On the web:

• Isis Plans Mobile Payments Launch in Austin - Reuters
• Merchants Shred Costs of Payments by Plastic - Wall Street Journal

On the wires:

• U.S. Bank Launches Payment Plus to Automate Business Payments in Canada
• New Corporate Insight Report on Mobile Finance Landscape
• Cardtronics to Acquire EDC ATM Business

Fiserv has announced that "more than 375 financial institutions have agreed to use Mobile Money from Fiserv, the company’s flagship mobile banking and payments solution. Almost 200 of these banks and credit unions are already live on the service, a figure that has more than doubled within the last 12 months."

Payment Alliance International (PAI) and MagTek have jointly announced the deployment of MagTek’s Qwick Codes across PAI’s nationwide network of over 50,000 ATM machines.

“Qwick Codes illustrates our goal of expanding and improving the consumers’ ability to use their smartphones to conduct everyday financial transactions,” said Andy Deignan, MagTek vice president of global marketing and strategy. Deignan adds, “In line with offering the high level of security MagTek is known for, static card data converted into a one-time use Qwick Code can be used to retrieve cash at any supported ATM, effectively eliminating the risk associated with compromised ATMs rigged with card skimmers.”

Fiserv sponsored a survey of top US banking executives to see where they stand regarding mobile.

Forrester surveyed 15 decision makers in October 2010 from top tier U.S. banks and credit unions to evaluate the current and future state of mobile banking and payments within their organizations. The results indicated that the majority of financial institutions have clear-cut mobile banking strategies. However, when it comes to mobile payments, most see themselves in the role of “fast follower” and are waiting for market changes and movement from “pace setters” before investing heavily.

The Mobile Money Exchange has a great visual tool that nicely illustrates the proliferation of mobile money deployments around the world.

This tool was originally developed by the GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked team (covering the countries under their remit) and has been extended to include all worldwide mobile money deployments.

Jan ChipChase and Panthea Lee were in Afghanistan to investigate how people use mobile phones to do their banking. The findings from the field study are now available for download, along with a number of images captured on the trip. The "notes from the field" are definitely worth reading. The research was funded by the IMTFI (Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion) at the University of California at Irvine.

Fiserv today announced that it has acquired Mobile Commerce Ltd. (M-Com), an "international mobile banking and payments provider, to enhance Fiserv’s existing mobile channel capabilities. The two companies have been partners since 2008, developing and delivering Mobile Money™ from Fiserv to hundreds of financial institutions. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed."

Yankee Group has announced a new report that indicates while mobile transaction usage is growing, consumers show little willingness to pay for these services.

The company’s forecasts predict unprecedented growth in mobile transactions worldwide, with the total value of global mobile transactions increasing from $162 billion in 2010 to $984 billion in 2014. However, Yankee Group’s consumer survey results show that less than 10 percent of respondents would be willing to pay extra for mobile transaction services such as mobile banking, mobile coupons and mobile payments.

Nokia Siemens Networks and MoreMagic Solutions have announced a global partnership to provide mobile commerce and financial services. "The jointly developed Mobile Payment Solution enables the delivery of a wide range of services including money transfer, mobile banking, mobile payments and near field communication (NFC) proximity payments."

On the wires:

• Vesta and Jibe Mobile Deliver Integrated Mobile Payments Application
• Banks Launch Integrated Mobile Banking Solution from First Data
• VeriFone’s VeriShield Total Protect Integrated with ISD’s Card Data Security Suite
• iSmartCheck Identifies Why Merchants Need to Add Electronic Checks to Their Payment Options
• Naked Facts Report: QR Code Use Explodes by 1200% in the Last Half of 2010

On the web:

• BAI Banking Strategies: Crossing Borders with ACH
• Bank Systems & Technology: Debit Card Fee Caps May Be No Big Deal
• Wall Street Journal: KT to Become Largest Stakeholder in BC Card in Korea
• Inside Mobile Apps: Android Opens Up More NFC Access for Developers
• RCR Wireless: DoCoMo and KT announce NFC Joint Venture in Asia/Pacific
• RFP Connect: Ukash Extends Its Presence into Brazil and Argentina
• Wall Street Journal: Chargebacks Create Small-Business Headaches
• WebProNews: PayPal Digital Goods Payment Product Released

On the wires:

