on Wednesday (26 September), that it had signed up more than two million clients to its mobile banking service. 'Capitec promotes the use of mobile banking, and at the end of August 2012, in excess of 2.0 million clients were registered for this service.'"

Mobile tellers take banking by storm
"Since taking the reins as chief information officer for Westpac, Clive Whincup has presided over the launch of the bank’s first iPad application; a trial to turn Android smartphones into contactless payment devices; the introduction of an iPad app to replace printed board papers; a 1000 iPad pilot for bank executives; and a St George innovation that allows payments to be made from a smartphone using only the recipient’s mobile number."

Mobile devices change the face of banking
"How about taking a picture of a cheque with your smartphone to deposit it? What about getting online advice about your investments when you're on your tablet? And then there's paying for small purchases with smartphones. The use of smartphones and tablets in consumers' everyday lives is helping push changes in how they bank, pay for bills and even how they can get investment advice, say experts."

The rise of mobile money is driven by the poor
"As Google, Apple, Paypal, Mastercard and the entire banking community fights over mobile money, we decided to look to the power users to find out what the near future of monetary exchange might look like. The World Bank’s treasure trove of open data on mobile banking is a well stocked pantry for the data hungry. Welcome to our first data snack and enjoy the graph we created below."

Mobile Banking: Emerging Threats, Vulnerabilities and Counter-Measures
"The banking industry has never seen such a fundamental change as mobile banking. Globally, millions of consumers are already using a wide array of mobile devices to conduct banking - and millions more are expected to go mobile in the coming months. But with that growth come a whole new set of threats: mobile malware, third-party apps, unsecured Wi-Fi networks, risky consumer behavior. And it does not matter whether an institution uses a proprietary or third-party mobile banking application - the bank owns the risks."

The Vulnerable Mobile App
"In the first quarter of this year, McAfee Labs found 8,000 samples of mobile malware. The same time last year, this number was in the hundreds. 'A burglar cannot rob 300 homes in one night, but a cybercriminal can attack 300 mobile devices at a time,' pointed out Dr. Markus Jakobsson, principal scientist, consumer security at PayPal, at the Mobile Banking and Commerce Summit in San Francisco last month. Not only are hackers more active and aggressive than ever, but consumers tend to be naive and trusting about applications on their mobile devices. 'Consumers are oblivious to the threat of malware on smartphones,' he says."

Enterprises Need to Review their Mobile Security Policies as Mobile Banking and Payments Increase in Popularity, says IDC Financial Insights
"The popularity and massive growth of smartphones for business use is forcing enterprises to sit up and rethink their security and defense mechanisms. In the report "Enterprise Mobile Device Security: Development Guidance to Tackle the Mobile Security Minefield" (Doc # FIN235403, June 2012), IDC Financial Insights examined the need for enterprise mobile security, especially within the mobile banking and payment arena, and discussed core measures for enterprises to boost mobile security, including mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM)."

The Double Edged Sword of Mobile Banking
"The increased customer demand for mobile banking services carries increased fraud threats. FIs must wield this combination carefully to avoid fraud losses if they move too quickly or customer churn if they move too slowly. This white paper highlights:
* Current trends in mobile banking;
* Fraud threats and consumer behavior that result in increased risk;
* Strategies for preventing mobile banking fraud;
* Anomaly detection for mobile banking."

Mobile Banking: Is it a Banking Solution To The Unbanked in Africa?
"Banking the unbanked especially in African countries has for along time been a major predicament. Due to the low level of technology, illiteracy, under development, and lack of proper awareness, the banking sector has been lagging unlike others such as IT and other sectors in the industry."

Emerging economies embrace banking innovations
"When it comes to reaching the unbanked in developing countries, there's room for all players. Worldwide, the unbanked population is estimated at 2.5 billion adults, including 80 percent in Africa, 40 percent in India and 64 percent in rural China. The established means of reaching out to the unbanked in such markets is the ATM. And research indicates that over the next five years, China, India and Africa will be three of four biggest markets for deployment of new or replacement ATMs — with North America rounding out the list."

