MOBILE BANKING

[Print Page]

State Bank FreedoM Your Mobile Your Bank Away from home, balance enquiries can be made and/or money sent to the loved ones or bills can be paid anytime 24x7!!! That is what State Bank FreedoM offers -convenient, simple, secure, anytime and anywhere banking. 1. Mobile Banking Service over Application/ Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) The service is available on java enabled /Android mobile phones (with or without GPRS) where the user is required to download the application on to the mobile handset. The service can also be availed via WAP on all phones (java/non java) with GPRS connection. The following functionalities are available: Funds transfer (within and outside the bank) Interbank Mobile Payment Services (IMPS): Click herefor details. Enquiry services (Balance enquiry/ Mini statement) Cheque book request Demat Enquiry Service Bill Payment (Utility bills, credit cards, Insurance premium), Donations, Subscriptions Mobile Top up M Commerce (Top up of Tatasky, BigTV, SunDirect, DishTV, DigitalTV and Videocon d2h connections, SBI life insurance premium) All Current/ Savings Bank Account holders in P segment are eligible. Transaction limit per customer per day is Rs.50,000/- with a calendar month limit of Rs.2,50,000/All customers can avail the Service irrespective of their telecom service provider. The Service is free of charge. SMS/GPRS cost will be borne by the customer.

Business Rules

2. Mobile Banking Service over SMS: The service is available on all phones (java/non java) with/without GPRS connection. No need to download the application. Ordinary SMS charges are applicable. The following functionalities are available: Enquiry Services (Balance Enquiry/Mini Statement) Mobile Top up DTH Top up/ recharge IMPS- Mobile to Mobile Transfer Change MPIN Business Rules All Current/ Savings Bank Account holders in P segment are eligible. Transaction limit per customer per day is Rs.1,000/- with a calendar month limit of Rs.5,000/-

All customers can avail the Service irrespective of telecom service provider. The Service is free of charge. SMS cost will be borne by the customer. As a matter of abundant precaution, Customers are requested to delete all the messages sent to the number 9223440000, once the response for their request has been received.

3. Mobile Banking Service over USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) The service is available on all phones (java/non java) with/without GPRS connection. No need to download the application. The following functionalities are available: Enquiry Services (Balance Enquiry/Mini Statement) Mobile Top up Funds Transfer (within Bank) Business Rules All Current/ Savings Bank Account holders in P segment are eligible. Transaction limit per customer per day is Rs.1,000/- with a calendar month limit of Rs.5,000/The Service is available for subscribers of select telecom operators only. The Service is free of charge. USSD session charges will be borne by the customer. The service is session based and requires a response from the user within a reasonable time. Download Mobile Banking Application Guide to using Bluetooth / data cable Registration Process Terms & Conditions of Mobile Banking Servic

Mobile Banking
I am fascinated by the massive growth in mobile phone penetration globally. This must be one of the biggest social changes that humans were ever submitted to. I am sure that this social phenomena, will eventually impact the way that we trade and pay as well. This is what I am writing about. See disclaimer at the bottom of blog.
Monday, September 05, 2011

Payment eco-system must lead to cross-industry collaboration

The complexity of payment systems and the interdependencies of the many players in the value chain, necessitates collaboration. Fifty years ago, this need created the big payment brands (Visa and Mastercard) when the major banks understood the importance to collaborate. Today many efforts are made to form new alliances and collaboration groups. This is especially visible in instances where mobile operators form groups to establish shared payment mechanisms. For instance read here. It is clear that with new ways to pay and the ability to change the whole payment experience, that other players could join the payment eco-system. This is why I found a recent Forbes article so interesting. (Read here). The article emphasises that many players must collaborate the create new payment eco-systems. The usual players are named, but then a new player is added: consumer packaging. With some very good motivations on why one should involve this industry in payments, this was quite a stimulating article.
Posted by Hannes@Home at 1:37 AM 1 comments

The business case for mobile payment applications

I recently saw an article about using mobile payments to pay for parking in New York. (Read here). This is of course not new and has been effectively deployed in many countries (particularly in Eastern Europe). This is one of the coolest and most logical applications for mobile payments. It is of course important to

redesign the whole business process - to change it from a proximity payment to a locationindependent payment. But the biggest problem (of course), is to build a workable business case for it. The revenue from parking revenue and the investment required to make it work, just does not do it. For mobile payments to become ubiquitous, it is important that multiple business applications be deployed at the same time, based on the same payment infrastructure. The combined business cases now add up into a viable investment case. It is important to approach mobile payment applications in such a way, as it would otherwise never be realised.
Posted by Hannes@Home at 1:36 AM 2 comments

