In response to a ATM skimming scheme that hit some 700 DBS Bank customers in Singapore - DBS is one of the largest retail banks in South East Asia - the bank announced last week plans to launch a real-time SMS/text alert service. BankInfoSecurity reports.
DBS's move to launch SMS/text alerts for ATM transactions is innovative. Most mobile alert services have been limited to Internet banking; mobile serves as a channel to which an additional verification code for online login can be sent.
"This kind of countermeasure has most typically been deployed with Internet banking systems to thwart Trojan-based fraud attacks, but it can work very effectively in just about any transaction environment," Wills says. "This flexibility offers FIs a good way to leverage their investment in a customer alert system."
The ADF is a program launched by the Ministry of Agriculture aimed at proving Afghan farmers with access to credit.
... One of the factors constraining loan payments is the distance between rural households and financial institutions; currently, farmers travel long distances to make payments in person. To bridge this distance, approximately 500 farmers, as part of a pilot program, in Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar, will use M-paisa to make loan repayments, on their mobile phone.
The rising competition among the banks and cellular operators in Pakistan for mobile banking has turned the country into a virtual laboratory for innovation in financial services that make the country a market worth watching for the world to learn new lessens in mobile banking within the next 12 months.
One credit card company is using text messages as the newest tool in fighting identity theft. Text alerts are sent when unusual activity is detected on customers' accounts. KSDK reports.
USAA will send you a text message when there's an attempt to make a credit card purchase it thinks is suspicious.
USAA says it's the first to offer this kind of tenting to protect you. They ask you about the attempted purchase and you can respond to tell them if its you using the card or not.
The Christian Science Monitor on how borrowing and paying via cell phone in Africa – no cash involved – opens new possibilities.
Entrepreneurs in Africa are pioneering a remote electronic money network for the continent’s “unbanked” rural people, allowing customers to use their cell phones like a debit card. Investing in this social entrepreneurship could bring prosperity to markets that need it most.
... Thanks to the efforts of companies like Mobile Transactions in Lusaka, Zambian cotton farmers without bank accounts can now electronically receive payments for their crop direct to their mobile phones.
About 80 percent of Zambians, particularly in rural areas, don’t have bank accounts. By using mobile banking, farmers are not only able to get paid more quickly and transparently, but they can also use their mobile accounts to send money transfers, buy phone credit, pay school fees for their children, and order agriculture inputs such as fertilizer and seed. Electronic payments also allow them to build up a credit history over time, which will make getting loans easier in the future.
The cashless system has several benefits. First, money stored electronically is less likely to be stolen or misused. Second, electronic transactions can be instant – lowering transaction costs – whereas in-person cash transactions often mean investing time and money in transportation. Electronic money can benefit more marginalized people who often have to rely on middlemen to help them access markets.
Following a tomiahonen tweet on Jibun Bank, the worlds first full bank that only exists on mobile, I wanted to find out more about it. I came across this article from the Financial Services Club. It dates back to 2009, so the figures are not up to date, but the principal is the same.
Jibun Bank is a Japanese bank which translates into ‘my bank’ in English.
Why is Jibun Bank an innovation?
Because it is designed purely and simply for mobile telephone access.
Jibun Bank was launched in July 2008 by the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) and KDDI, the Japanese telecommunications carrier.
The difference with Jibun Bank is that it is intended for mobile access only, and only has a shell website to back it up.
The aim instead is that, through KDDI’s mobile telephone stores and BTMU’s branches, you get full service access via 24*7 telephony.
The 24-hour bank is also designed for mobile phone subscribers of KDDI's au service, allowing au users to pay for goods and services they purchase with their mobile handsets and making money transfers between au subscribers as easy as just entering the receiver's telephone number and the amount of money to be transferred into the handset.
Meanwhile, to deposit or withdraw cash, customers can use BTMU’s ATMs or those of Seven Bank and the Japan Post Bank.
Nokia has started shipping mobile phones in India that are preloaded with its banking application, in a bid to popularize mobile banking in the country. PC World reports.
India is the first market where Nokia is preloading the Mobile Money client on its phones, a company spokeswoman said on Monday.
Nokia has already teamed up with Union Bank of India, and Yes Bank, and rolled out a mobile banking service based on the https://www.obopay.com/consumer/welcome.shtml mobile payment platform, on a revenue-sharing basis.
