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The Almighty Buck Businesses Handhelds The Internet Hardware

Bank on Your Cell Phone 89

Posted by CowboyNeal from the little-big-business dept.
AnonGirl writes "Big banks are launching mobile banks to 'keep customers and generate more payment revenue down the line.' Citibank is working on two pilots: one with Obopay, and the other for contact-less payments. AT&T phones will have Wachovia already installed in their phones by fourth quarter 2007. The downside: 'Even though banks are not charging for their service, carriers do charge for accessing data through their phone.'"
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Bank on Your Cell Phone More

Bank on Your Cell Phone

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  • How telling... (Score:3, Funny)

    by sethstorm ( 512897 ) * on Friday June 29, 2007 @12:40AM (#19685755) Homepage
    AT&T phones will have Wachovia already installed in their phones by fourth quarter 2007.
    I guess the "ph" in iPhone will get a strange emphasis with people's accounts "mysteriously drained" for some reason.
    • Indeed. And can Wachovia's software be easily removed? Whether you have Wachovia as your bank or not, many people are going to balk at the thought of alpha testing banking software, or even having a phone in which the software at one time had its hooks.

      Besides, as has been hashed and rehashed around here for other hardware/software packages, it's irritating to have to remove something you DON'T want instead of just adding stuff you DO want. Who's paying the bills here, after all?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by gravos ( 912628 )
        I agree with you; If it's installed like the "Buy Ringtones!" stuff is on my latest phone such that it's impossible to remove then it will be very annoying. I can see the value in being able to view account balances and such at any time, but with most people having multiple accounts at multiple banks it might not be all that valuable unless there is a centralized way to view everything at once.
  • My phone is not an ATM, why are they trying to make it like one? Sure, I can transfer balances on a whim to different accounts, but who really needs to do this on a regular (i.e. more than once a month) basis? And for those transfers like credit card payments, i'm sure you sit down in front of your computer at least ONCE a month.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Overall I agree with you, I wouldn't find it that useful either, but not everybody banks the same. I know some people that regularly use online payments/transfers to pay friends or associates rather than writing a check or giving them cash. Also, for people that are consistently low on funds I'm sure it'd be nice to check your balance on the go to make sure you have enough money rather than having to go find a computer or an ATM.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fbjon ( 692006 )
        I think it's a smarter way of doing it on the whole, so mobile banking is just a natural extension from that. It's not required to check funds though, I have my bank send an SMS every monday with my balance (it's free for me, so why not), but I could use a different trigger, such as when it dips below some limit.
      • people buying and selling stocks or people works on the fx market would love it imo.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by kakofb ( 725561 )
      You've got it all wrong. It's all about being a space cyborg from the future doing everything on your mobile telephony device nowadays.

    • Re:my phone is not an ATM (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MobileTatsu-NJG ( 946591 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @02:26AM (#19686261)

      My phone is not an ATM, why are they trying to make it like one? Sure, I can transfer balances on a whim to different accounts, but who really needs to do this on a regular (i.e. more than once a month) basis? And for those transfers like credit card payments, i'm sure you sit down in front of your computer at least ONCE a month.


      I agree with you today, but I'm not sure how I'd feel a year from now. I recently bought a Treo and have an unlimited data plan with Sprint. More and more I find myself using it to do things I normally do on the computer. I frequent Wikipedia, IMDB, Google News, and so on. Heck, I even found myself browsing Amazon a bit with it. The reason I'm using the phone instead of the computer? I'm often away from it. Amazon, for example, is great to peek at if I'm at a store and I find something I might want to get. I'll get a review and an idea of if the price is roughly in the right ballpark.

