Qualcomm's Firethorn subsidiary announced that American Apparel is the latest retailer to sign up for its upcoming SWAGG mobile application. What is SWAGG?

SWAGG is Firethorn’s direct-to-consumer offering, with “smart” technology that gives consumers the ability to purchase, personalize and exchange gift cards directly from a mobile device. SWAGG will also provide consumers mobile access to account information, special offers and loyalty programs.

Firethorn Holdings has announced that it has expanded its mobile banking solution to allow consumers to now manage their checking, savings and credit card accounts with more than 3,700 U.S. financial institutions using a single mobile application. Firethorn says that "consumers can now go to http://www.mobilebanking.com to download the updated Mobile Banking application directly to their mobile devices and enroll their accounts with these newly added financial institutions. The application is available on a variety of smartphones and feature handsets offered by wireless operators working with Firethorn." READ MORE »

Firethorn has published a white paper providing findings from a study evaluating "the mindset, technology behaviors and future adoption practices of the general market for both mobile banking and commerce. The study found that mobile phones aren’t just for talking anymore. For consumers, they’ve become indispensable tools that keep them organized and informed – including applications that can help them with mobile banking and retail transactions. A majority (59 percent) of consumers surveyed said they’re interested in using their phone to purchase items at a cash register the same way they would with a debit or credit card. With this stat, one can see that consumers are ready to participate in a behavioral shift made possibly by mobile technology."

The survey highlights and the full whitepaper (reg. reqd.) are available online.

In an article titled "Qualcomm’s Mobile Payment Strategy: Fix the “Costanza Wallet", Colin Gibbs writes for GigaOm about Qualcomm's mobile payments strategy based on an interview with Tripp Rackley, Qualcomm senior vice president and division president of Firethorn. Gibbs writes that "Qualcomm is continuing to invest in a space that it hopes will become a pillar of its business several years down the road."

CashEdge and Firethorn have announced a strategic relationship to bring to market an integrated mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments solution integrating CashEdge's POPmoney P2P payments service with Firethorn's Mobile Wallet solution. According to the companies, "the integrated mobile P2P solution will enable financial institutions to offer their customers the ability to send electronic payments using CashEdge's POPmoney from within their Firethorn mobile banking application, by simply using the email address or mobile phone number of the recipient. This comprehensive mobile P2P banking solution will give consumers greater control over their finances, enabling them to pay other people whenever and wherever they want." READ MORE »

Citi and Firethorn Holdings have introduced Citi Mobile for Cards - call it "an advanced mobile solution that allows Citi credit card customers to quickly, easily and securely access real-time credit card account information on their mobile phones. Citi Mobile for Cards is now available to AT&T subscribers as part of AT&T Mobile Banking, and to Verizon Wireless customers who download and use the free mobile banking application on Get It Now." READ MORE »

Firethorn Holdings has announced the introduction of a mobile application upgrade capability which will "enable Firethorn to transition its financial institution and wireless operator relationships from banking to broader mobile commerce functionality." READ MORE »

AT&T and Firethorn Holdings have announced the availability of their mobile banking application on the Apple iPhone. "Mobile Banking on AT&T lets users securely and efficiently manage their finances, including checking balances and transaction history, transferring funds, receiving offers, viewing and paying bills, and tracking rewards points." [Editor's note: The AT&T/Firethorn mobile banking application is currently ranked #6 in popularity in the Finance section of the iTunes App Store.] READ MORE »

Firethorn Holdings has announced that "it has entered into an agreement with Fifth Third Processing Solutions to bring mobile banking services to its 2,880 financial institutions. As part of the relationship, Fifth Third Processing Solutions will offer Firethorn's products to its processing financial institution clients, leveraging existing integration and connectivity to deploy Firethorn's mobile application. Fifth Third Processing Solutions plans to make the service available to its financial institutions before the end of the year." READ MORE »

Fundtech and Firethorn Holdings have announced that the two companies will work together to add mobile connectivity to Fundtech's CASHplus cash management system. "As demand for mobile financial services grows, financial institutions have begun to realize the untapped opportunities to remain competitive and increase customer loyalty through mobile commerce." READ MORE »

Citi Cards and Firethorn Holdings, a Qualcomm company, have announced a 'strategic relationship to enable Citi credit cardmembers to easily and securely access real-time account information anytime, anywhere on their wireless handsets. The new service is expected to be available to Citi credit card customers across the U.S. by the third quarter this year.'

Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm's Firethorn Holdings have announced that customers of Wachovia, SunTrust, FirstBank, and BancorpSouth, now have access to their accounts "in the palms of their hands."

Kelly Hill of RCR Wireless News interviews Tripp Rackley, CEO of Firethorn Holdings (being acquired by Qualcomm). "In 2008, Rackley said he expects to see more movement in what he calls the “alternative payments” space, including gift cards and money transfers, including international remittances. Also, he expects to see financial institutions making “mass decisions” in those areas, as well as laying out tactical objectives for their involvement in the mobile space."

Qualcomm has announced it has agreed to acquire Atlanta-based Firethorn Holdings for approximately $210 million in cash. Completion of the acquisition, which is subject to certain closing conditions, is expected within 30 days.

AT&T has announced "the launch of a comprehensive, easy-to-use mobile banking platform that will enable consumers to view account balances and history, transfer funds and pay bills from their AT&T mobile handsets."

Firethorn Holdings and Verizon Wireless have announced "a new strategic relationship that will provide Verizon Wireless customers with the ability to easily interact with their financial institutions using Firethorn's mobile financial services application."

Glenbrook's Bryan Derman filed the following report tonight from today's Finovate 1.0 Conference in New York City.

AT&T has added a page to its website describing the mobile banking services it is introducing in partnership with Firethorn as part of a strategic alliance announced last November. The page features a banner saying "Safe Banking on the Go", emphasizing security and lists BancorpSouth as currently offering mobile banking with Wachovia, SunTrust, Synovus, and 1st Bank listed as "coming soon". Brandon McGee writes a bit about it on the Mobile Money & Banking blog.

Firethorn and CheckFree have announced that "Ogden, Utah- based America First Credit Union, one of the nation's 10 largest credit unions, will offer the Firethorn mobile banking solution to its 432,000 members."

Business Week takes a look at mobile banking and payments - including Citibank's pilot with Obopay, PayPal Mobile, Firethorn and First Data's efforts including last week's investment in VIVOtech.

Firethorn Holdings has confirmed that "Verizon Wireless is
working with Firethorn to introduce its mobile banking and payments
solution. The announcement demonstrates growing support among the nation's
leading wireless carriers for Firethorn's unique federation strategy for
making the mobile banking and payments marketplace."

AT&T and Firethorn have announced that Wachovia, Regions and SunTrust Banks have selected Firethorn's mobile banking and payments solution to provide their customers with anytime, anywhere access to their financial information and transactions capabilities.

Earlier this month, Firethorn announced a partnership with CheckFree to deliver mobile banking and bill payment services to financial institutions. Subsequently, Firethorn announced it was teaming with Cingular Wireless for its service and announced Synovus as its initial financial institution customer. In this article, we take a quick look at Firethorn's new mobile banking service based on the information on the company's web site and from its press releases.

Firethorn Holdings has announced an agreement with Synovus to offer its mobile technology solution to the financial services company's customers by the end of second quarter 2007. Synovus will be one of the first financial institutions in the country to offer the Firethorn application.

Firethorn Holdings has announced a strategic alliance with Cingular Wireless to bring mobile banking and payments services to Cingular Wireless customers. Atlanta-based Firethorn says it is the only mobile banking and payments provider Cingular has authorized on its network. Sarmad Ali reports on the Firethorn/Cingular deal for the Wall St. Journal.

CheckFree has introduced a suite of Online Channel Optimization Solutions the company says is "designed to help financial institutions expand their reach and generate opportunities to acquire new customers at reduced cost, build deeper customer relationships to increase retention, and drive revenue growth and profitability by leveraging up-sell and cross-sell opportunities."

CheckFree and Firethorn Holdings have announced an exclusive partnership agreement to deliver mobile banking and bill payment services to financial institutions.