The growing use of branchless banking, including mobile phone banking, is inevitable in most countries. But it's far less certain whether large numbers of the unbanked poor will use these alternative channels for financial services beyond payments, such as savings and credit. So says "Scenarios for Branchless Banking in 2020," a new report from CGAP, a microfinance group based at the World Bank, and the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DFID). READ MORE

The FBI issued a press release earlier today highlighting concerns about an increase in ACH-based fraud targeting online banking credentials of small businesses, governments and school districts.

From the press release: "Within the last several months, the FBI has seen a significant increase in fraud involving the exploitation of valid online banking credentials belonging to small and medium businesses, municipal governments, and school districts. In a typical scenario, the targeted entity receives a “spear phishing” e-mail which either contains an infected attachment, or directs the recipient to an infected website. Once the recipient opens the attachment or visits the website, malware is installed on their computer. The malware contains a key logger which will harvest each recipient’s business or corporate bank account login information. Shortly thereafter, the perpetrator either creates another user account with the stolen login information or directly initiates funds transfers by masquerading as the legitimate user. These transfers have occurred as both traditional wire transfers and as ACH transfers." READ MORE

Mazooma, a real-time online debit payment solution for U.S. consumers, has announced that PETCO has signed an agreement to integrate the Mazooma solution on its Web site, PETCO.com. According to the two companies, "PETCO will now be able to provide a real time, bank authenticated debit payment option for its U.S. consumers, allowing online shoppers to easily and securely pay for their purchases with cash." READ MORE

MasterCard Worldwide has announced the launch of MasterCard Money Manager™ - calling it "a new, interactive financial management tool that enables MasterCard cardholders to quickly and efficiently monitor debit card spending for themselves and members of their household. Using the web-based tool, consumers have the ability to review signature and PIN-based MasterCard transactions by merchant category, and create customized categories, making it easy to identify spending patterns and compare actual spend to an allocated budget." READ MORE

Plastyc has introduced iBankUp, a new online banking service that enables "GenY consumers to save money and keep their credit history clean by giving younger, Web-savvy people constant financial oversight and control with no risk of incurring credit card debt or overdraft fees." READ MORE

Intuit has announced TurboTax for Online Banking, "a new offering designed to help financial institutions bring more value to customers – and increase deposits – by turning their online banking site into a valuable tax resource." Available for Digital Insight financial institutions to offer in the upcoming tax season, TurboTax for Online Banking won a Best of Show award at Finovate 2009, a conference showcasing the best new innovations in financial and banking technology. READ MORE

A survey commissioned by VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division (in collaboration with Fiserv and M-Com) of more than 500 U.S. mobile phone users finds that financial institutions should mine the untapped market of offline-banking consumers as a potential target audience for mobile banking and payment services.

According to the survey, sixty percent of consumers not currently using online banking would be interested in using at least one mobile banking service if it was offered during a typical month. The survey also shows that non-online-banking consumers are heavy users of traditional bank channels: nearly two-thirds reported contacting their financial institution once a week or more through one or more bank channels such as contact centers and interactive voice response systems. These are among the most costly customer service channels. READ MORE

Today's UK card fraud report was surprisingly positive - with card fraud losses down 23% for the first half of 2009 vs. 2008. However, there was much worse news with respect to online banking fraud - which spiked up 55% in the same period. READ MORE

Fiserv has announced survey results on how consumers' financial activities have been impacted by the prolonged recession and how financial institutions can help them gain a greater sense of control of their finances. Overall, consumers surveyed indicated a desire for robust online banking functionality that allows them to closely monitor and manage their finances, combined with proactive alerts and reminders from their financial institution. READ MORE

Fiserv says that more than two million U.S. households adopted online banking and bill payment during the last year, according to a recent consumer survey. "A total of 69.7 million households, representing four out of five households with Internet access, now use online banking services, primarily to access balance and account history and transfer money between accounts. In addition, 64.4 million households pay at least one bill online, either at a bank website or directly at a company website." READ MORE

Gemalto has announced commercial launch of the Ezio Optical TAN, a unique optical authentication reader for online banking access that is specially designed for the German market. According to the company, "the reader, the size of a credit card, fits in a wallet along with the banking card. Users present the device in front of their computer screen and optical sensors capture the data they would normally enter from the reader keypad to carry out and sign online transactions. No software needs to be installed to use the device." READ MORE

ThreatMetrix has unveiled a new mobile security application for smartphone users called SafeAndSurf - a web browser that securely stores a smartphone user's personal data until he or she is ready to sign-on to a social network, execute an online banking transaction, or complete an ecommerce purchase. According to the company, "SafeAndSurf is the only mobile security application to safeguard a smartphone user's personal information and also allow the user to automatically insert that information to transaction data fields, a combination that allows consumers to shop, bank and play on their smartphones more safely and easily." SafeAndSurf is available today for use on the Apple iPhone. READ MORE

After 17 years in the personal financial management software business, Microsoft has announced that it is withdrawing from that market:

With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed. After suspending annual updates of Money Plus in 2008, Microsoft is announcing today that we will no longer offer Microsoft Money Plus for purchase after June 30, 2009.

More details here.