      Okay, I'm probably not thrilling you with my tales of my mighty Treo browsing experience, but hear me out. I often get hit with an idea to do something when I'm away from the computer, and the Treo's awfully available. Sometimes I'll be out and about and realize I haven't paid my credit card bill yet. Well, that's when I notice how limited it can be sometimes. I've found out that the silly site they use won't support it. That's a bummer, I end up having to remember to take care of it when I get home. That's all fine and dandy, nothing wrong with that, except it's crunch mode where I work right now. My mind is full of tasks and I have precious few hours in the day to handle my home expenses. My point is that I can see the appeal of something like this if it's handled well and securely. Necessary? Nah, but there are people out there it has the potential to be convenient to.

      I'm tired and I'm not sure how clear I'm being, so I'll put it a little more concisely: Yes, I am in front of a computer enough to take care of bills. However, I also find my phone is available at times when my computer isn't. It's not a cure for cancer, but it's semi-interesting to somebody like me who finds spare time to be a bit pricey.
    • It also doesn't help in the only two instances when I still visit an ATM:
      1. those increasingly rare times when I actually need cash
      2. when I have a paper check that I want to deposit right away
      If I could "scan" my check with my cellphone and have the funds deposited into my account, or if I could hook it up to a printer and print out some bar-coded "cash" (like you can do with postage stamps!), now that would be impressive.

  • I wonder... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Whuffo ( 1043790 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @12:45AM (#19685785) Homepage Journal
    Did any of these banks actually do any analysis of the security of cell phone data?

    It hasn't been that long since Paris Hilton's cell got hacked and everyone got to see what she kept on her phone; maybe AT&T has better security on this stuff - but I'd bet not.

    I don't think this is going to turn out well...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ushering05401 ( 1086795 )
      When is the last time that a major company put security ahead of profits?

      Wouldn't it be nice if the internet, the greatest resource created in our time, was actually treated as a vital community resource... to be protected and respected by institutions, public and private alike.

      Unfortunately the net and all related tech will be exploited via the path of least resistance...

      Regards.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Short Circuit ( 52384 )

        When is the last time that a major company put security ahead of profits?
        Around here, banks are required to by law [wikipedia.org].

    • Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jorghis ( 1000092 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @01:51AM (#19686129)
      Well most stuff in the real world has pretty poor security. The thing that stops thieves is that whole "youll go to jail if you do this" thing. I mean how easy is it for a waiter to copy down your credit card number when he goes back to run it? Or take a quick cell phone picture when the guy in front of you in line hands the clerk his credit card. And yet somehow people still use their credit cards. I suspect that it is because we have this cool thing called law enforcement in this country that deters people from committing crimes. It wont be any easier to steal your info now than it was then.

      If anything I would trust this more because it actually has the potential (if implemented well) to be far more secure than a number printed on the front of the card for the world to see. Even if they are broadcasting data unencrypted it will still be more secure than regular credit card use because the difficulty of electronic eavesdropping is much higher than the difficulty of reading a number on a card.
      • But there are a lot of people who would commit cell phone theft that would not commit bank fraud or identity theft outright, but once that information is in their hands and theyre safely at home, it might serve as a 'gateway drug' to bigger and badder crime.

      • Re:I wonder... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Foerstner ( 931398 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @03:51AM (#19686575)
        The thing that stops thieves is that whole "youll go to jail if you do this" thing.

        That, right there, is why "cybercrime" is so attractive. Eavesdropping on an electronic signal can be done from anywhere, with no pesky eyewitnesses. The thieves believe that they'll never be caught, because there's practically no chance of them being observed in the act. Stupid but true.

        Even if they are broadcasting data unencrypted it will still be more secure than regular credit card use because the difficulty of electronic eavesdropping is much higher than the difficulty of reading a number on a card.

        If you're talking about random crimes of opportunity, you're right. But once word got out that a major provider was broadcasting data in the clear, serious criminals would organize and get busy. One reasonably tech-savvy criminal could farm out the actual data-gathering, using some automated tools, to a half-dozen lackeys who just know how to drive around, run a script and hold an antenna. There are plenty of serious credit-card-fraud syndicates out there. For such an organization, this would be just one low-risk way to get fresh numbers.
      • But the risk of getting caught with electronic eavesdropping is percieved to be much lower.

        consider your waiter theory,
        If that waiter were to write down your credit card number, it would certainly be traced back to him. Your table number is usually printed on the check and everything is tracked electronically.