The company is preloading the banking application on all phones, including entry-level devices that lack an Internet connection. The user interface for the application is SMS, but the device's data transport can be SMS, GPRS or Wi-Fi, Nokia said.
Ericsson has launched its m-payment service across seven European countries. Dubbed Ericsson Money, the new service allows mobile phone users in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden to send and receive money and withdraw cash. intoMobile reports.
According to the Swedish company, this is the “first step toward bringing a full suite of convenient, cost-efficient, secure and instant mobile financial services to consumers globally.”
Money can be loaded to an eWallet via a credit or debit card and can be used to transfer funds to anyone with another Ericsson Money account. Additionally, there’s an option to link the Ericsson Money PrePaid MasterCard to make purchases using the account.
Standard is breaking from its main business of drawing customers to its branches and automatic teller machines in favor of a low-cost mobile-phone model that is based on proximity to people.
Since an official launch last year, Standard has opened more than 8,300 of these so-called "bank shops" at sites ranging from street-side convenience stores to raucoustaverns.
By the end of this year, Standard intends to have 10,000 set up around the country, mostly in South Africa's predominantly black townships, and has recruited local sales agents to find customers. The shops aim to tap what executives estimate is a pool of about 15 million people in South Africa, or about 30% of its population, who don't have active bank accounts but now have the means to spend and save.
According to USA Today, three of the nation's largest banks have launched a program that will allow customers to use their computers or smartphones to make electronic payments to another person's checking account.
The venture, announced Wednesday by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, will allow customers to transfer money electronically from their online checking accounts to another person's account, using an e-mail address or cellphone number.
Bank of America will begin piloting a program where customers have the opportunity to approve debit card purchases that will result in negative balances via text messages.. MyBankTracker reports.
Currently, Bank of America is one of two major banks — the other being Citibank — that will decline debit card transactions resulting in a negative account balance.
Under the pilot program, expected to start early 2012, customers will receive a text message immediately after their debit cards are rejected during a point of sale purchase. A customer can respond to the text message that will permit an overdraft occur in order to process the debit card purchase.
These new mobile sites make the repayment process more accessible for many student loan borrowers,” said PHEAA Board Vice Chairman Wayne Fontana. “Anytime PHEAA can make it easier to manage student loan payments, we are helping borrowers avoid delinquency and default – which can ultimately save borrowers from a lifetime of credit issues, while safeguarding millions of federal tax dollars.”
Student loan borrowers can visit aesSuccess.org or MyFedLoan.org and check their account balance, the next payment amount and due date, and make a payment 24/7.
In the dusty village bazaar in Jalrez, eastern Afghanistan, Asif Shahrukhi is getting help from Microsoft founder Bill Gates to convert his mud-brick mobile-phone shop into a virtual bank. Bloomberg reports.
Shahrukhi offers money transfers for 45,000 people in the Jalrez Valley through a system created by Vodafone Group, to offer banking services in Kenya.
The Interior Ministry says a pilot project to pay police via phone in areas without banks will be expanded this year to cover 5 percent of the 110,000 officers nationwide.
The change “brings me more money because it has stopped the people who used to steal part of my salary every month” said Khair Muhammad, a Jalrez policeman.
Corrupt bureaucrats who used to skim as much as 20 percent from state employees’ salaries have opposed the government’s shift to electronic payments through banks and mobile phones, said Hanif Atmar, a former interior minister.
Repeating Vodafone’s African success amid Afghanistan’s war will mean overcoming Taliban threats in addition to corrupt bureaucrats, said Shahrukhi, the agent in Jalrez for Roshan, the Afghan cell-phone network that’s building the banking system. “We can’t even bring a computer to the shop to help with our work because the Taliban are against computers and they would try to kidnap or kill us,” Shahrukhi said.
Last year, fear of Taliban attack or robbery led Shahrukhi to stop bringing in the cash supplies needed to pay Jalrez’s 45 policemen at his shop. The officers, who get the cash by showing text messages on their phones that verify the money transfers, now must drive to Roshan agents in other towns to be paid.
American Express Co. is pumping money and technology into a fledgling company that wants consumers to pay for purchases by using their mobile-phone number. The Wall Street Journal reports.
AmEx is expected to announce on Wednesday that it is the lead investor in a $19 million financing for Payfone Inc., a New York start-up.
