Majority of top US banks offering mobile banking

More banks are offering mobile banking services than ever before. A recent report by market research firm First Annapolis found that 54 percent of the top 100 US based financial institutions surveyed offered some form of mobile banking.

Nearly 40 percent now offer banking services over the mobile Web, accessible to smart phones such as Apple's iPhone. Banking by text message is also a popular option among banks; 32 percent offer banking services and/or alerts by text messages. Another 32 percent offer apps for smart phones, with the iPhone App Store getting apps from 28 percent of financial institutions. Other smart phone platforms such as Blackberry and Android were less likely to get banking apps.

While there's a certain percentage of the population that will never accept mobile banking, for many, the convenience of transferring funds, paying bills and making other key transactions anywhere, anytime is too much to resist. And convenience isn't the only benefit - according to the report, the most common features offered were instant balance inquiries and transaction history, two key features for avoiding overdrafts and preventing fraud.

Banks also benefit, because more mobile banking means less customer traffic at branches, allowing them to cut costs by employing fewer tellers and keeping fewer branches open.

50% of phishing victims respond to the scam within an hour, 90% within 10 hours

Phishing is thriving on the ignorance of the Internet users as half of the victims respond to the fraudulent emails within an hour of the receipt of scam messages, according to a study by transaction security firm Trusteer. The statistics shows that within 5 hours 80% of victims have responded with the figure raising up to 90% within the first 10 hours of an attack.

The statistics stresses the urgency for the fight against fraudulent websites that attempt to hoodwink the unwary into handing over online banking credentials or similar sensitive information.

Banks and information security suppliers need to work together to identify, block and take down scam websites as quickly as possible or else the damage may already be done.

"The fact that so many internet users visit a phishing website within such a short period of time means that blocking a phishing website – which is sometimes a cracked legitimate site – within the [first] golden hour has become absolutely critical," Trusteer chief technology officer Amit Klein said. "Blocking a phishing site after five to 10 hours is almost irrelevant."

Western Union remittances now officially available via Zoompass

Western Union and EnStream have announced that the Western Union’s international money transfer service is available through the Zoompass Mobile Wallet Application.

Earlier, in September the two companies announced their strategic alliance to enable 23 million Canadian mobile subscribers to send Western Union Money Transfer transactions from their mobile phones to over 200 countries and territories worldwide, through the Zoompass Wallet.

"The EnStream and Western Union teams have collaborated over the past six months to bring this revolutionary mobile remittance service to market"

EnStream is a mobile-commerce joint venture company owned by Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and TELUS Corp.

Once a Western Union Money Transfer transaction has been initiated through Zoompass, the recipient can pick up the funds in cash at a participating Western Union Agent location. Subscribers of mobile operators with whom Western Union has launched the Mobile Money Transfer service can also have funds delivered directly to their phones' Mobile Wallet accounts.

This service is currently available on networks in 27 countries, including Smart Communications and Globe Telecom in the Philippines, M-PESA in Kenya and Safaricom in the UK.

"Tap and go" payment system to speed queues at New Zealand’s Eden Park

The days of entering a PIN number and then waiting for approval, or of signing off credit card purchases on the dotted line, may be numbered, with several new initiatives for “tap-and-go” payment systems underway in New Zealand.

Today, MasterCard and the Rugby World Cup 2011 officially launched MasterCard’s PayPass system at Auckland’s Eden Park, following a trial of the system at the World Cup venue.

PayPass is a contactless payment method that involves an embedded chip and antenna in MasterCard pre-paid, credit and debit cards.

The system was trialed during several recent fixtures at Eden Park and was successful, Eden Park general manager of sales and marketing Tracy Morgan said at today’s launch.

“One of our challenges was around payment options and PayPass doesn’t just speed up payments, it also lets food and beverage staff not deal with cash so much.”

A PayPass transaction saves approximately 30 seconds on average on PIN number- and sign-off –based transactions, MasterCard New Zealand country manager Albert Naffah said, “and that amounts to hours of queuing” if you add up the time it takes for thousands of spectators to make payments, he said.

The PayPass system at Eden Park is limited to purchases of up to NZ$80.

Meanwhile, Greenstone Energy, the owner the BP and Shell petrol station chains in New Zealand, is looking at a similar system for petrol payments, and Visa is also planning a contactless payment offering. The ANZ bank launched a "tap and go" credit card earlier this month.