        Unencrypted broadcast of my credit card information can be read by anyone with the right tools... say the guy at the next table can just pull that info out of the sky and I would never know, till I got
      • Actually, I think the main reason that people are so indifferent to the exposure of their credit card details is that companies like Visa are willing to take the hit on fraud, when it happens. You lose your credit card; a bunch of large purchases show up that don't fit your profile; you get refunded. I'm sure it's happened to many of us often; we're still laissez-faire about the way we use our credit cards.

        It'll be interesting to see who is willing to take the responsibility for this security system, and

      • The thing that stops thieves is that whole "youll go to jail if you do this" thing.

        As if the prisons weren't full of people to whom "You may go to jail" seemed "an acceptable risk" at the time when they did what sent them there. Menacing to throw people in jail has never been an actual deterrent against thieves. It only avoids that the problem escalates onto a massive scale with absolutely everyone including your aunt is doing it.

        The only reason that people still use stuff as insecure as Credit cards, is th

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by mh1997 ( 1065630 )

        The thing that stops thieves is that whole "youll go to jail if you do this" thing.

        I disagree, if the person is a thief then they have broken the law and already risked jail. A potential thief may be deterred by jail, but not an actual thief.

        I mean how easy is it for a waiter to copy down your credit card number when he goes back to run it?

        What stops most waiters from copying your card number is honesty. Despite what the 24-hour news channels would have you believe, most people are honest, even when nob

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by jshurst1 ( 659821 )

      I'm a developer for one of the larger US banks and am currently in the pilot for the mobile personal banking rollout. I don't actually work on the mobile team, but I do have access to most of the internal security reports, and I can assure you that at least our company has thoroughly reviewed the many security concerns. Is it perfectly secure? No, and pretty much no system is. But from what I've read, the security risks are on par with (although different than) connecting to the bank through a personal

    • It wasn't the phone that was "hacked". [schneier.com]

      Dammit. See what you made me do? You made me type "Paris Hilton" into Google. Now I've got to look for pr0n to feel clean again.
    • The sim chip in your phone is practically a TPM module.

      There's good crypto capabilities, secure memory, secure PIN storage and enough horsepower to do EMV transactions with all the bells and whistles. That the address book is stored in unsecure memory is no one's fault in particular.

      Like most services that have come before it, the network providers in the U.S. will be overcharging and adding one more burden onto our increasingly inefficient banking infrastructure.

      It's important to note, a Paypass style paym
    • It hasn't been that long since Paris Hilton's cell got hacked and everyone got to see what she kept on her phone

      Paris' phone was a Sidekick; all the PIM/PDA data on those devices is actually stored on internet-networked servers, and synchronized with the handset as necessary. There is also a web interface to the same data; someone simply learned her password and accessed the data through the web interface.

      No actual cellular system hacking took place; it was just basic social engineering.

  • Is this new? (Score:5, Informative)

    by janek78 ( 861508 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @12:47AM (#19685795) Homepage
    I live in Europe and I've had my bank in my mobile phone for several years now (can't actually even remember how long). Making payments, checking balances, getting information. I also use my mobile to get the security confirmation code when using the online internet banking.

    True, the mobile does not have all the functions of internet banking, but it is good enough to transfer money to your friend who just paid the bill in a pub when you forgot your money at home. You just need to make sure you punch in the right number of zeros, in case you had more glasses to drink.