Connected consumers go where banks haven't
"iWallet, PayPal, apps may grow faster than banking innovation. The banking industry has been given a warning: beware of new competitors stealing traditional financial services via technology. Consumers with mobile devices have the potential to access financial services outside bank offerings, says Bob Hayward, a keynote speaker at the Retail Financial Services Forum in Sydney last week."

Rise of the 'Smartphonatics'
"A recent report by ACI Research and the Aite Group identified a new category of smartphones users, or “Smartphonatics”, who change their financial, payment and shopping behaviour as a result of owning a smartphone. The report is based on a survey of 4 200 consumers, in 14 countries, in the first quarter of this year. The survey was conducted in order to gain insight into the worldwide adoption patterns for mobile banking and payments."

CIBC Continues its Leadership in Mobile Financial Services with the Launch of New Text Message Alerts
"CIBC today announced it has launched powerful new text message (SMS) customer Alerts, continuing its leadership in mobile financial services. The new Alerts bring important financial information to clients at a time and place that's convenient for them through their smartphone, or through email or online banking, to help clients manage their day to day finances. The Alerts range from reminding clients about upcoming credit card payments and due dates so they don't inadvertently miss a payment, to information on future-dated bills or transfers to ensure clients have adequate balances and can avoid late payment fees. Text message Alerts to mobile devices, combined with CIBC's award-winning Mobile Banking, empowers clients to effectively and conveniently manage their finances, wherever they are."

Sungard introduces new ‘solution’ to improve banking services
"As the global financial crisis continues to take its toll on financial institutions and countries worldwide, Sungard introduces its Ambit Core Banking Solution that aims to help banks improve their management processes. Ambit Core Banking Solution “is a universal banking system that provides comprehensive instrument and product coverage for retail deposits and lending, commercial banking, trade finance, and treasury management,” Sungard said in a statement."

Kiwibank’s iPhone App Puts A Service Rep In Everyone’s Pocket
"Kiwibank has released its mobile banking app for iPhones. The app is part of a suite of online innovations pouring from the bank intended to revolutionize how people bank online. Kiwibank’s first iPhone app has been much anticipated. While most of the world’s big financial institutions have had smart phone apps deployed for months, even years, Kiwibank was among the few holdouts. But it was worth the wait."

FNB banking app hits transactions landmark
"Since launching its mobile banking application on the 20th July 2011, FNB has seen over R4 billion in transactions go through the app. This is according to Michael Jordaan, who announced the figures this afternoon (26 June 2012) via his Twitter account."

Smartphones get new duty — as wallets
"Picture walking up to the Dillard’s counter, two shirts in one hand, smartphone in the other. Phillip Vullo ATT Mobility Chief Executive Officer Ralph de la Vega said, 'We’re getting into a completely new line of business that we’re very excited about.' There’s no need to reach for your wallet, because all of the credit card information has been stored in your phone. One tap of the phone against a small mobile reader next to the cash register, and you’re out the door. Welcome to the new, more intelligent world of smartphones that can double as wallets."

If PayPal Offered a Mobile Wallet, 8 in 10 Consumers Would Use It
"Consumers who are interested in mobile wallets* would consider using alternative players to their primary bank for mobile wallets and for banking. These consumers also expressed strong interest in using a wide variety of services in their mobile wallet, such as search & shop, loyalty programs and real-time incentives. These are two major findings from a mobile wallet study conducted by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group (CG, www.carlisleandgallagher.com ), a management and technology consulting firm serving the financial services industry."

Big Banks Fear Losing Consumers to Mobile Wallets
"There’s more bad news for the beleaguered banking industry, and it has nothing to do with regulatory scrutiny or shareholder displeasure: Consumers who are interested in mobile wallets would consider using alternative players to their primary bank for both mobile wallets and banking. Mobile wallets are smartphones or tablet apps that store a consumer’s payment details on his or her devices or online to fund digital and in-store purchases."