• Visa Europe and Monitise Sign Partnership Agreement to Develop Mobile Payments
• MoneyGram International and Movistar Sign Strategic Agreement
• INSIDE Secure Brings Biometric On-Card Matching Security to SecuRead NFC Solution
• MoneyGram and Visa Extend Remittance Service to World's Largest Remittances Corridor
• INETCO “Ready to Rocket” with INETCO Insight Business Transaction Management Solution
• ProPay Debuts 'Zumogo' Mobile Payment Application for Smartphones
• BillFloat Gives NewWave Communications Customers More Time to Pay Bills
• The Clearing House Announces New Board Leadership (PDF)
• TomorrowVentures & CompuCredit Holdings Corporation Invest in Social Payments Leader Twitpay

On the web:

• Rethink Wireless: Ericsson Unveils its Mobile Money Framework
• American Banker: Mobile Banking Pioneer Firethorn Shifts Gears
• Springwise: More donations to charity via rounded-up credit card purchases
• U.S. News: 8 Things You Can’t Do With Cash

Digicel and Scotiabank have announced the launch of their mobile money product in Haiti. "TchoTcho Mobile allows Haitians to complete basic banking functions such as cash withdrawals, deposits and transfers safely and securely through their mobile phone and does not require them to have a traditional bank account."

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• CashStar Powers New Staples eGift Card Offering
• New Celent Report on the State of Remote Deposit Capture 2010
• Customers Go Online to Pay Bills Offline via PayNearMe
• New First Annapolis Report on Mobile Banking & Payments
• Magento and Merchant e-Solutions eCommerce Platform Partnership
• FirstPartner Releases 2010 UK Mobile Marketing Market Map Released

Monitise has announced its enhanced technology platform which "incorporates a range of mobile banking and payment services to deliver fast, secure financial management by mobile phone across the world. The platform enables financial institutions, mobile phone networks, service providers, payment companies and processors to offer a wide variety of Mobile Money services in both developed and emerging markets." READ MORE »

Obopay has announced new functionality for its Mobile Money for Banks offering, broadening the scope of mobile transaction capabilities for banks and their customers. The new capabilities for Mobile Money for Banks include mobile transfer capabilities between accounts at different banks, get paid tools including text-to-donate and text-to-pay, and features that make it easier for small businesses or even individuals to accept electronic payments.

mFoundry today announced that based on its nearly banking 200 customers, the use of its mobile banking platform now exceeds the one-million user mark.

"While there are some reports indicating that mobile banking growth is slowing, our experience is the complete opposite," commented Sievers. "Over the past nine months, we've seen an average of 10 to 15 new customer signings per month across our direct and channel sales efforts. User adoption is also scaling rapidly with average sequential monthly growth of more than 10%, or nearly 300% annual growth."

KeyBank is among the first US banks to offer mobile banking to all customers, independent of online banking enrollment -- it can be used by those who use online banking as well as offline clients who use the branch channel. Mobile Money from Fiserv incorporates technology from Atlanta-based mobile banking and payments solution provider M-Com. READ MORE »

Mobile banking and the use of mobile devices for financial transactions and payments are increasingly gaining acceptance among U.S. consumers, according to results of a survey conducted by KPMG.

The results of KPMG's fourth annual Global Consumers and Convergence survey show that 19 percent of U.S. consumers have conducted banking transactions on a mobile device, compared to only 9 percent when KPMG last completed this survey 18 months ago. More than 5,600 people in 22 countries worldwide participated in the survey.

Wells Fargo has announced the launch of new mobile banking applications for Android, BlackBerry, and Palm. Wells Fargo customers may choose the Mobile Banking services that best suit their needs from a menu of options on Wells Fargo's newly expanded Mobile Banking Resource Center.

"We are listening and responding to our customers by broadening our mobile banking services," said Arah Erickson, head of Wells Fargo Retail Mobile Banking. "Our goal is to make it even more convenient for customers to access their account information – anytime, anywhere – helping them save time and providing peace-of-mind. Wells Fargo Mobile Banking makes it fast, easy, and secure for customers to stay in touch with their finances.”