    • Re:Is this new? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29, 2007 @01:26AM (#19686003)
      USA is a backwater for mobile technologies...
    • In Japan, you can do just about everything on your mobile. i.e. not just banking, flight checkins, hotel reservations, email, etc.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Kifoth ( 980005 )
      It's amazing how far behind the USA is when it comes to cellphones. I'm in South Africa right now and I still can't get over the fact that the iPhone doesn't have 3G, let alone HSDPA. Here, there are more private cellphone internet users than land line users. And yes, we've also had cellphone banking for years.
    • Here in Finland mobile banking has also been possible for a long time.

    • I'm also in Europe (Belgium to be precise) and we already enable transfer of funds via mobile phone using a system called m-banxafe [proximus.be].

      For the sake of full disclosure I am currently contracting for Proximus, although I am not at all involved in the m-banxafe technology.

      -- Pete.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Rexdude ( 747457 )
      In India, we've had this since 1999 or 2000. Initially the service was using SMS ('text messages' to u americans) codes sent to a predefined number.You can query account balance, summary of transactions, stop payments, cheque book requests and so on-for eg send 'BAL' to get your account balance. For security, you have to register your mobile number with the bank first-via a signed paper form. A few banks have even launched WAP portals ever since more users began to use GPRS/EDGE services. And the latest in

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fluor2 ( 242824 )
      Yeah I've had this too. The US is becoming a third world country when it comes to consumer-friendliness.

    • It's just another long-standing technology being talked up as the big players get in on the action. I have Etrade Bank as one of my banks. I could do essentially all of the normal transactions on my handset (i.e. transfers, bill pay, trades, cut and mail checks, etc.) back in 2000. This was through Spint PCS, using their Vision internet service, on a web enabled handset (NOT a smart phone). This was back in the days when the handset displays were monochrome and essentially graphic-free. One small wonder

  • Does this mean that I can recharge my bank account by plugging my phone into a wall outlet, or even better, by connecting it to solar panels?

    Suppose I am on assignment in Vietnam. Does this mean that my phone will be inviting me to increase my dong, and that these will actually be legitimate investment opportunities rather than something sleazier?

    • Cell phone email services already allow you to increase your dong on the go.

      CIALIS! VIAGRA! PRESCRIPTION DRUGS CHEAP! YOU BUY NOW!

  • I've had banking on my phone for ages. Not just the mobile, but home phone, pay phone, any phone. And with the rates my carrier charges, it's actually cheaper using the voice service than the net.

  • The Danish bank http://www.jyskenetbank.dk/ [jyskenetbank.dk] easily works with Mobile Phones, and has done so for some time, at least a year, and probably for several years. Their official list of supported operating systems include Macintosh, Linux and Windows 3.1, and the homebanking system features all the usual stuff.

    I can even use my mobile phone to design a new picture for the front side of my next Visa card, in case I don't like any of the standard visa credit card looks, that the bank provides.

    And why does it work? They use standards-compliant HTML code, an OS independent authentication system and use few bytes per page view.

  • really? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hjf ( 703092 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @01:12AM (#19685951) Homepage
    I live in Argentina, and I've had this for a long time already. There are 2 ATM networks here. Link and Banelco. Link is usually used by government-owned banks, and Banelco for private banks. Banelco is years ahead of links in a lot of features, including mobile banking: a Java app where I can check account status, movements, balance, make transfers, pay bills, whatever. Citibank Argentina uses Banelco so yes, if I were a Citibank customer I'd have this feature too (but I am a customer of Standard Bank, formerly --2 months ago-- BankBoston. It was the last BankBoston in existence -- Fleet or Bank of America didn't rename it, so 2007 was the last time the brand "Boston" was used. Not a nice way of ending a bank that operated in my country (1790) since it was even a country (only in 1816 we had independence from Spain). Also Standard is so boring with their white-on-blue logo :)

    Oh, yes, Standard, like Boston (and HSBC, Citi, BBVA, Santander,...), uses Banelco. So I do have this feature (and a Visa debit card). And I use it quite often.

