Firethorn Teams With Cingular Wireless For Mobile Banking and Payments

With Firethorn, Cingular gains a sophisticated solution for the financial services industry that expands the versatility of today's mobile devices. Through Firethorn, consumers gain the ability to perform comprehensive banking and payments functions on all supported Cingular handsets.

Currently being trialed, Firethorn anticipates an initial commercial launch of its mobile banking and payments application in early 2007.

"Firethorn is the gateway between wireless carriers and financial institutions that enables mobile banking and payments for consumers anytime, anywhere and on virtually any device they choose," stated Firethorn Chairman and CEO Tripp Rackley. "Firethorn is uniquely qualified to deliver mobile banking and payments because our heritage and leadership represent unparalleled success in wireless communications, banking and electronic payments."

According to Rackley, Firethorn's mission is to assemble and manage the complex network of partners, technology certifications and platform interfaces that make mobile banking and payments possible. Firethorn is different because its federation strategy represents wireless carriers and financial institutions independently and equally.

"It is the right time for the wireless industry to begin moving ahead with mobile banking," said Mark Collins, Cingular's vice president for long-term products and services planning. "Two-thirds of America's 300 million people now use wireless phones and nearly 60 percent of wireless customers use their handsets for something other than making calls. It is only natural that we move the ease, convenience and efficiency of electronic banking onto the wireless device. With the simplicity of its single pathway, Firethorn will make it easy for Cingular to work with financial institutions who want to deliver mobile banking services to our customers," Collins said.

From a single, secure, Cingular-signed application, consumers will be able to view account balances, transfer funds, receive and pay bills, and quickly clear contents if their mobile device is ever lost or stolen. And because Firethorn is a downloadable application, consumers can perform functions on all supported Cingular handsets, even when the device is offline.