FirstMerit Bank introduces mobile banking for business customers

"If you’re a business customer with FirstMerit Bank – the bank that acquired the former Flint-based Citizens Bank in April 2013 – you can now handle most of your banking on your mobile device.

FirstMerit Corp. introduced mobile business banking for business customers on Friday, Sept. 13, through both downloadable mobile banking apps and Short Message Service text banking features." Continue Reading

Read More

Mobile Money Transfers to be Driven by Emerging Markets

"A report from Juniper Research has revealed that mobile money transfers will reach a total of 389 million users by 2018. The use of such services in Asian and African nations will drive this huge rise in usage, which initially sounds surprising until we dig deeper into the issue.

The key reason for this is that the banking systems in many of these nations are not highly developed or widely used. For example, in Tanzania only 17% of people have a bank account whilst more than 66% of the population own a mobile phone. Many networks are keen to exploit this, following the success of M-PESA’s mobile money transfer services in Kenya." Continue Reading

Read More

Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 19

Citibank exec: Tablet moves beyond being a lean-back device
"A Citibank executive at the Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2013 said that the company is adapting its mobile banking efforts to meet the evolving consumer relationship with tablets. In the session “How mobile and tablet banking is rapidly evolving customer relationships,” the exec explained how tablets are becoming more of an on-the-go device that drives the need for improved mobile banking offerings. Citibank views tablets and smartphones as part of a larger ecosystem that blends multiple channels to provide consumers with a seamless banking experience."

Banks May Soon Earn Ad Dollars from Mobile Platforms
"Millennials dominate mobile banking, according to a Nielsen study Telmetrics released this week, the xAd/Telmetrics U.S. Mobile Path-to-Purchase Study. (Millennials are people born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.) The report shows that nearly half of all mobile banking users are under the age of 35, and one-third indicated that smartphones were the most important device for their banking needs. Nielsen surveyed 2,000 smartphone and tablet users in the U.S. about their "path-to-purchase" behavior on mobile devices, as it did last year. This year for the first time, the company gathered information about consumers' use of mobile and online banking."

Mobile payments study kicks off 2013 research series on consumer payment, banking trends
"Mercator Advisory Group has released the first of eight studies in its CustomerMonitor Survey Series 2013 Insight reports — "Mobile Payments 2013: Young Adults and Minorities Take the Lead." Findings are based on primary research gauging consumer behavior and preferences in regard to various payment methods and banking channels. The survey included 3,003 consumers in a representative sampling of the U.S. census demographic profile of American adults. Surveys were conducted online between May 28 and June 6."

5 Ways Mobile Banking Is Evolving: Finovate
"The financial technology industry gathered this past week in New York City for Finovate Fall this week, and, as one would expect, mobile was a dominant theme among the new solutions unveiled. A number of solutions on display were aimed at simplifying and optimizing the mobile experience for both bank employees and customers. The notable prevalence of mobile-first solutions showed how quickly innovation occurring in the mobile channel, and pointed the way towards a future where consumers can conduct most of their financial lives on their tablets and smartphones. We take a look at a number of solutions from the conference that show new use cases for mobile and improve the customer experience."

Read More

International Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 18

HSBC customers hit by online banking outage
"Customers of HSBC were unable to access online banking for a period of time this morning due to an IT-related failure. Customers vented their frustrations on Twitter on Friday, complaining that they are unable to access their online and mobile banking accounts. Laura Harper ‏(@LauraJHarper24) tweeted: '@HSBC_UK_Help please can you sort out your online business banking. Going very slow this morning & I have people waiting to be paid!'"

Bank? What bank? Orange, Visa and the changing face of Africa's mobile money
"In a bid to expand its reach into Africa — in many ways the unexplored continent for financial services — US-based Visa has cut a deal with mobile giant Orange, bypassing the formal banking sector and taking advantage of a very African innovation. As of last month, subscribers to Orange's mobile money system, Orange Money, in Botswana have been able to link their mobile money accounts to the Visa network, opening up access to Visa's services even to those with no bank accounts at all."