    • Link and Banelco. Link is usually used by government-owned banks, and Banelco for private banks. Banelco is years ahead of links in a lot of features

      Uhmm. Doesn't the Argentinean government have some sort of record for consistently being the most fiscally irresponsible governmental entity on the planet, with some of the world's worst economists and bankers at the helm?

      It doesn't really come as a surprise then, that their ATM network isn't exactly up to par. (on the upside, it does appear that things are f

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hjf ( 703092 )
        Link is a private company, they provide services to state-owned banks. Athough many of those banks are privatized now.

        Regarding to Argentina's reputation, well, sort of. It started in 1976 when we accepted ideas from the IMF and the World Bank. Our currency, the peso, was pegged to the US dollar for 10 years, when we were the IMF's prodigy, the best in the world, recovering from a 5-figure inflation in a few years... until 2002 when we decided to stop paying for the debt's INTERESTS (not the WHOLE debt).
  • Another reason for someone to steal my phone? :S Lose alot more than phone numbers and a few long distance calls though...
  • Sweet, now I can see how little money I have no matter where I am!

  • The largest bank, OTP, in Hungary provides mobile banking for a few years. The internet banking is also quite secure. If you want to enter into your account you will receive an SMS on your mobile phone with a password. This password is valid for 5 minutes. So, it's not enough for an attacker to obtain your ID and password (eg. via phising) he has to get your mobile phone, too.
  • This has been in South Africa (a 'third world country') for a few years already, were the banks here are effectively run as organized crime cartels.
    • Same here in Brazil. USA seems to be out of peace in some questions, as electronic voting and cellphones.
  • i for one look forward to someone stealing my bank login or account info from my phone when i forget to turn off bluetooth and/or my wifi connection.
  • In Estonia we have been able to do this for forever. I can check my balance and transfer money to a friends account via a text message. We can even get an instant loan of up to 3000eek (roughly $300) by sending a text message and within 5 minutes the money is in our account and on my bank card which I use to buy everything, with a smaller interest rate than most USA credit cards.

  • The march of history (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kahei ( 466208 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @03:20AM (#19686445) Homepage
    So when this became commonplace in Japan, it wasn't news.
    And then when it became commonplace in Korea and Singapore, it still wasn't news.
    And then when it became commonplace in Europe, it still wasn't news.
    And then when it became common in Latin America (at least cities I've been to), it still wasn't news.
    But now... the USA is catching up! And that's *news* folks!

    And quite rightly. There weren't any barriers to the adoption of techs like this in asia etc., whereas in the US there has been a powerful, entrenched telecoms industry with no impetus to compete or change. If that barrier is becoming less effective then that could have important implications.

    The question is, is it just 'technological osmosis', or is there an actual change in the balance of power...

    Disclaimer: I don't even have a mobile (that works), so it's possible the barrier to progress is actually me.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by mindstormpt ( 728974 )
      In Portugal and most european countries the service doesn't depend on the telco (we like the common carrier stuff). The bank provides a mobile site (the same way they offer the usual site) and you use it (it's also available by sms/voice). If someone didn't want to compete/change it was probably the banking industry.
    • I agree whole heartedly. I live in Sri Lanka (RE: tsunami alley) and we've had several local banks along with the international staple offering mobile banking services ever since cellphone carriers started offering internet connectivity on mobile phones. I find it very easy to transfer money in a hurry or just look up my credit card balance before I make a purchase with it. Good that America is finally catching up with the rest of the world :)
  • I've been using cellphone banking with CIBC in Canada for years now. It's very handy, and surprisingly easy to navigate. I'm rather amazed that this is only now coming to the US.
  • Mosaic software's Postilion [postilion.com] could do this in 2001. Mosaic is a South African firm that has a number of clients world wide. They also have customers in the US, so the chance that this was available earlier is quite possible.

