Citi is hosting a major new mobile innovation competition in Latin America. Called the Mobile Challenge LatAm 2014, the competition aims to bring together individuals and companies with innovative ideas to create applications for Citi’s Latin America mobile banking platform.
HSBC has installed free Wi-Fi in 650 of its UK branches, bringing the bank into line with Barclays, which introduced free Wi-Fi in February 2013. Both banks signed deals with BT to provide the connectivity, which is managed by BT as a white label service.
As contactless and mobile payment methods continue to grow, building societies and other financial institutions need to avoid being complacent about new technology, according to senior delegates speaking at the BSA annual conference in Manchester this week.
Confusion and concern over security is cited over and over again as the biggest barrier to widespread consumer uptake of mobile payments. And no wonder – confidence in the protection of sensitive cardholder data lies at the heart of trust in this technology. An EMV card as a physical asset is cryptographically secure. How can we emulate this security with something that is virtual?
Payment services provider Adyen has reported that one in five payments made on its network are now being made using a mobile device – a finding that reflects the rise of mobile payments worldwide, according to the firm.
Banks must take note of the way that technology is changing how customers interact with the world around them and develop products and services that address their needs rather than the banks’.
Why are different parts of Africa experiencing widely different levels of success with mobile banking, despite years of experience in Kenya? Panellists at the IPS conference in London offered a range of explanations
Partnerships and alliances with innovative digital entrepreneurs will allow the large incumbent banks to adapt and thrive in the new economic ecosystems being created by the mobile and digital revolutions currently changing the industry.
The banking industry is complex by its nature but banks and bankers should look up from their budgets, listen to their customers, stop whining about regulations and collaborate on industry issues.
Mobile money service M-Pesa has launched in Romania, bringing an idea hugely successful in Kenya to a European Union member state for the first time.
UK consumers have doubled the amount of transactions they make on their mobile phones over the last year, according to new figures released by the BBA.
Orange Business Services and technology infrastructure provider SIA have done a deal aimed at encouraging European banks and merchants to manage more payments via mobile point of sale terminals.
Brazilian banking group Bradesco is planning to roll out NFC mobile payments across Brazil by summer 2014, through a partnership with mobile operator Claro and technology provider Giesecke & Devrient.
While established banks struggle with their legacy systems, smaller players and new entrants are quickly adopting new technologies – but there are some trends in digital banking that are being slowly adopted by the banking industry as a whole.
Mobility has risen to such a level of importance that many people believe it deserves its own C-level position to advance and align mobility strategy throughout the enterprise. In no other industry is this more pressing than in banking where financial institutions are increasingly using mobile apps to set themselves apart from their rivals.
The mobile payments system planned by the UK Payments Council will be branded Paym. The Council says that it will announce the go-live date next month and final testing is on track.
Mobile payment isn’t about reinventing the wheel – it’s about making merchants and customers’ lives better by establishing a relationship built on knowledge and trust, according to mobile payments platform Znap.
Poland’s Getin Bank has implemented biometric signature verification in a roll-out of unstaffed remote branches using Virtual Teller Machines under its Getin Point brand. The technology allows customers to carry out banking tasks that require a signature without having to go to a traditional branch.
MasterCard has partnered with mobile technology specialist Syniverse under an audacious plan that aims at nothing less than “bringing mobile financial services to every single mobile user on the planet”.
Luxembourg telecoms company Millicom has launched an African cross-border mobile payments service in Rwanda and Tanzania, which it claims is the first to automatically include currency conversion.
What do taxis, the weather, mobile wallets and raincoats have in common? They are all potential variables in determining a person’s daily spend – and they provide a great opportunity for banks to use data to save customers money, according to Aman Narain, global head of digital banking Singapore at Standard Chartered.
Etrali Trading Solutions has rolled out its mobile voice recording service in Japan, allowing financial institutions to meet FSA regulations in the country. Etrali’s solution is SIM-based, and is already being used in Europe and the US.
Canadians are in a hurry to get rid of their cash – at least as a method of payment, nor are they content with the contactless tap-and-go cards currently in use; they are anxious to replace cards with contactless smartphone technology, writes Aaron Rosland, senior economic counsellor for the Government of Ontario, Canada.
Orange and Visa Europe have launched a new mobile wallet service called Orange cash in the French cities of Caen and Strasbourg, making Orange the first mobile network operator in France to offer mobile contactless payments to its customers.
The acquisition of digital banking specialist IND Group will give Misys access to parts of its rivals’ customer base that it intends to exploit as it develops its offerings in the digital banking channel, while the closer integration of the IND capabilities will also shore up Misys’ defences against encroachment of its own ageing user base.
Thailand’s Bangkok Bank has installed a new mobile banking and payments platform built by technology company Fiserv, which it says will give customers better security and the bank a stronger presence on mobile devices.
Concerns are emerging over the failure of some mobile banking providers to address security risks. According to a recent review of 40 home banking apps from the world’s top 60 banks, nine out of ten apps had serious security vulnerabilities.
Mobile money firm Monitise has acquired Pozitron Yazilim, an Istanbul-based mobile technology specialist, in a £24 million all-shares deal that highlights the growing demand for mobile financial services in the eastern Mediterranean’s largest market.
There are two sides to every coin, but with Bitcoin those sides simply could not be farther apart. Its promise is extraordinary: for those afraid of inflation, it is gold redux, while for those who hate exchange rates, it is a way to pay internationally. For merchants it is a way of avoiding high transaction fees and for former Presidential hopeful Ron Paul, it is the destruction of the US Dollar.
UK operator O2 has revealed that its O2 Wallet service, which closed last week, was a casualty of the pace of development in the fast moving mobile payments space.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of UK current account holders would prefer to bank online or via a mobile app than via telephone or in-branch banking (29%), according to a recent survey by YouGov and business process specialist Genpact.
Belgium’s Record Bank has introduced a new mobile banking platform that it says will help customers better manage their money in real time. The features of the new mobile banking service include SEPA payment abilities and the ability for customers to check the status, transaction history and details of their own account. Established in 2001, […]
HSBC has rolled out a service that will allow online retailers to give customers the choice to pay in various international currencies.
Japan’s evolving payments industry offers an opportunity for financial institutions and card issuers to capitalise on mobile technology and card schemes, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.
The likes and dislikes of mobile banking customers around the world suggest that there is an opportunity to expand mobile services globally – but providers need to be careful they are targeting the right information to the right people, according to a new survey by analytics firm FICO.
Pakistani Bank Alfalah has teamed up with operator Warid Telecom to launch a mobile money service. The service, Mobile Paisa, will initially enable users to make utility bill payments and secure money transfers across Pakistan.
MasterCard has teamed up with mobile payment solutions provider eServGlobal and Belgacom’s carrier services unit BICS to extend the capabilities of their international mobile remittance platform HomeSend. The three firms have set up a joint venture which uses the HomeSend platform, in which MasterCard will have a controlling share.
2014 looks to be a good year for fraudsters as government and law enforcement struggle to come to terms with the issues and the continuing spread of mobile continues to offer them poorly-protected targets.
Turkey’s Garanti Bank and mobile operator Turkcell have partnered with Visa Europe in a deal aimed at bringing the Turkcell mobile wallet to more consumers in Turkey.
A new role for CIOs in the banking sector was highlighted at the recent Gartner Symposium: to maintain their future relevance and position, they need to be seen as consultants in the technology space, not just providers.