Mobile Banking: Apple Customers Hungry For iBank
"Personal banking with Apple? It could happen. With the growing trend toward mobile banking, Apple is already serving as a digital "bank branch" for many iPhone and iPad users. All the Cupertino-based company needs to do now is provide their own virtual teller-like services. And it looks like they might be doing just that."

Blaze Mobile Awarded Another Patent for NFC Payments
"Blaze Mobile, a leader in mobile payment and NFC solutions, has been awarded a notice of allowance for a new patent for mobile banking and payment transactions. This new patent covers any mobile banking transactions that comprise bill payment, peer-to-peer (P2P) funds transfer, funds transfer between bank accounts, between credit cards, and between bank accounts and credit cards."

Security concerns and lack of compelling offer 'holding back mobile wallets'
"Digital banking provider Intelligent Environments polled companies within the mobile banking and payments sector, including O2, Microsoft and Lloyds. A quarter of the companies were confident mobile banking would become a mainstream offer by next year, with a third opting for 2015. The survey said this summer's Olympic Games in London would be a means for businesses to showcase their mobile banking products."

SIM Card Tricksters Target Mobile Payments
"The criminal activity that targets mobile banking has not yet reached the levels of web banking, mostly because the volume of mobile banking to this point hasn't made it as attractive a target. But as mobile banking grows, that's starting to change — particularly since mobile banking is vulnerable to a wide variety of criminal threats. A new strain of crime that tricks users out of their subscriber identity module (SIM) cards has quickly emerged to threaten banks and other enablers of mobile payments such as telecoms."

PayPal announce new mobile banking device
"PayPal introduced its new "PayPal Here" device in San Francisco today, enabling small firms to transfer funds via credit card reader direct from their phone. Powered by card.io, PayPal Here is directly competing with rivals Square and Google Wallet."

10% of mobile users to pay bills using mobile phones by 2016: Report
"Mobile life styles will see about 80% of total mobile banking customers paying their bills through a mobile device by 2016, says Juniper Research. With the growing user acceptance of 'push' mobile banking and an exponential increase in smartphone adoption will drive users of transactional mobile banking services up from 185 million in 2011 to over 550 million in 2016, according to Juniper Research's 'Mobile Banking for Developed & Developing Markets' report."

Mobile Banking and Tags on Credit Cards
"In this day and age, it's hard to believe that you used to have to go to the bank to make transfers. Not only is there online banking, but mobile banking too, from credit unions to big names like Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and Bank of America."

Foursquare Meets PayPal
"More consumers want to pay with their phones. According to a Generator Research study, mobile banking will reach 633ドル billion by 2014. In addition, a comScore report found that 29.8 million Americans accessed financial services accounts (bank, credit card or brokerage) via their mobile device in the fourth quarter of 2010, a year-over-year increase of 54 percent."

Southwest CUs To Share Mobile Banking Apps
"Credit unions often adopt financial technology by leveraging communal scale—in other words, by teaming with other credit unions to share the cost of deployment and maintenance. The growth of mobile banking is no exception, as evidenced by a new partnership between the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues and CO-OP Financial Services."

Mobile Banking Can Generate New Revenue from Generation Y Users: New ‘Consumer Discovery’ Panel Study by Simon-Kucher & Partners
"A new consumer discovery panel study by Simon-Kucher & Partners, global strategy and marketing consultancy reveals 76 percent of 'Generation Y' consumers (18-26 year olds) would consider a monthly fee of £5.00 a fair price to pay for mobile banking. Findings demonstrate how mobile banking could provide a new revenue source for banks instead of providing the service for free. This Generation Y demographic - equating 12 percent of the UK population - represents an untapped opportunity for banks."

Mobile Banking: Coming Soon to a Smartphone Near You
"Picture this: You’re at the airport waiting with your wife to board a plane to some warm weather spot when you get a frantic call from your daughter at college. 'Dad, I need money,' she says. 'My tuition was due yesterday. If I don’t pay the bill tomorrow, I can’t start classes!' What do you do?"

