Mobile


Citi starts Latin American mobile startup challenge

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.

In Money Transfer Push, Facebook Finds Plenty of Friends (May 12, 2014)

Facebook has already conquered the social media sphere—and now there are signs the company is seeking to capitalize on its global ubiquity and massive user base to make a splash as a money transfer service, recently partnering with financial service providers on transfer initiatives around the globe.

HSBC installs free wi-fi in UK branches

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.

Small financial institutions must face the mobile challenge

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.

U.K. Banks Debut P2P Payments Service (May 5, 2014)

A group of the biggest financial institutions in the U.K. have banded together to launch a new P2P mobile payments system that by year-end will be accessible to 9 out of 10 bank account holders in the U.K.

Mobile payment security will depend on using the ‘smart’ in smartphone

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?

A Square Deal? (April 24, 2014)

First the Wall Street Journal reported in November that Square Inc. was considering an IPO. Then acquisition rumors swirled after the newspaper reported this week that Square had been in M&A talks with companies including Google, Apple and PayPal.

Mobile payments push past 20% of transactions says PSP

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.

Is Identification the Killer App for Mobile Wallets? (April 17, 2014)

The thus-far sluggish rate of mobile wallet adoption in the U.S. has been attributed to a range of factors, from security concerns, to lack of widespread merchant acceptance to the familiarity and convenience of traditional plastic payment cards. But according to a new report from TSYS, what might be holding mobile wallets back has less to do with the mobile and more to do with the wallet.

Africa’s mobile revolution stands in the balance

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

Vodafone launches M-Pesa in Romania

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 mobile banking doubles in a year

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.

SIA and Orange champion mobile POS in Europe

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.

Banking in the Digital World

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.