"The phone number is the most ubiquitous identification in the world. Using that as a way to check out means it can be used on a global basis," said Rodger Desai, co-founder and chief executive of Payfone.
The deal represents the latest effort for AmEx to position itself for new forms of payment. The company, which built a reputation on exclusivity and is best known for catering to affluent customers, is seeking to ready itself for an anticipated explosion in mobile payments.
AmEx also is seeking to attract younger customers, who ultimately are expected to be more comfortable paying for products with their phones rather than swiping a credit card.
Over half of Chinese mobile internet users have accessed some form of mobile banking service, according to a survey by 3G.cn, cited by the People's Daily newspaper.
According to the results of a sample survey, more than 52 percent of mobile phone Internet users had used mobile banking services by the end of February 2011, a considerable increase from the proportion of 37 percent in July 2010.
South Africa's First National Bank, which is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday announced the launch of a new service that allows customers to withdraw funds from ATMs using their mobile phones instead of their bank cards. Self Service World reports.
To use First National Bank's cell phone banking, customers must log onto Cellphone Banking and select a banking option. They then must choose withdraw cash and the account from which they want to take the funds, such as checking or savings.
Once the customer completes this step, the bank sends an SMS text message with a temporary PIN. The PIN is good for 30 minutes to make a cash withdrawal from one of the bank's more than 4,500 ATMs. Customers only can use the temporary PIN once.
First National Bank initially launched cell phone banking in 2005, and the financial institution has more than 2.7 million customers, said a bank spokesperson.
The New York Times in a lengthy article on mobile wallets and the players involved: mobile phone carriers, banks, credit card issuers, payment networks and technology companies - all vying for control. And how now, the pieces are finally starting to fall into place.
With irregular bank hours, but a high mobile penetration, Afghanistan is, in some ways, ideal for mobile payments, reports MIT's Technology Review. "The gulf between what's there now and what could be there if it is successful is enormous," says Jan Chipchase, executive creative director of global insights at Frog Design and textually favorite.
Similar mobile payment systems have been very successful elsewhere. The first system designed for cash transfer via text messages, called M-PESA, was launched in 2007 by Vodafone and Kenya's telecom provider Safaricom and is used by about 55 percent of Kenya's adult population for paying everything from electricity bills to school fees.
Setting up a system of mobile payments in Afghanistan proved to be especially complicated, according to Chipchase's two-week survey. Sporadic attacks on cell-phone towers by the Taliban have crippled coverage in parts of the country, and the regime has decreed that cell towers be turned off at night.
Another stumbling block is the lack of cash trade in certain parts of the country, where people still trade in commodities such as goats and gold. Many rural Afghans still lack a basic education, limiting their access to the text-based M-Paisa service in Afghanistan, the first country after Kenya to launch this innovative service.
Fotini Christia, a political scientist at MIT, who has studied civil war in Afghanistan, agrees that these issues are real obstacles to M-Paisa. "People still trade in kind, in a week's supply of crops," she says. "If it was to pick up, it's more likely to pick up in urban centers rather than anywhere else."
According to the Huffington Post, HSBC Bank customers have been receiving fraudulent text messages in recent days asking them to dial in to a 1-800 number and enter their account information over the phone.
Customer service personnel at HSBC confirmed that the text message scam had impacted numerous bank customers since Monday, but a spokesman for the bank said there is no evidence of any HSBC "data breach" or of any customer information, including credit card numbers, being compromised.
The text message read, "HSBC ALERT," and provided a number to call, which led to a professional recording that asked for account information.
South Africa's Global Post on Wizzit, a mobile banking service launched in 2004 that aims to provide affordable, accessible banking for low-income people.
In South Africa, many people don’t use banks because they are seen as expensive and elitist, and they don’t have locations and hours that meet the needs of the country’s poor, often rural, people.
The key innovation: understanding how mobile phones are actually used in South Africa.
Almost everyone in South Africa now has one, despite their economic standing. Cell phone penetration is estimated at 98 percent in the country. “Interestingly, in Africa they might not have shoes, but they have a cell phone,” Brian Richardson, a former banker said.
... Customers are given Maestro debit cards, which can be used at ATMs and points of sale. They can use their cell phones for such functions as viewing bank statements, sending money and paying bills, all with low transaction fees.