Banks target Mobile Banking for their next round of Fees
"The reason people use their smartphone to access mobile banking on a regular basis is simple – convenience. Who wouldn’t love the ability to complete banking tasks from anywhere? Financial institutions see it as a way to cut costs, grow customer relationships, and now possibly introduce new fees. Though still in its infancy, banks have already played with the idea of applying fees to mobile banking. The first feature on their list, mobile deposits. A feature that allows users to snap a photo of a check and remotely deposit the amount into their accounts. Once verified, the user has the option to dispose of the physical check"

American banks need mobile to attract Gen Y - Javelin
"With Gen Y (12-32 year olds) set to earn more than any other generation within 10 years, banks need to tap technology to attract them, offering services such as mobile, personal finance management and person-to-person payments, says Javelin. About 28% of Gen Y consumers have used mobile banking in the past 90 days, compared with 18% of all people. Not only do they use it, young people switch banks for it, use it frequently, and value it."

PayPal mobile transactions exceed 6ドルM per day: CTIA keynote
"A PayPal executive said that mobile payments are growing exponentially and provided his own company’s figures as proof during the keynote at International CTIA Wireless 2011′s Money Over Mobile pre-conference program. PayPal’s mobile payment transaction volume has grown from 24ドル million in 2008 to 140ドル million in 2009 to 750ドル million last year. It is projected to top 2ドル billion this year and is expected to reach 7ドル.5 billion in 2013."

Swiping Is the Easy Part
"The cellphone has been more than a cellphone for years, but soon it could take on an entirely new role — standing in for all of the credit and debit cards crammed into wallets. There’s just one hitch: While the technology is already being installed in millions of phones — and is used overseas — wide adoption of the so-called mobile wallets is being slowed by a major behind-the-scenes battle among corporate giants."

Microsoft Needs Mobile Money
"There are a lot of ways to make money off the shift to mobile computing. Some companies have found several ways to profit from mobile, but Microsoft in particular seems to be in a tough spot due to its late start in mobile, a very small market share, lack of leverage with the all-powerful carriers, and a revenue model based on licensing the operating system."

Why PayPal Doesn't Care About NFC
"You'd think that wave-and-pay smartphone technology would be top priority for PayPal, one of the biggest competitors in the mobile payments space. But while big retailers love NFC for its hyper-targeted marketing potential, small businesses that run on payment services like PayPal may actually be interested in mobile payments for something far humbler: customer loyalty."

Next Android Version Includes E-Wallet for Real World Purchases
"Android 2.3, codenamed Gingerbread, will be released in a “few weeks,” Schmidt said on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit conference in San Francisco. Schmidt showed off how so-called Near Field Communication would work using an unnamed smartphone he called an unannounced product. Using the software from Android and a NFC chip in the phone, Schmidt was able to “check in” to the conference, launching Google Maps, by touching the phone to a conference sign that had a built-in antenna."

U.S. Carriers Create Pay-By-Phone System, for Real This Time
"You know that thing where you just tap your credit card to pay for stuff at the store? That functionality will be coming to smartphones in the U.S., this time apparently for real, via a national phone payment network called Isis, spearheaded by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Besides negating the need to pull out your credit card, the "mobile wallet" in your phone is planned to incorporate reward cards, coupons, tickets, and transit passes. Isis will use near-field communication (NFC) technology to make payments. NFC encrypts data for very short-range transmission – a matter of inches. When you need to pay, just launch the Isis app, wave your phone over the machine and you've paid up."

Does iWallet iPhone mean Apple versus PayPal?
"We've talked before about Apple's plans for the iPhone as an iWallet, now it looks like former ally turned foe, Google's preparing to take Apple on in the same space, with big boss Eric Schmidt telling a panel at the Web 2.0 conference his company feels its got to get NFC (Near Field Communication) into Android's life. Will PayPal endure the new war?"