Kiwibank Business wins top award with a 'stand-out' entry; planning SME mobile banking app for October launch
"Kiwibank has taken out the Supreme Award at the 2013 AUT Business School Excellence in Business Support Awards held last night in Auckland. It beat 41 finalists in the only national performance measure available to the business support sector. Winners were announced in 11 categories, with the Supreme winner chosen from amongst them."

Cosmos Bank launches mobile banking
"In yet another achievement, the fastest growing Urban Co-op Bank Cosmos launched mobile banking service for its customers on last Saturday at the hands of Shrinivas Patil, Governor of Sikkim. The Chairman, Krishnakumar Goyal, Vice-Chairman, Milind Kale, Managing Director, Vikrant Ponkshe, Jt. Managing Director, Suhas Gokhale, Directors of the Board, Members and Customers of the Bank were present for this function. In his inaugural speech, Governor Patil invited Cosmos Bank to open its branches in Sikkim. He also proposed that the bank should spread the web of its branches in North and North-East India too. Governor Patil alsohoped Cosmos Bank will reach the topmost position amongst the co-operative banks."

Kapital Bank launches a mobile banking application built on TranzWare Mobile Banking for Apple iOS smartphones
"WiKapital Bankth help from Compass Plus, Kapital Bank (Azerbaijan) has finished building their own mobile banking application for iOS, and successfully published it on the Apple App Store. The new application is built on TranzWare Mobile Banking and enhances the previously developed applications on the same platform for Android and Java. The application will increase the number of people using the mobile banking system, which can now be fully operated on all Apple mobile devices. This will result in improving the quality of provided services and expanding the remote banking capabilities for Kapital Bank’s customers."

Is Mobile Banking Safe And Cyber Secure In India?
"Mobile banking in India is moving towards an acceptance level. However, till now very few people and institutions are comfortable in using mobile banking in India. Mobile banking in India is still not popular according to RBI. There are certain shortcomings of mobile banking in India that are still left unaddressed. For instance, mobile governance in India is still not well established. M-governance in India is essential before mobile banking can be successfully implemented in India. We have no regulatory framework for m-governance in India."

Electronic, mobile fuels FNB growth
"FirstRand has reported its financial results for the year ended June 2013, noting 20% growth in normalised earnings to R15.3 billion, up from R12.7 billion in 2012. FirstRand’s main retail and commercial division, FNB, contributed the largest portion to the group’s earnings, reporting a 22% rise in normalised earnings to R8.16 billion, up from R6.67 billion in 2012. FirstRand’s other divisions – Rand Merchant Bank and WesBank – reported a 21% and 10% jump in earnings, respectively."

Top Image Systems Recognized as a "Sample Vendor" in Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Banking 2013 
"Top Image Systems Ltd. TISA, a leading ECM (Enterprise Content Management) and BPM (Business Process Management) and mobile image processing solutions provider,announces that the Company was included as a sample vendor in the Mobile Commercial Remote Deposit Capture and Mobile Consumer Remote deposit categories listed in the "Hype Cycle for Digital Banking, 2013" by Alistair Newton published on July 31, 2013 by Gartner, Inc.. Top Image Systems develops and markets a broad portfolio of mobile content processing solutions, including MobiCHECK for mobile remote deposit capture, MobiPAY for bill payment via mobile devices and the MobiFLOW platform for capture, recognition and processing of structured and unstructured data in files of virtually any size and format. Top Image Systems' mobile content processing solutions are fully integrated with its industry-leading eFLOW(R) multichannel intelligent content capture, workflow and delivery platform."

Retailers to accept 'mobile' payments next year
"Shoppers will next year be able to use their mobile phone to pay in just 12 seconds at stores such as WH Smith, Lidl, Superdrug and McDonald's, The Telegraph can disclose. A major deal has been struck to allow thousands of retailers across Britain to support Zapp, a new mobile phone payment app backed by Britain’s biggest banks."