VentureBeat on textually favorite Jan Chipchase, Frog Design’s “Director of global insights” which takes him all around the world and into the most private areas of people’s lives. The aim of his research is to understand what makes people tick and how that knowledge should inform the design of products and services.
... Frog Design just published some research from Chipchase on mobile money services in Afghanistan that illustrates the complexity of designing services for such markets.
Local mobile carrier Roshan recently introduced M-Paisa there. “Somewhere like the U.S., mobile money is just one step away. In Afghanistan, it’s probably 3 steps away. The 3 steps are textual literacy, mobile literacy and financial literacy (e.g. understanding the concept of “interest”). That doesn’t mean that people are not going to use it. It just means that they have to be even more motivated.”
The technology isn't new. Consumers can already "wave and pay" at certain shops in countries around the world with contactless payment cards like Mastercard's PayPass and Visa's WavePay which contain an embedded near-field communication, or NFC, microchip that communicates with a reader to process payment transactions. The Wall Street Journal reports.
But despite plenty of hype, the rest of the world is years behind Japan, where osaifu-keitai or mobile wallets are used at over 300,000 retail outlets across the country, a network that has taken seven years to build.
The success of the service in Japan is a product of the unique mobile market there. NTT Docomo is the dominant player, with around a 50% share of total subscribers, and it has worked with handset makers, retailers, ticket outlets and transport organizations to encourage take-up.
Elsewhere network operators, handset makers, retailers, banks and IT specialists are still squabbling over who gets what slice of the mobile wallet pie, hence the lengthy stasis outside of Japan. Sporadic trials have been run in several countries but only now are the fragmented players planning commercial launches.
The handsets are, however, beginning to gain traction.
Ericsson will launch mobile phone banking services, it said on Wednesday, hoping to capture a big chunk of a market it estimates will be worth an annual $27.7 billion by 2015.
The service will be a rival to traditional money transfer operators like Western Union and MoneyGram initially, but could replace credit cards in the future.
While Ericsson has initially partnered with a bank to provide the service in Europe, it hopes its global presence will mean it can sell the service to telecoms operators internationally and connect them in a cross-border system.
The number of unpaid SMS loans that end up with the Swedish Enforcement Administration (Kronofogden) has shrunk dramatically, according to the government agency. The Local, Sweden's News in English reports.
Last year, 28,038 cases ended up at the agency, which handles all debt collection in Sweden, compared with 46,531 in 2009, a decrease of 40 percent. The share of loans possessed by young people in Sweden also continued to decline last year, the agency added.
Janne Åkerlund, a communications officer at the agency, called it a fantastic development. "There is a drastic reduction for all ages and genders and is a fantastic result. We are down to 2007's levels. In the case of young people, the message has gotten through for sure. They obviously understand that it is damn expensive to buy for something for 3,000 kronor ($457) and pay 3,600 kronor," said Åkerlund.
In addition to a massive information drive, which the agency took part in, a certain degree of self-regulation took place in the industry ahead of the new consumer credit law that came into force on January 1st this year, Åkerlund believes.
PayPal in partnership with Safaricom and some banks have launched a platform that allows one to pay fees directly to school banks accounts through a mobile phone, eliminating the risks associated with sending money to third parties and reducing bank transaction fees. All Africa reports.
At the moment, some parents send school fees to head teachers' or bursars' mobile phones then they withdraw and pay it to the schools.
But now, parents can pay the school directly through PayPal's system dubbed Schoolpay at no fee.
After a parent sends the fee it is first deposited at PayPal's trust accounts or the mobile providers' trust account where it is then transferred to the respective school accounts.
At the moment, Kenya Commercial Bank, Cooperative Bank and CFC hold trusts account.
Schoolpay will enable over 30,000 secondary and primary schools in Kenya go hi-tech by receiving and managing mobile payments from parents electronically.
Already, more than 90 schools have signed up to offer the service starting next term.
According to this press release, Instant text loans are services which help you fetch funds within 24 hours. They help you avail funds even if you have poor credit score. They are accessible with just a single SMS. You can make an application online also.
You have the freedom to use the funds offered for various needs like for improvement of your house, for paying off various pending bills like gas bills, electricity bills, utility bills, for financing various educational requirements, for debt consolidation and so on. The funds can thus be used for financing any of your domestic or personal requirements for payday loans.