  • LINK in the UK (Score:5, Informative)

    by rapiddescent ( 572442 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @04:17AM (#19686685)
    Abbey National [abbey.co.uk] had a WAP mobile solution in 2000 that was simply a thin presentation veneer on their J2EE eBanking platform (that also served SKY Digital Satelite TV at the time). It was never very popular and has been switched off now [theregister.co.uk] - which is a pity because the guys working on this really struggled to get it the interface to work on a 12x6 char screen!

    back in the day (1998), I designed a mobile banking product for the palm pilot for the consultancy I worked for - the idea was that you could sync the palm pilot using IR through the front windows of the high street bank securly. needless to say, it never sold. for those that developed palm apps; it uses the palm prc identifier "BANK" !!!

    The bank I'm working at now is going down the mobile banking route. Here in the UK the operator of one of the largest cash machine (ATM) networks LINK [link.co.uk] is producing a national white labelled system so that all banks can buy into it at low risk. One of the problems with this is that with some 2 factor authentication schemes using the mobile phone [saltgroup.com.au] will end up losing "a factor" and will have to use other 2 factor schemes such as one time passcode schemes or the APACS CAP EMV Cards with a card reader [remotecard...ation.info].

    The problem with the mobile devices is their security of static data - as much blogged by mikko at f-secure [f-secure.com]

    rd

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by smoker2 ( 750216 )

      Abbey National had a WAP mobile solution in 2000 that was simply a thin presentation veneer on their J2EE eBanking platform (that also served SKY Digital Satelite TV at the time). It was never very popular and has been switched off now - which is a pity because the guys working on this really struggled to get it the interface to work on a 12x6 char screen!

      I was quite pissed off when they switched that off. As I travel quite a bit, and the actual high street service has gone downhill for some time, it was re

      • when we originally wrote the system - the business requirements said "must support IE" - obviously, I was a Linux early adopter at the time and got quite pissed off at that and retorted that there were 48 versions of IE at that time (think all the minor versions in iMac, Windows95, 98, NT4 etc). Originally, it wasn't going to work with anything but IE ** shock ** horror **.

        it was the early days. It was 2000 and we thought that there would be a myriad of user interfaces for all the new fangled internet

  • already decade earlier .. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    First mobile payment system was developed already over decade earlier in Finland. In beginning of 90's there were tests and small trials with smart cards and mobile phones. Most got out from using a smart card for micropayments, but it wasn't usable in many places and it didn't catch fire. Japanese kind of a recycled the idea of smartcards adding RFIDs to mobiles few years back.

    'Internet banking' thru mobile browser has been there since Nokia 7110 introduction thru WAP in 1999. And before that via SMS.

    US i

  • Bring down the prices (Score:5, Interesting)

    by moosesocks ( 264553 ) on Friday June 29, 2007 @05:06AM (#19686841) Homepage
    The cell phone companies have a huge untapped market for customers that's completely inaccessible because of the massively high price of data plans.

    Once a provider starts offering a plan that either gives me a reasonable amount of data bundled in with my calling plan, or allows me to trade my talking minutes for the equivalent amount of data (I'd imagine that their costs would work out to be the same, given that everything's digital and is most likely routed alongside IP traffic).

    The problem is that cell providers in the US have an awful habit of nickel-and-diming their customers out of every little fee they can find. There's *NO* reason why a teeny-tiny text message should cost the same as a minute of talk time.

    Some day, one of the companies is going to realize this, and within two years (because of the stupid abusive-contracts-that-really-should-be-illegal) they'll have captured a huge share of the market. The service industries in America really need to learn to treat their customers like humans.

    • The cell phone companies have a huge untapped market for customers that's completely inaccessible because of the massively high price of data plans.

      Once a provider starts offering a plan that either gives me a reasonable amount of data bundled in with my calling plan, or allows me to trade my talking minutes for the equivalent amount of data (I'd imagine that their costs would work out to be the same, given that everything's digital and is most likely routed alongside IP traffic

      Sprint. $15 a month unlimited data.

      • Problem is that sprint isn't a particularly desirable provider.