Banking on the move
"Mobile banking is a bridge that can connect unbanked and underbanked segments to a plethora of financial services. Research indicates that half the world is underbanked and uses informal channels to access financial services, whether it be saving or borrowing money or sending money home. In addition, a lack of formal tools and services drives the underbanked to carry and use physical cash to conduct all financial transactions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, ‘unbanked’ does not necessarily mean that they lack financial access. This is especially true for the population at the bottom of the pyramid, who at times prefer to use informal channels despite having access to formal services."

Why mobile banking is more on paper and less on mobile
"'There is substantial potential for mobile based payments,' said Raghuram Rajan in his first speech after taking over as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. True, there’s surely potential for mobile-based payments in India. But the question is how long will it take for us to fully use that potential? 'There are a large number of registrations, but if you see the number of transactions are not corresponding to the number of registrations. It’s mostly the urban immigrant workers who use mobile payments/banking most,' a head of transaction banking with a PSU bank told Firstpost on the condition of anonymity."

Read More

Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 17

Are mobile banking apps secure?
"A recent experience with a credit card app has a Wake County man questioning if his account information is secure when using his cell phone. You can access these mobile banking apps on your smart phone and tablet. Justin Frechette wanted to check his Capital One credit card account, but instead he was able to see someone else's activity. 'Logged in made sure the payment I recently made posted to the account and that the account balance was zero,' Justin said. But he didn't see a zero balance. Instead, lots of charges that didn't belong to him."

BofA's Mobile User Gains Follow Xoom, Industry Shift
"Bank of America's (BAC) mobile user gains come amid an industry shift that is reducing the need for branches and ATMs and lifting mobile payment firms like Xoom Corp. (XOOM) and Western Union (WU). BofA saw its mobile users jump 28% to 13.2 million from the second quarter of 2012 to Q2 2013, according to a presentation Wednesday. Mobile transactions are up 4%. Meantime, the lender has reduced its banking centers by 5% to 5,328 nationwide, and direct-contact transactions have fallen 12%."

Hottest tech sector is all about money
"Finovate, the giant financial technology conference, blew into town yesterday, selling out the Manhattan Center on West 34th Street. Among the hottest trends this year were applications and products for banks, and—perhaps not surprisingly—fraud prevention systems. As more of the nation's banking system moves online, preventing fraud is an increasing concern for executives. 'All the thought leaders are here,' said Sunil Madhu, founder and CEO of Manhattan-based fraud prevention startup Socure, which sells its service to companies. Its service is aimed at allowing banks to verify consumers' identities."

Yalamanchili ships white-label mobile wallet app for banks
"Global payments solutions provider, Yalamanchili, has launched a white label mobile wallet application for global banking and financial institutions operating on its next generation payments platform. The wallet provides Yalamanchili's clients with a comprehensive and fully customisable mobile banking facility capable of supporting international money transfers, the management of multiple card accounts and a variety of mobile value added services, rewards and location based offers."

SIMPLE WILL START GRANTING VENMO USERS EARLY ACCESS TO ITS MOBILE BANKING APP
"Venmo, the popular payments app that lets friends pay each other via mobile for free, is offering its users early access to Simple, the mobile banking app that offers the same amenities big banks do, like checking accounts and debit cards, but without the traps of hidden fees and high interest rates. Simple and Venmo previously partnered in July, when Simple became the first banking service to offer its customers Venmo Touch, which allows you to make payments in third-party apps with a single tap."

Mobile banking expert Wolman to speak at ISU
"David Wolman, a contributing editor for Wired.com and author of "The End of Money," will speak about the impact of going cashless at a free lecture Sept. 19 at Iowa State University."