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

What is financial inclusion and why is it important

"Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to sections of disadvantaged and low income segments of society" is the way that Wikipedia describes this. (Read here). The estimate of the number of people that do not have access to digital financial services usually runs into the billions and many organisations are working diligently to provide some infrastructure to make this happen. Many motivations for progressing towards a cashless society exists. Some people are talking about the elimination of poverty through financial inclusion. Much is being said and being written about how this will be achieved, but success are limited and usually comes at a big cost. Many organisations and companies sees this drive as an opportunity to profit - to get access to a much bigger market, and this drives many of the initiatives. But why is financial inclusion really important? And why should we care? Is it worth the effort and the investment? If we are not clear about this, our efforts will be wasted.

I believe that the answer lies in a honest assessment of the real needs of the people that we are trying to "help". If we cannot put ourselves in their position and truly understand what will be a better world for them, we will not succeed.
Posted by Hannes@Home at 11:01 PM 0 comments

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Mobile payments could make EMV obsolete

It seems as if the EMV wave is about to break over the US. The ultimate technology to protect against the cloning of plastic cards has been tested in many markets and enough evidence exist to show a dramatic reduction in fraud (especially based on card cloning). (Read here). A perceived growth in card fraud in the US may necessitate a major drive to deploy this technology. The massive potential cost of retail infrastructure is of course the biggest stumbling block. It seems as if there are a perception that a move to EMV is required in order to effectively implement mobile payments. (Read here). While this may be the case (to some degree) in preparation for retail NFC, this is of course not true at all. Mobile payments could successfully be deployed without any EMV infrastructure available. The best evidence of this is to look at the dramatic growth of mobile payments in emerging markets where no EMV infrastructure is available. To the contrary, a clever deployment of mobile payments, may actually lead to making plastic cards redundant and thus eliminating the need to protect against cloning... making EMV obsolete.
Posted by Hannes@Home at 10:16 PM 0 comments

Monday, August 15, 2011

How crypto is being used in banking

Traditional banking security is dependent on well-designed cryptographic equipment. These devices are hosted in ATM's, Pinpad in branches and retail infrastructure. The crypto codes generated on these devices during transactions are evaluated within the host systems by tamper-proof hardware security modules. The whole banking system was designed and built on robust cryptography (almost impossible to breach). That was the case until online banking arrived. Consumers now interact with banking systems via the Internet with no cryptographic devices involved. The cost of these devices, the integration with online systems, lack of standards and complexity in the distribution are barriers to making this a standard component in online banking. Some of these barriers are aggressively being attacked and some progress has been seen lately: HSBC use a on-time password for business users to secure online transacting. This crypto security device is available to customers in all countries. (Read here). Bank of America offer a device to their customers producing one time passwords, called Safepass. (Read here). This technology was released by Visa recently with the brand name Codesure. (Read here). The question is how readily will it be distributed and could this lead to more secure online banking. It is also important to think of the implications for mobile banking.
Posted by Hannes@Home at 5:46 AM 0 comments

Two divergent views on mobile banking security

Two very similar articles were published on the 10th of October. Both discusses the security of mobile banking, yet they get to totally different conclusions: The first argues that mobile devices are much less sophisticated in defending against malicious attacks, it does not come with firewalls and subscribers are more likely to download bad applications on their mobile phones. Mobile banking are therefore much more vulnerable than online banking. The second article reckons that many of the hacking tools that exist for PC's are not available for mobile platforms. With so many variants of operating systems and hardware it is difficult to find common access mechanisms to launch malicious attacks. In addition, because mobile banking can be implemented with transactional security, utilising various additional techniques it is much more difficult to penetrate. The writer then concludes that mobile banking are much more secure than online banking. Both articles published on the same day, yet with different conclusions. Which one is right?
Posted by Hannes@Home at 5:36 AM 0 comments

Bank Simple Thoughts

Someone once said:"Banks are dead, banking not". We all talk about how inadequate banking is and how our needs are not met.

