CTIA Announces Industry Guidelines for Mobile Financial Services

“The Best Practices and Guidelines will help educate consumers, stakeholders and policymakers about the measures MFS Application Providers will be enabling to protect customer account information,” said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association®. “We are pleased that the wireless industry has developed these Guidelines to protect consumers today and in the future.”

The purpose of the Best Practices and Guidelines for MFS is to promote clear and rewarding consumer experiences, to establish an environment where MFS transactions are authorized, secure, and compliant with applicable laws and industry guidelines, and to protect user privacy and financial data. Areas covered by the guidelines include data security, consent, disclosure and account information access, which are critical areas to assure wireless users of safety, security, and privacy. Overall, the Best Practices promote responsibility by the Application Providers to protect consumer information in all stages of a transaction.

“When it comes to the future of mobile banking in the U.S., the key to ensuring a positive consumer experience is the vigorous protection of customer account information,” continued Largent. “The Guidelines address these important privacy concerns and help to set expectations of what MFS products and services will look like in the U.S.”

Many security issues that are prevalent today, such as online fraud and identity theft, didn’t even exist a decade ago. The Best Practices and Guidelines are flexible enough to anticipate future developments in MFS, technology advances for security measures, and will remain effective even though the types of future threats cannot be defined today.

Copies of the “Best Practices and Guidelines for Mobile Financial Services” are now available.

CTIA is the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry, representing carriers, manufacturers and wireless Internet providers. http://www.ctia.org.