CashEdge and U.S. Bank have announced that they are partnering to launch CashEdge's person-to-person (P2P) online and mobile payments service, Popmoney, later this year. According to the two companies, "U.S. Bank will offer Popmoney to its mobile banking customers through usbank.com and the downloadable mobile banking application, the U.S. Bank Mobile Wallet. U.S. Bank is the first large U.S. bank to offer a mobile P2P solution that enables users to send money directly from their bank account to anyone with an email address, mobile phone number and a bank account." READ MORE »

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have announced a $10 million incentive fund to "jumpstart financial services by mobile phone in Haiti and expedite the delivery of cash assistance to victims of the country’s devastating earthquake by humanitarian agencies. This initiative lays the foundation for advanced banking services that could help millions of Haitians lift themselves out of extreme poverty." READ MORE »

Monitise Americas has announced that PyraMax Bank has launched an iPhone app powered by its technology. According to Monitise, "the release heralds a turning point in the mobile banking industry. Until now, bank-branded iPhone applications have been the privilege only of big-spending, large banks. However, thanks to its world-class technology, Monitise Americas can now build iPhone apps quickly and cost effectively, enabling mobile banking for many more financial institutions than previously possible." READ MORE »

TMG (The Members Group) has announced it is expanding its portfolio of products to include mobile banking and transaction alerting solutions. TMG says it has partnered with MShift - "leveraging their technology to bring to the table a holistic device, carrier and content agnostic mobile banking solution for FIs." TMG is also making available a transaction alerting service enabled by Visa that can also serve as a mobile fraud-detection measure. The goal of this new alert service is to enable consumers to be an active part of the fraud monitoring process. READ MORE »

Visa and Monitise have announced the formation of a joint venture to provide a technology platform for financial institutions and mobile network operators in India to offer a range of mobile financial services to consumers. The companies said that "the new company will combine Visa’s expertise in enabling secure, globally interoperable financial transactions with Monitise’s know-how in developing mobile financial technology for a broad range of handsets." READ MORE »

CGAP's Claudia McKay and Mark Pickens have shared a global pricing study they've completed that examines pricing for services targeting unbanked and underbanked poor people in 10 countries. Their conclusion: "mobile banking and other forms of branchless banking are cheaper than traditional banking, but the gap between the two may not be as wide as some may think. On average, branchless banking is 19% cheaper than banks." A PDF of their presentation is available online. See also this article by Jim Rosenberg on the CGAP blog.

Wells Fargo and Visa have announced the rollout of Rapid Alerts for Wells Fargo Visa credit cardholders enabling consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with near real-time detection of potentially fraudulent activity. Rapid Alerts by Wells Fargo are enabled by Visa's transaction alerts platform. Alerts are sent on behalf of Wells Fargo directly from VisaNet - typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Rapid Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria previously selected by the Wells Fargo Visa account holder and delivered via text message or e-mail. READ MORE »

Chase has announced rolling out two new free mobile banking features: "customers now can receive a text message the moment their checking account balance falls below a pre-selected amount – and then instantly transfer funds by sending a text-message reply as short as four keystrokes." Chase says it is currently sending out 725,000 low-balance alerts each week. READ MORE »

Equity Bank and Safaricom have announced "an ultimate bank account that lets customers transfer money to and from their M-PESA accounts via their mobile handsets while enjoying other benefits that come with the bank account." Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph said “M-PESA is proud to launch another new initiative with our partners Equity Bank by offering a new service that will target customers who are looking for the convenience of a bank account that uses M-PESA as the tool to deposit money into their accounts. This is a great idea that will drive customers to save into their bank accounts and enjoy the benefits of having the value added services of both M-PESA and an Equity bank account."

An M-KESHO account will offer short term loan facilities as well as pay interest on mobile account deposits. Credit evaluation for loans will be based on scoring using 6 months of history of the consumers M-PESA balances. There is no application for to fill - the loan request is made by the consumer using the mobile phone.

For more information, see "M-PESA meets microsavings with Equity Bank deal in Kenya" on the CGAP blog.

TD has announced that since the launch of its TD mobile app for iPhone and iPod touch devices, the app has been averaging more than 10,000 downloads per day.

"In just over a week, more than 100,000 customers are now ready to bank on the go, wherever and whenever they want," said Joan Dal Bianco, Vice President, Online Channel, TD. "The TD mobile app not only allows customers access to everyday banking at their fingertips, but also delivers the ease and convenience to contact TD Waterhouse to get a quote, place a trade or to reach TD Insurance for help with insurance needs."

TD is also active on Facebook. READ MORE »

On the GSMA's Mobile Money for the Unbanked blog, Valerie Rozycki, Head of Strategic Initiatives at India's mChek, writes about how, by focusing on catering and delivering mobile money services to women, telecom operators, banks and service providers can use mobile money as a way to shrink the gender gap for mobile services in general. READ MORE »