However, few initiatives ever succeed in replacing the old brands and we keep on banking with them. Who will forget the waves that Egg made in the UK and Twenty20 in South Africa. Both these initiatives had limited success and ultimately got eaten by the establishment. Yet, we would still like to dream. That is why it is so refreshing to see initiatives like BankSimple that recently raised a further Ten million (Read here). A bunch of entrepreneurs working on a new banking model that plans to bring retail banking wrapped in a new presentation. As is to be expected, part of the offering is to bring the service on mobile phones, But the complexity of new systems, regulatory conformance and integration into the payment systems have delayed the launch of this bank. Let's hope that this company can steer through the hurdles successfully and that they achieve success. We need renewal in the banking industry.
Posted by Hannes@Home at 5:28 AM 0 comments

Importance of trust in brand to conduct mobile payments

There is a lot of trust involved in performing a payment transaction. It is probably the most important ingredient in making sure that consumers complete payments. While it is relatively easy for first mover people to try out new payment schemes, this is not the case for the majority of people. In an online survey performed by Ogilvy & Mather, 500 Americans were asked which brand they would trust most in mobile payments. (Readhere). (The graph can be found here). The results (while predictable) were quite interesting. Visa (and Mastercard, American Express etc.) carried the most trust, while companies like eBay and Facebook had a much lower score. This means that even in the online world, a brand carries a lot of weight when it comes to payments.

What Do You Want To Do?

FinacleConnect Solution Demo Read Blog Email us

Mobile Banking
Finacle mobile banking solution empowers retail and corporate banking customers with access to banking services through SMS, GPRS/ 3G and USSD-enabled handsets, leveraging a single platform. The solution provides a secure, multi-lingual channel for banks to innovate by easily deploying new services with improved time to market. The end user experience thus created is richer and truly convenient.

Finacle mobile banking solution integrates easily with disparate host systems, core banking solutions, payment networks and third-party applications. The solution leverages Infosys mConnect, the indigenously developed middleware, which orchestrates mobile transactions between users devices and the Finacle universal banking solution. Infosys mConnect handles the multiplicity of form factors and access mechanisms on multiple devices to provide a context and device independent view to the transaction server. This presents banks with a powerful channel to service customer segments ranging from the mass affluent to the under-banked or unbanked, surmounting the challenge posed by the diversity of mobile devices.

The ubiquity of the platform adequately addresses the challenges of encryption, communication, synchronization, image resizing, downloading and security. This ushers in the advantages of reduced integration by leveraging common interface messages, maintenance and deployment costs.

Key Modules

Customer On-boarding Mobile Banking and Payments Mobile Financial Management Value Added Services Alerts Security

Business Benefits
Greater Customer Convenience Finacle mobile banking solution empowers banking customers to make informed decisions by providing them with an invaluable set of financial management tools on the mobile handset. These tools help in quantitative and qualitative analysis, as well as in the selection and comparison of financial products.

Reduced Turnaround Time Finacle mobile banking solution has a robust integration framework which allows it to function in tandem with disparate host systems, core banking solutions, payment networks and third-party applications. This translates into reduced go-to-market time for the bank as well as support for legacy systems.

Robust Inclusivity Framework Finacle mobile banking solution leverages Infosys mConnect to smoothly hurdle the challenges posed by the multiplicity of form factors and access mechanisms on multiple devices to provide a contextagnostic view to the transaction server. This enables banks to include, through the mobile channel, its various customer segments, ranging from the HNWI to specific unbanked communities, surmounting the complexities of diverse location and dissimilar mobile devices.

Maximize Innovation Banks can leverage Finacle solutions indigenously developed middleware Infosys mConnect, to configure an unlimited palette of services from any channel, to the mobile space, with ease. The need for development of new back end services is precluded due to the availability of a banking solution behind the mobile interface. Finacle also provides the flexibility to deploy services over the existing online banking platform or through a standalone delivery channel interfaced directly with the relevant host systems. This ensures the rapid delivery of a comprehensive range of financial services, embellished with new innovative features, on mobile devices.

Robust Security The solution offers extensive application security features like URL encryption, referral URL check and session management to provide a robust security framework. The solution also supports OTP (one time password), which provides a two factor authentication mechanism for users transacting with downloadable mobility client. This enables the bank to offer products that are highly secure and geared to withstand the onslaught of security threats associated with mobile transactions.

Cost Savings The solution presents banks with the advantages of reduced integration by leveraging common interface messages, maintenance and deployment costs. This translates into significant cost savings without banks having to compromise on features or the range of devices supported. The mobile banking solution is inherently independent of the network service provider, obviating the need to build a business model that involves costs and profits sharing with them.

Client Value Finacle mobile banking solution enables banks to offer the convenience of comprehensive anywhere anytime banking, using GPRS, mobile browser or SMS. It supports a wide range of mobile devices and mobile browsers. Banking customers can query on account balances and make fund transfers. Banks can also proactively send timely information to customers in a completely secure environment, whenever a customer-defined event occurs. The solutions self-service capabilities empower customers to manage their banking activities better. The solution also addresses data transmission and storage related security concerns adequately, delivering a truly streamlined customer experience.