Read More

Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 15

Digital strategies must pass the ROI test
"Large investments in emerging services like mobile and online do not always translate into higher customer satisfaction or even high financial performance, says Javelin Strategy and Research in a recent report. The firm also released a new competitive benchmark service, Outperform, which is a result of analyzing over 20 leading financial institutions. It provides insights to improve each banks’ return on investment on emerging bank services—mobile and online banking services."

Banking leads on-device conversion
"Banking and finance has the highest level of mobile conversions of any category at 54%, according to new research which also shows that half of US mobile banking and finance activity is transactional, and half search and browsing. The findings form part of the Annual US Mobile Path-to-Purchase Study, from xAd, the mobile advertising platform, and Telmetrics, the call measurement company. This is based on data from an online survey of 2,000 US smartphone and tablet users and observed consumer behaviors from Nielsen's Smartphone Analytics Panel of 6,000 Apple and Android users."

First Hawaiian Bank Now Offering "Mobile Deposit"
"First Hawaiian Bank will begin offering Mobile Deposit, an innovative service that allows customers to deposit checks using their smartphones or iPads, according to an announcement today by Bob Harrison, the bank’s president and chief executive officer. Mobile Deposit is yet another feature of FHB Mobile Banking and represents the latest addition to a long list of electronic banking convenience offerings by the bank. The easy-to-use Mobile Deposit feature lets you take a photo of a check and deposit it directly into your eligible FHB checking account using an iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device."

Consumers Will Use Your Digital Channels, But They Won’t Necessarily Love You
"Large investments in mobile and online services do not always translate into higher customer satisfaction or improved financial performance. There is little correlation between consumers’ adoption of banking technologies and how satisfied they are with their banking provider, according to a bank-by-bank comparison analyzing over 20 leading financial institutions, Javelin Strategy & Research."

Statewide FCU Expands Beyond the Branch with Mobile Branching App
"Statewide Federal Credit Union looks to increase its member reach by launching its first mobile branch. In partnership with Vancouver, BC-based TRG Mobilearth Inc., Statewide is set to go live with the tablet-based MobiBranch app, enabling employees to leave the branch and perform branch functions like new accounts, loan and mortgage applications anywhere their members live, work or play."

Tips to Avoid Online Banking Security Threats - Tip Sheet by SecuritySystemReviews.com
"There’s no doubt about it—online banking is a tremendous convenience. It offers users the opportunity to quickly and easily complete transactions from their home computer, smartphone or mobile device, without having to take the time to visit a bank. Most banks take tremendous precautions to ensure mobile banking programs are as safe and secure as possible, but as a consumer, there are still steps that can be taken to keep financial and personal information secure. In fact, many people don’t realize that even though they may have the best home security systems, the biggest threat of theft often comes from computer-based sources."

Paydiant Banks $15M, Shows Patience in Mobile Payments
"You hear a lot about the Series A funding crunch for startups these days. But just as telling, maybe even more so, is the Series B crunch. And the Series C crunch. For New England tech startups, there’s a fair bit of seed funding going around—and growth capital, too—but less money seems to be flowing to the middle, into the fledgling companies that are trying to become, well, real companies."

Mobile-First Banking App Numbrs Bags Further $3.8M For U.S. Launch
"Numbrs, the mobile-first banking app founded out of Swiss company builder Centralway, has raised a further $3.8 million from its parent — money that will be ring-fenced for a planned U.S. launch early next year. In addition, the young startup is opening a New York office for which it’s hiring a marketing team. The new investment adds to the original $7.7 million put into Numbrs by Centralway to continue making headway in Germany, while I’m told that the previously announced plans to enter the UK market this Fall are still on track, including moving into a London office in the next few weeks, to be shared with Centralway and another of its portfolio companies, Sandbox Network. (In fact, they’ll be based at Summerset House, sharing the newly-developed top floor with hail-a-cab startup Hailo.)"