Mobile Download Guide: Top iPhone Finance Apps for Mobile Banking
"Individuals and businesses (both big and small) often turn to smartphones and handhelds to help manage their finances on a daily basis. It's been like this for years and is no different with the iPhone, where tons of mobile money apps (i.e. expense trackers, loan trackers, calculators, banking, etc.) have helped folks keep their financial houses in order from day one.

In this article, we offer a comprehensive survey of over 80 of the best and most useful of these mobile-money-management apps—both free and paid. Most stand alone but some integrate with desktop programs such as Quicken, Money and Excel or your bank's online services."

Strong Mobile Adoption’s a Magnet for Tech Development
"Amid new research suggesting American consumers are rapidly embracing mobile banking, new payment, deposit and account capabilities are flooding the tech market.

These tech plays come as new a Nielsen survey found the number of U.S. subscribers to mobile banking has increased by more than 129 percent to more than 13 million over the past two years. Other research, conducted by TowerGroup on behalf of Clairmail, said that ten percent of online banking customers take up mobile banking within a year of the their banking launching the service. Tower also says the current domestic mobile banking market should grow to 53 million in 2013 from 10 million in 2009."

Mobile Security: Jumping the IP Hurdle
"Mobile banking security -- it's a big concern, and for many reasons the industry does not yet truly understand.

During the Mobile Financial Services Forum in Arlington, Va., in October, Jason Rouse, a mobile security expert and principal consultant of the mobile and wireless practice for Cigital, said mobile security and the authentication of mobile transactions are challenges the industry must address. Fluid mobile browsing habits and lacking authentication technology for mobile devices are to blame."

PayPal trumps banks on mobile micropayments
"Watching the bevy of announcements coming out of PayPal’s X Innovate conference this week, you could be forgiven for thinking banks have entirely missed the mobile payments boat.

Online media giants including Facebook and FT.com have jumped on board PayPal’s new digital goods payments platform, which will see PayPal receive 5 per cent plus 5 cents of every transaction under 12ドル that they process. Given the millions of transactions migrating to mobile, that translates to big business for PayPal, and a big loss for banks that have ignored micropayments, despite being aware of them for years."

The next 12 months for mobile banking...
"Mobile banking is one of a handful of new banking services that seemed to come along just as banks withdrew investment in new services and reigned in innovation budgets. However, as we emerge from the crisis there are lots of forces that are currently in alignment, pushing more of the tier one banks towards rolling out a mobile banking solution."

Mobile Banking Apps Many, Marketing Success Stories Few
"In their efforts to sign people up for mobile banking, banks can be their own worst enemy. The number of financial institutions offering downloadable applications, customized websites and check depositing services for mobile devices is expected to skyrocket in the next year. But consumer adoption could fall short of expectations without the right promotion, experts say."

Usably Secure, Low-Cost Authentication for Mobile Banking
"This paper explores user authentication schemes for banking systems implemented over mobile phone networks in the developing world. We analyze an authentication scheme currently deployed by an Indian mobile banking service provider which uses a combination of PINs and printed codebooks for authenticating users. As a first step, we report security weaknesses in that scheme and show that it is susceptible to easy and efficient PIN recovery attacks. We then propose a new scheme which offers better secrecy of PINs, while still maintaining the simplicity and scalability advantages of the original scheme. Finally, we investigate the usability of the two schemes with a sample of 34 current and potential customers of the banking system. Our findings suggest that the new scheme is more efficient, less susceptible to human error and better preferred by the target consumers."

AT&T Enters Mobile Payment Acceptance Market
"AT&T recently announced that it has joined forces with Apriva to turn smartphones into point-of-sale devices that accept credit and debit card transactions. 'Sales increase when small businesses accept payment cards,' said Michael Antieri, president, advanced enterprise mobility solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. 'And given that an overwhelming majority of small businesses use smartphones, offering a mobile application that ties together payment cards and smartphones makes perfect sense.'"