UK banks bracing for new financial services regulations compliance

Ron Condon, UK Bureau Chief

E-mail Print A AA AAA LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Share This RSS Reprints
Published: 3 Oct 2011

LONDON The financial services industry has always been heavily regulated, but since the economic meltdown of 2008, regulations have been added in an attempt to stop such an event from occurring again. According to Juergen Weiss, a research director at analyst firm Gartner, political risks and regulations are having such an impact on the financial services sector that companies should be investing more on regulatory compliance between 30% and 35% of total IT expenditure, he suggests. At a recent talk at the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit, Weiss outlined the extent of the problem, telling his audience the number of European Directives has risen from 507 in 2005 to 768 today. While not all of those affect financial services specifically, plenty of them, such as rules on privacy or bribery, affect business in general and have an impact on their IT systems. However, Weiss chose to nominate what he felt would be the five most important regulations to affect financial services over the coming years, and the ones that would have the biggest effect on those running IT systems to support risk management. What most of the regulations have in common is a requirement for companies to gain a more coherent view of their overall risks, rather than working in isolated silos. Solvency II This regulation should come into force in January 2014, and is designed to protect insurance policyholders and beneficiaries in the European Union by ensuring the stability of insurance

companies. Applicable mainly in the EU, it is also being adopted by Israel, Mexico and South Africa. Solvency II will require companies to change their processes and products, and improve their overall risk management models, said Weiss, not only to gain a much clearer view of their business position at any given time, but also to report that position to financial regulators. He predicts it will cause a consolidation in the market, with larger companies surviving. From an IT point of view, there is greater emphasis on data quality, integrity and traceability. This will require a more holistic and integrated system architecture than many operate now, so companies can carry out closer data governance. Basel III Due for introduction in stages between 2013 and 2019 (although Weiss predicted it will take longer), Basel III applies to global banks and is intended to manage liquidity risks. Its effect will be to introduce more frequent capital stress tests for banks, and it will require banks to have mature processes to identify, measure, monitor and control liquidity risk. As with Solvency II, these requirements imply a less-siloed approach to systems design. IT systems will need to operate faster and provide more granular data management. SEPA The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative aims to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments within Europe by turning the fragmented national markets for euro payments into a single domestic one. Another goal is to reduce fees associated with such payments. The initiative began in 2008, and in 2009 the SEPA direct debits system was launched. This currently has a low take-up accounting for just 5% of direct debits, and there has been a proposal to set a deadline for full implementation by 2014, although that has not been decided yet. For the moment, banks will need to operate parallel infrastructures as they introduce new messaging systems to manage SEPA payments, while still operating their current payments arrangements. They will also have to implement new technical standards for message exchange between banks, and between banks and customers. Retail Distribution Review This UK legislation, due for implementation in 2013, will apply to insurance companies and could also affect some banks, Weiss said. Its goal is to protect clients who are receiving financial advice, and deliver a more transparent commission structure for those selling financial services. In addition, it aims to improve the solvency of financial advisors and generally raise professional standards.

Weiss predicts its effect will be to reduce the number of financial intermediaries, as smaller firms find it harder to comply. He added it will also reduce the number of complex financial products on offer, and promote the use of direct-to-consumer channels, with more selling being done online. The implication for IT is core insurance systems will need to be revised to handle the new products and channels. Weiss also predicted more business will be done through mobile devices that need to be securely supported. Data breach notification laws Unlike many states in the US, Europe does not enforce mandatory disclosure of data breaches, except in the telecommunications and ISP sector. In the UK, public sector also has to disclose any breach, but the rest of the private sector is currently exempt. Weiss, and many other observers, expect that to change over the next two to three years, and financial services are likely to be the first to be affected, he said, because of their heavy reliance on online distribution channels. That means they will have to initiate continuous monitoring of e-commerce services and ebanking applications, while also increasing data privacy tests to ensure they maintain protection of personal data. Recommended actions Weiss said financial services needed to organise their response to the growing level of regulation by a series of actions that include: Identifying all regulations that apply; Updating long-term business strategy; Updating IT strategy; Prioritising investment areas, and finding synergies between regulations, as internal controls can apply to multiple regulations); Considering the creation of an organisation-wide competency centre for compliance, with stakeholders from all sector of the business. Related Topics: Compliance Regulation and Standard Requi

Mobile Money Sparks Banking Boom

Mobile technology offers financial services to Africa's informal economy.
ARTICLE | 29 SEPTEMBER 2011 - 12:23PM | BY FRANK AFFUL SHARE|