Mobile banking apps could be vulnerable

Banking apps for mobile devices are increasing in popularity. Estimates by the financial-services firm TowerGroup suggest there will be 53 million people using mobile-banking apps by 2013.

There are however many security advocates who have concerns about the whole question of apps. Spencer Ante of the Wall Street Journal raises a warning in: “Banks Rush to Fix Security Flaws in Wireless Apps.” Here is the lead paragraph:

“A number of top financial companies and banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and USAA are rushing out updates to fix security flaws in wireless-banking applications that could allow a computer criminal to obtain sensitive data like usernames, passwords, and financial information.”

The same article mentions viaForensics, a company specializing in securing mobile applications, as the firm discovering the vulnerabilities. The question is, why is this even happening? It is not complicated. Our banking credentials should be considered sacred, period.

On a good note, viaForensic’s web site mentions their researchers are working with the affected financial institutions: “Since Monday (1 November), we have been communicating and coordinating with the financial institutions to eliminate the flaws.“

The blog post goes on to say: “Since that time, several of the institutions have released new versions and we will post updated findings shortly”.

In the quote, viaForensics mentioned publishing new test results. That refers to their online service called appWatchdog.

Within days and to their credit, most of the banking firms pushed out updates to remove the vulnerabilities.

PayPal sees mobile payments in its future

In the past few months, PayPal has made some tremendous strides in the mobile payments space. As mobile payments will become huge in the following months – as asserted by both PayPal and eBay – the e-commerce service is making sure that it is prepared for the huge wave of mobile payment transactions. PayPal has even forecasting that this year alone will see over $700 million in transactions via its mobile payment system.

Even now the company seems poised to overtake its parent company, eBay, in terms of growth and size.

PayPal accounted for 37 percent of eBay’s overall revenue in the third quarter compared with 23 percent just five years ago. EBay’s payments unit, which consists mostly of PayPal, had $838 million in revenue in the three months ended September 30, up 22 percent from the period a year earlier. The auction and retail operations, which eBay calls marketplace, took in $1.41 billion in revenue during the same period, an increase of just 3 percent.

If the trend continues, PayPal will surpass eBay in terms of revenue by 2014, just a little over three years from now. As mobile payments and commerce grows even bigger, PayPal is looking to cement its role as a transactor for that particular business. Despite its recent success, there is still a long way to go:

Mr. Thompson said that there remained much to do at PayPal. Since payment systems are evolving so rapidly, he predicted that the next generation of consumers would be unfamiliar with something as basic as a cheque. “We are literally just scratching the surface,” he said.

Credit card companies that have partnered with PayPal may be its biggest rivals in the new mobile payments space. Already, they have mixed feelings about PayPal’s success.

The competition is getting pretty fierce as well. Companies are banding together and using NFC payments for their transactions, and other companies like Square can enable credit card payments right on the spot with its smartphone attachment. Even PayPal’s own partners, like credit card companies, ultimately find competition in that users are finding more of an incentive to use PayPal versus a credit card.

As someone who likes simplifying and consolidating tasks, mobile payments makes life so much easier when dealing with payments and banking transactions. While PayPal certainly has its flaws – deep, annoying flaws – I can’t wait for the day when I make the majority of my payments and transactions with my smartphone using a service like PayPal.

Zambia Stanchart rolls-out mobile bill payment system

Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) Zambia has started rolling out utility payment bills on its mobile banking system with Nkana Water and Sewerage Company and Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company.

Stanchart distribution general manager Sonny Zulu said the roll-out will enable the bank’s customers to settle their utility bills with the two utility firms through their mobile phones.

Mr Zulu said in a statement in Lusaka today that the service will be available 24 hours a day and throughout the week.

“Customers with international roaming enabled on their mobile phones will be able to complete their transactions from anywhere in the world,” he said.

He said the bank will continue adding more service providers in consultation with its customers.

“We see this service as part of our drive to provide customer centric services. We will extend this offering through alternative distribution channels such as Online/internet banking, automated teller machines and the national call centre,” he said.

And Stanchart managing director Mizinga Melu said the roll-out will enable the bank to significantly enhance its service to customers in the country.

“We differentiate our brand in Africa through our ability to leverage on our international expertise and product capabilities to introduce innovative services into our Africa markets,” she said.

She said the roll-out of bill payments on the bank’s mobile phone channel is an example of a competitive advantage and evidence to continue investing in Africa’s franchise.