To obtain this finance, one is required to fill the simple online application form. This form is offered at the lenders websites. In the form, you are required to give a few of your private information for instance name, contact number, address, etc. When you need an advance, you simply have to send a message with your private PIN. And then the lender transfers the sum directly into your account.
The catch? a high interest rate.
In many countries, such SMS loans have created havoc with some lenders charging up to 1,000 percent interest. Mostly young people ran into huge debt problems.
Haitian cellular provider Digicel has received a $2.5 million grant for a project to allow people in the impoverished and earthquake-stricken country to use their mobile phones for banking. All Things Digital reports.
Digicel is the first recipient from a $10 million fund set up by theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the http://www.usaid.gov/(USAID), and the project is designed to speed up the arrival of cell phone banking in Haiti. The effort follows other mobile banking projects such as the M-PESA program in Kenya.
For now, the Haiti Tcho Tcho service, as the banking program is known, allows customers to make deposits and withdrawals at retail outlets as well as transfer money between Tcho Tcho accounts. Over time, the service is designed to expand to bill payment and international transfers as well as the ability to pay for government services.
A very interesting article from CNN, on doctors in Tanzania using M-Pesa's banking service to send bus fare to women suffering from fistula -- a highly-stigmatized condition that women can develop after a long, traumatic childbirth without proper medical care.
The money is used to pay for a patient's bus ticket -- helping them travel from rural areas to Dar es Salaam, one of the few places where corrective surgeries are performed.
"It has changed our treatment, because now we are having so many patients who could not access treatment before because of the transport barrier," he says. "Last year we treated only 100, we had 163 surgeries; this year, up to now we've had 253."
Doctors at the Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania clinic (CCBRT) say the average cost of a return bus ticket for a woman traveling from a rural area for treatment is $60, a huge amount in a country where the majority of people live on $2 a day.
"We use the mobile phone to actually transfer those transport grants to the communities, so that those woman can reach our facility -- and then the cost of lodging in a hospital, we also bear the costs," says Erwin Telemans, who runs the clinic.
According to The Philippine Star, MTN Rwanda processes 5,000 mobile banking transactions per day. The service, “MTN Mobile Money” was officially launched in February 2010.
Haitian telecoms and banks are racing to sign up customers for mobile banking plans through which payments are made electronically from mobile phone to mobile phone. The money is stored in an “electronic wallet” — the phone’s SIM card — instead of that wooden drawer. The Global Post reports.
At least two major mobile phone providers have launched mobile banking programs, partnering with major Haitian banks and international aid agencies. The competition is spurred by a $10 million reward from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The money, dispersed in two awards in December and next spring, will go to the company that records the most transactions.
... The benefits for the poorest can be numerous: Many never before had access to a bank branch or held an account. Their banking history can be used to help secure loans or apply for other financial services. It’s more secure than handling cash. And it’s cheaper than a traditional bank account.
In response to a ATM skimming scheme that hit some 700 
DBS's move to launch SMS/text alerts for ATM transactions is innovative. Most mobile alert services have been limited to Internet banking; mobile serves as a channel to which an additional verification code for online login can be sent.
Afghanistan based mobile network, 
Nokia has started shipping mobile phones in India that are preloaded with its banking application, in a bid to popularize mobile banking in the country. 
In the dusty village bazaar in Jalrez, eastern Afghanistan, Asif Shahrukhi is getting help from Microsoft founder Bill Gates to convert his mud-brick mobile-phone shop into a virtual bank. 
With irregular bank hours, but a high mobile penetration, Afghanistan is, in some ways, ideal for mobile payments, reports 
South Africa's 
The technology isn't new. Consumers can already "wave and pay" at certain shops in countries around the world with contactless payment cards like Mastercard's PayPass and Visa's WavePay which contain an embedded near-field communication, or NFC, microchip that communicates with a reader to process payment transactions. 
The number of unpaid SMS loans that end up with the Swedish Enforcement Administration (Kronofogden) has shrunk dramatically, according to the government agency. 
Haitian cellular provider Digicel has received a $2.5 million grant for a project to allow people in the impoverished and earthquake-stricken country to use their mobile phones for banking. 
A very interesting article from 
Haitian telecoms and banks are racing to sign up customers for mobile banking plans through which payments are made electronically from mobile phone to mobile phone. The money is stored in an “electronic wallet” — the phone’s SIM card — instead of that wooden drawer. The 