Javelin Strategy & Research has released a new report that shows how it believes that financial institutions must create a Customer-Driven Architecture (CDA) that gives customers what research shows they want most: financial control. According to Javelin, "with many consumers’ finances in shambles, today’s economy is the perfect time to finally put customers in charge. The seven attributes of CDA outlined in the report shows bankers how to prioritize technology investments in order to achieve iPhone-like monetary control." READ MORE

Andera has announced that it has entered into a strategic relationship with Digital Insight, an Intuit company and an outsourced provider of online banking and financial management capabilities to banks and credit unions in the United States. This agreement enables Digital Insight to provide Andera’s online account opening and funding solutions to its client financial institutions. READ MORE

Wesabe has announced that Delta Community Credit Union, the largest credit union in Georgia, is its charter Wesabe Springboard customer. Using Wesabe's Springboard offering, Delta Community Credit Union will have full access to Wesabe's suite of applications, including account management, goal setting/tracking, community forums, widgets, and merchant tips and comparisons. READ MORE

VeriSign has announced its VIP Access for Mobile application is now available in the Apple iTunes App Store. The application turns the iPhone into a dynamic VIP one-time-password (OTP) credential that can be used in conjunction with a username and password to strengthen the security of online accounts. See Glenn Fleishman's review on TidBITS. READ MORE

New research released today by HSBC Direct shows that 49 percent of the online population conducts most, if not all, of its banking via the Internet, up nearly 23 percent from early 2007. READ MORE

Fiserv has released results of a newly commissioned survey by Forrester finding that U.S. consumers are using the online banking channel more frequently to access their accounts during the current global financial crisis.

"Some 71 percent of consumers said they are keeping a closer eye on their finances than they did a year ago. Slightly more than three-quarters of the consumers surveyed said they use online banking, with non-users making up the remaining one-quarter. Online banking usage increased far more than any other banking channel, with 28 percent of consumers indicating they are using online banking more than they did a year ago, and 63 percent said managing all of their accounts online from one site would help them feel more in control of their finances."

Digital Insight, the financial institutions division of Intuit, has delivered Small Business FinanceWorks™ to help financial insitutions acquire low cost small business deposits and sustain a competitive advantage by offering an online hub for their small business customers.

"Small Business FinanceWorks is a new online financial management tool that small businesses can access through the online banking site of their local financial institution. By offering Small Business FinanceWorks to their customers, banks and credit unions now have the unique opportunity to attract new small business customers, strengthen existing relationships and gain a competitive advantage." READ MORE

The Bank of Canada has published a working paper titled "Market Structure and the Diffusion of E-Commerce: Evidence from the Retail Banking Industry" by Jason Allen, Robert Clark, and Jean-Francois Houde.

This paper studies the role that market structure plays in affecting the diffusion of electronic banking. Electronic banking (and electronic commerce more generally) reduces the cost of performing many types of transactions for firms. The full benefits for firms from adoption, however, only accrue once consumers begin to perform a significant share of their transactions online. Since there are learning costs to adopting the new technology firms may try to encourage consumers to go online by affecting the relative quality of the online and offline options. Their ability to do so is a function of market structure.

Gemalto has announced that its Ezio Pocket Reader is "the first fully certified reader made available to the market for MasterCard Advanced Authentication for Chip. The Advanced Authentication for Chip specification allows two-factor authentication on any EMV card already in use, whether or not it has been personalized according to the MasterCard Chip Authentication Program™ (CAP)." READ MORE

Authentify has announced that HSBC has deployed Authentify’s services to protect online and remote transactions from fraud. According to the company, "HSBC, the world's largest bank by asset size, is using Authentify’s services to automatically authenticate online users attempting certain transaction against HSBC accounts. The out-of-band process requires user or transaction specific details to be entered via telephone, separately from the Internet side of the exchange. The process isolates the authentication from Internet threats making it more difficult to tamper with an account even if armed with compromised identity information." READ MORE

The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency has released its final report, "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency" . "The Commission’s three major findings are: cybersecurity is now one of the major national security problems facing the U.S.; decisions and actions must respect American values related to privacy and civil liberties; and only a comprehensive national security strategy that embraces both the domestic and international aspects of cybersecurity will improve the situation."

Intuit's Digital Insight unit has announced the availability of its FinanceWorks online financial management solutions for banks that "makes it possible for consumers to manage accounts across more than 5,000 financial institutions and credit card sites, ensure bills are paid on time regardless of the method they use to pay them, and see where their money is going, including future transactions. All this within the financial institution’s Web site." READ MORE

Earlier this week, Intuit held its annual investor day to review its growth strategies. The presentation slides are available online along with an accompanying webcast.

Offering free online bill payment solutions to retail banking customers will cost the financial services industry $1 billion (USD) by 2010, according to TowerGroup estimates. "This aggregate amount represents spending on the portion of the service that financial services institutions (FSIs) outsource. While financial institutions traditionally accepted this expense as a cost of doing business, the “soft” revenue associated with online bill pay (enhanced customer retention, cross-sell opportunities, reduced call center activity, and higher profitability of online bill payment users) no longer compensates for the “hard” dollars institutions must spend to facilitate it." READ MORE

According to a survey sponsored by CheckFree, "more Americans than ever, an estimated 63.1 million households or three-fourth of those online, are paying their bills online rather than writing paper checks. The 2008 Consumer Banking and Bill Payment Survey, the eighth conducted by CheckFree since 2002, highlights Americans’ growing use of online banking and bill payment services to help manage their personal finances." READ MORE

Jim Bruene takes a look at Intuit's recently introduced Quicken Beam service - "the free service sends users text messages balance and activity alerts from most U.S. bank, credit card, and credit union accounts." Here's the press release introducing the service. Quicken Beam is one of the first services introduced by Intuit Labs.

Metavante has announced an alliance with Connect Software Solutions, an online banking provider for credit unions to bring Metavante’s bill presentment and payment solutions and Connect’s online banking platform together into a fully integrated online banking and bill pay product that will be delivered to the credit union market by Connect. READ MORE