PayPal head of mobile on the future of money
"PayPal has been doing its bit this week to raise awareness of the growing online retail opportunity in Australia. It seems overseas competitors are currently taking around 40 per cent of Australia’s online spend – it’s the kind of statistic that should have Aussie online entrepreneurs rubbing their hands together. Of course PayPal wants to see more online sales since its business is primarily concerned with how people will pay for the stuff we’re increasingly likely to buy online."

Are Mobile RDC Concerns Overblown?
"I like mobile banking. It's convenient, real-time and makes me feel savvy. So I appreciate, from a consumer perspective, JPMorgan Chase's announcement this week to move into the mobile remote deposit capture space. With Apple's iPhone application for remote deposits, Chase is stepping out ahead of the curve, trailing only a handful of other U.S. financial institutions. The most notable competitor in the space, USAA, last August launched its iPhone option for check-image deposits."

RaboDirect moves towards mobile banking
"RaboDirect has started development on a mobile internet banking platform for its customers, but general manager Greg McAweeney has flagged customer security as a primary concern in the mobile banking space. "The rise in mobile banking is definitely [a trend in Australian IT]. All of the major banks and even some of the second tier banks are now offering transactional mobile banking services. Clearly, the rise of smartphones are helping to drive that," he said. McAweeney said that RaboDirect is in the planning stages of developing a mobile platform, in tandem with a revamp of its public website."

Using your cellphone can make banking easier and faster
"Adrian Vermooten, Absa's head of mobile banking and messaging, says the bank has more than six million clients who are registered to receive notifications on their cellphones of bank transactions, more than two million active cellphone banking customers and more than 1.2 million internet banking customers. Christo Vrey, the managing executive of Absa's digital channels, says the bank has more than 1.7 million log-ons to its SMS banking service each month. Since it launched absa.mobi just over six weeks ago, more than 500,000 users have accessed the mobile portal, Vrey says."

A Boost in Mobile Banking
"The percentage of mobile users in the United States that utilize mobile banking via their mobile devices is not currently very big, but the practice looks to be picking up steam as consumers become more comfortable utilizing their cell phones in transacting business. About a month ago, ComScore released some data that showed in the month of April of 2010, 13.2 million people accessed bank accounts through a mobile site, which is almost a 70% increase from a year ago."

StanChart starts mobile banking in Oman
"Standard Chartered Bank has recently launched its mobile-phone banking service, 'm-banking', in Oman. m-banking will provide Standard Chartered Bank's customers with access to banking 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere in the world all through their mobile phone. This service offers customers greater flexibility and convenience while the ability to receive sms alerts on every activity or movement within their bank account or credit cards provides enhanced security."

Bluepoint Solutions Launches Mobile Remote Deposit Capture
"Bluepoint Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing and enterprise content management software technology for financial institutions, announced the release of QwikDeposit To Go, a sophisticated mobile remote deposit capture application. Powered by Mitek Systems patented IMagePROVE technology, Bluepoint Solutions QwikDeposit Mobile Capture application completes Bluepoint’s existing suite of Check 21 capture points."

Time Seems Right for Paypal to Fly
"Should eBay change its name to PayPal? The company’s auction business is mature, but PayPal, its online payments business, is growing fast. Plans announced on Wednesday to double PayPal’s Asian staff by the end of the year accentuate the point. A better idea than changing the stationery, however, is spinning off PayPal."

The Future of Money is Mobile
"The wallet you carry in your pocket today will be in the cloud tomorrow, and you'll use your mobile phone to access it – so says Francesco Rovetta, director of business development for PayPal Mobile. The growth in mobile payments is exploding. For PayPal alone, mobile transactions have increased from 24ドル million in 2008 to 140ドル million in 2009."

PayPal Launches Revamped iPhone App, Teams With Bump For Phone-Tapping Money Transfers
"PayPal has just launched an upgraded iPhone application that adds new features and includes a facelift that’s meant to help instill a greater sense of security. And it also brings with it big news for Bump Technologies, the startup that lets you exchange information simply by tapping smartphones together: Bump is now prominently featured in the PayPal iPhone application as a quick way to initiate transactions. "

"People have predicted the death of cash and checks for a long time. But there are certain transactions — like paying a friend back for dinner or buying vegetables at the farmers’ market — for which they remain essential.