        I remember very famously, a few years ago, that they had huge gaps in their coverage, smack in the middle of New York City. People I know who still have it describe the coverage as being "erratic at best".

        Right now, I have Verizon, who, apart from being one of the slimiest companies I've ever had to deal with, has excellent coverage, even in some amazingly remote locations.

        AT&T/Cingular's service where I live isn't as good, but as a company
  • A Norwegian bank called sparebanken-hedmark (www.sparebanken-hedmark.no) has done this for about a year. They were also one of the first Norwegian banks who started with online banking. Thats actually quite funny since they are a regional bank in a region perceived as slow when it comes to development. I also see that there has been some comments on security, and the Norwegian bank is working closely with a Norwegian college and their programme of master study to ensure the security. Good to see that the
  • There is a service in the UK called Monilink http://www.monilink.co.uk/ [monilink.co.uk] which seems to work very well, and it pretty mature technology wise. Would be better to have a standard system shared by the banks like this is than a separate system for every bank.

  • In 2003 We developed a full banking app for cells.
    Here's the flash manual:
    http://www.epp.si/navodila/eppmobile/navodilaP800_ P900_01.html/ [www.epp.si]

    And the docs on the bank:
    http://www.nkbm.si/downloadfile.aspx?fileid=885/ [www.nkbm.si]

    I guess it was before time... so commercially it never broke ground really anywhere.

    Now we have Wireless PKI (full X509 signing via cell phone wihtout extra software installed)... seems the same is happening again...
  • If anyone was waiting for a motive to produce more nastyware for cellphones, here it is.
  • Mobile services in the United States are 10 years behind rest of the world.
  • As it has been pointed out about, mobile (as in cellphone) banking services have been around in the good old RSA (that's South Africa) for years.

    This reminds me of an article I read a few days ago, in a Zimbabwe (government run) newspaper that was talking about the roll out of WiFi hotspots, as if it was a world first.

    Sad, actually.
  • I recently bought a Nokia N95 and Bank of America was advertising banking via mobile. Well, rather than supporting the platform and browser, they also support only specific phone models. Since I doubt the US market will embrace the N95 anytime soon, I am excluded from being able to use mobile banking. It almost has a feeling that they are in collusion with "supported" phone models from US mobile carriers.
  • It seems to me that iPhone will be able to work for online banking for any bank. There is a lot that is compelling about a phone with a real browser.
  • The term "mobile bank" reminds me of going through southern Missouri and seeing a couple banks that were actually just mobile home trailers, instead of real buildings. I always thought it would be easy to rob those banks -- just hook them up to your trailer hitch and take them home. Then you've got plenty of time at the comfort of your own home to break into the safe.
  • I've been using telephone banking since 1992. And it wasn't new then. It worked with any phone, land-line or mobile. Granted, security was laughable, and the user interface was poor, but it certainly got the job done. It was based on this technology called "DTMF"...
  • I use Bank of America. And while it's great to be able to use these features from my phone, they might want to re-design their interface. Here are the steps you need to follow each time you want to check your latest checking transactions:

    1. Click your bookmark to BofA.

    2. Click the sign-in link on their "mobile page." (C'mon, how many people are going to this mobile interface and not signing on?

    3. Fill in your user id only, no password yet, and click the "Sign In" button.

    4. Verify your sitekey picture is cor
  • If my phone were an open platform (Linux + OSS apps) that had a "wallet" unifying all my financial accounts, but segregated from each other from their point of view over the network, I would trust it. I'd love a wallet that kept my cash, credit and portfolio available from which to pay vendors, if it kept a DB of all my transactions on the phone, backed up at my own server, and secured. Especially if it automatically set one-time passwords on each transaction, with a fairly rapid expiration for completion.

    I
  • Wouldn't "Wachovia" be ebonics for "Watch over you" ... as in "AT&T is going to Wachovia" ... didn't they get in trouble for that last year? Is this a "W" inspired technology?

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