Mitek Rolls Out Mobile Photo Account Opening
"Mitek Systems (MITK_) is taking another major step in the development of a fully featured mobile banking platform with the Tuesday rollout of its Mobile Photo Account Opening product. Mitek is the leading developer of smartphone camera-based mobile banking applications. The company had 1,059 financial institution customers for its Mobile Deposit product as of June 30, increasing a remarkable 19% from 889 the previous quarter. Among signed customers for Mobile Deposit, 559 had deployed the service as of June 30at the end of the second quarter, include the largest 10 U.S. retail banks."

Millennials Rule in Mobile Banking - According to xAd/Telmetrics Mobile Path-to-Purchase Study
"Proving the strongest on-device conversion category to-date in this year’s xAd/Telmetrics Mobile Path to Purchase Study, Banking & Finance mobile users are heavily ruled by Millennials. Nearly half of all mobile bankers were under the age of 35 and one-third indicated that smartphones were the most important device for their banking needs according to the overall Banking & Finance category findings—conducted by Nielsen."

Has mobile payment bug bitten you yet?
"It looks like more and more people are getting used to making payments using their mobile phones. According to data to National Payment Corp. of India (NPCI), the nodal agency to manage and promote retail electronic payments in India, till August 2013, 846,000 transactions have taken place through immediate payment system (IMPS) compared with 93,715 in September 2012, a jump of at least eight times. And this is only part of the story since it’s only one mode of mobile payment system we have considered here."

Malauzai Software Adds PFM Elements to iPad SmartApps With Launch of Better Mobile
"Malauzai Software Inc., a provider of mobile banking SmartApps for community financial institutions, has enhanced its mobile banking SmartApp for iPad devices with the Better Mobile suite, which includes personal financial management (PFM) functionalities. The Better Mobile addition to the iPad SmartApp gives users access to basic PFM features that are most used by consumers. The Future Cash Calendar displays money movement on a visual calendar and calculates what the balance will be on each date. Transaction history is shown in Cash Flows as a simplified bar chart indicating “money in” and “money out,” providing a visualization of how money is used during a given time period. Scratch Pad notes paper checks and other transactions not yet withdrawn and accounts for them in the balance."

Read More

Mobile Banking Updates - Sept 12

Increase Mobile Banking Adoption
"Yes, more consumers are using mobile devices - A 2012 Federal Reserve mobile financial services study indicated that the majority of American consumers use some form of technology to interact with their financial institutions. Yes, more customers are using mobile banking - The Fed survey found 21 percent of mobile phone owners have used mobile banking in the past 12 months; 11 percent of those not currently using mobile banking think that they will probably use it within the next 12 months. Yes, there is cost savings for the financial institution - The average financial institution can save almost $50 annually with each customer that uses mobile over branch for a single monthly deposit, according to a recent Javelin Strategy &. Research study. For the typical institution, an in-person transaction costs S4.25 while a mobile transaction costs about 10 cents."

Mobile money - what the future holds
"In this episode we are talking to the biggest mobile money specialist in the world, they're called Monitise and they aim to make money totally mobile across the globe. They give us an interesting insight into the progression of mobile transactions and to tell us more we speak with, Andrew Griffin, SVP for Industry and Investor relations at Monitise. He starts by telling us a bit about the background of the company and how things have developed to where they are today."

Mobile Banking Solution mBank Receives "Best Mobile Commerce App" Award
"mBank is a mobile banking application for small commercial banks and credit unions. New Jersey Technology Council recently selected mBank as the "Best Mobile Commerce App". 'We are excited to have received this award from New Jersey Technology Council. They have selected our platform not only for its quality but also for how valuable it will be for the banks needing such solution. NJTC is doing a terrific job in encouraging software companies like ours to produce innovative mobile solutions that benefits organizations and individuals alike. We thank them for recognizing our mobile banking app and value it brings for the target audience.' said Tim Miller, VP of Mobile Solutions at Mantra Information Services, a custom software and solutions company."

Read More