PayPal’s new iPhone application could finally change that. It promises to let you quickly divide a restaurant bill and send a friend the portion you owe just by bumping your iPhones together.

The application is free to download from the App Store. Users log in with their PayPal credentials or with their cellphone number and a numeric PIN, and they can send or request money and manage their account on the phone.

To send money, users choose a recipient from their cellphone contacts or bump two phones together. For that, the app uses technology from Bump Technologies, which developed it to swap contact information between two phones. The money is transferred immediately." >> Continue Reading

"Since 1998, PayPal had enabled people to transfer money to each other instantly. For the most part, its powers were confined to eBay, the online auction company that purchased PayPal in 2002. But last summer, PayPal began giving a small group of developers access to its code, allowing them to work with its super-sophisticated transaction framework." >> Continue Reading

S1 Teams With PayPal to Deliver Fast, Convenient Mobile Personal Payments Solution for Banks
"S1 Corporation (Nasdaq: SONE), a leading global provider of financial services and payments software solutions, today announced an agreement with PayPal to deliver a new personal payments service that allows consumers and businesses to make easy, fast and secure payments from their bank accounts to PayPal users around the world using their mobile phones. Mercantile Bank of Michigan, a customer of S1, is the first financial institution to sign up for the new offering and expects to go live with the mobile personal payments service early next year."

CashEdge and Firethorn to Launch Integrated Mobile Person-to-Person Payments Solution for Financial Institutions
"CashEdge, Inc. (www.cashedge.com), the leading provider of Intelligent Money Movement(TM) services, and mobile commerce enabler Firethorn Holdings, LLC, a Qualcomm company (Nasdaq: QCOM), announced today that the companies have entered into a strategic relationship to bring to market an integrated mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments solution integrating CashEdge's POPmoney P2P payments service and Firethorn's Mobile Wallet solution."

Two Top Credit Unions Select POPmoney(TM)
"CashEdge, Inc.(www.cashedge.com), the leading provider of Intelligent Money Movement(TM)services, announced today that two leading credit unions, BECU and Patelco,are among the numerous leading financial institutions that will add POPmoney(TM) (www.popmoney.com) to their customer offerings by the end of 2009."

The Family Credit Union Now Offering Mobile Money from Fiserv
"BAI RDC Booth #417 -- Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV), the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that The Family Credit Union, an 89ドル.9 million credit union with branches in Iowa and Illinois, is now providing members access to mobile financial services with Mobile MoneySM."

Park State Bank & Trust Launches Bling Nation’s Mobile Payments Network
"The Community Payments Service is a secure local debit network, driven by the tap of a cell phone, that enables banks and merchants to avoid costly traditional payments network. As a result, shopping locally is promoted and money is kept within the Woodland Park community. In addition, consumers enjoy the convenience and safety of tapping their cell phones to pay for goods and services without exposing sensitive, personal information. With each purchase, a SMS text message is sent to the consumer with account balance and any rewards program updates."

ClairMail Introduces First-to-Market Mobile Banking Adoption Services Offering
"ClairMail, Inc., the leader in mobile banking and payment solutions, today introduced the finance industry's first end-to-end mobile banking adoption services offering. The complete services include best practices across all phases of the mobile banking adoption lifecycle -- Planning, Implementation, Marketing and Analysis -- enabling financial institutions to optimize mobile adoption and usage, better engage with their customers and drive toward the ultimate goal of realizing 100% mobile banking adoption and high return on investment."

Sybase 365 unveils mobile banking application for iPhone
"Sybase subsidiary, Sybase 365 which specializes in mobile messaging and mobile commerce applications has come up with a new release of mobile banking solution for iPhone users. The new application will be offered to financial institutions across the globe over the Sybase mBanking 365 platform. Sybase says the application offers a turn-key solution to the financial institutions enabling them a quick and easy rollout of mobile banking services."