Mobile banking is revolutionising the face of personal and business banking in Africa. There is no need to carry a bank card or cheque book on you. You do not even have to visit the local bank branch to transfer or withdraw money. All you need now is a mobile phone and a SIM card. Mobile banking and mobile money involves using mobile phones to deliver various financial services to customers. Mobile financial services expert Menekse Gencer explains that mobile financial services involve using electronic financial services or digital cash via your mobiles SIM card. Its a unique money account that is separate from the airtime minutes or post-paid (payas-you-go) mobile billing accounts. This account can be used to pay for services and applications used on the phone.
Banking in informal economies

Mobile financial services have brought mobile phone operators and banks together to take advantage of the exponential growth in mobile handset ownership in Africa. In almost all subSaharan African countries, huge informal economies exist, made up of unbanked small scale farmers, traders, craftsmen and women and other types of small and medium sized businesses. For this group, there has always been a dire need for access to financial services, and bank accounts, from which they are often excluded. McKinsey Quarterly's 2009 report Counting the worlds unbanked found that 80% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa are without bank accounts. The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) usage indicators database shows that many of those without bank accounts own mobile phones. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)estimate that 1.7 billion people will have mobile phones in the developing world by 2012

but no bank accounts. Governments and Banks want to channel the funds in the informal cash sector through the formal banking system to bolster economic development. Now, mobile phone money accounts are helping to formalise this economy. Mobile banking is creating opportunities for the poor to have access to the wider financial services sector in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere. This is a key aspect of helping people out of poverty in developing countries. Access to mobile financial services now means that the poor will have access to credit, savings accounts, insurance, and tailored investment opportunities. Through their mobile phones, they can transfer funds without physically carrying it around or keeping money at home. They can use mobile bank account cash credits to pay bills, shop for food and other personal items. Peter Ondiege, the African Development Banks chief research economist in the banks Development Research Department says a mobile phone is an ATM, a point of sale terminal and an internet banking terminal. It is also a bank cash card and debit card for your mobile account. Kenyas local mobile phone operator, Safaricom, launched M-pesa in Kenya in 2007. M-pesa allows users to charge their mobile phones with credit paid to any of M-pesas agents conveniently situated in commercial venues around the country. Any mobile phone airtime seller in a small street corner booth, or shop that handles cash can be an M-pesa agent. There are over 17, 600M-pesa agents all over Kenya, compared to Kenyas 840 bank branches. M-pesa agents are highly visible and accessible in urban and rural areas and conveniently double up as M-pesas mobile money cashpoints. The values of cash transferred and credited on M-pesa accounts are small, but the sheer volume of daily transactions and commissions charged makes M-pesa profitable. Daily volumes of cash passing through M-pesa are in excess of US $8million. Some experts estimate costs of the services M-pesa offers for each transaction at US $0.46 compared to a banks transaction costs that may be as high as US $3 per transaction. Experts say banking services on M-pesa costs as little as US $0.12 to US $0.15. M-pesa now has over 70% of mobile phone owners in Kenya using their mobile for money transactions on a daily basis.

Mobile banking (also known as M-Banking, mbanking, SMS Banking) is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments, credit applications and other banking transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The earliest mobile banking services were offered over SMS. With the introduction of the first primitive smart phones with WAP support enabling the use of the mobile web in 1999, the first European banks started to offer mobile banking on this platform to their customers . Mobile banking has until recently (2010) most often been performed via SMS or the Mobile Web. Apple's initial success with iPhone and the rapid growth of phones based on Google's Android (operating system) have led to increasing use of special client programs, called apps, downloaded to the mobile device.
Contents
[hide]
[1]

1 A mobile banking conceptual model 2 Trends in mobile banking 3 Mobile banking business models

o o o

3.1 Bank-focused model 3.2 Bank-led model 3.3 Non-bank-led model

4 Mobile Banking Services

o o o o o o

4.1 Account Information 4.2 Payments, Deposits, Withdrawals, and Transfers 4.3 Investments 4.4 Support 4.5 Content Services 4.6 Future functionalities in Mobile Banking

5 Challenges for a Mobile Banking Solution

o o o o o

5.1 Handset operability 5.2 Security 5.3 Scalability & Reliability 5.4 Application distribution 5.5 Personalization

6 Mobile banking in the world

7 See also 8 Notes 9 References

[edit]A

mobile banking conceptual model

[2]

In one academic model,

mobile banking is defined as:

Mobile Banking refers to provision and availment of banking- and financial services with the help of mobile telecommunication devices.The scope of offered services may include facilities to conduct bank and stock market transactions, to administer accounts and to access customised information." According to this model Mobile Banking can be said to consist of three inter-related concepts: Mobile Accounting Mobile Brokerage Mobile Financial Information Services

Most services in the categories designated Accounting and Brokerage are transaction-based. The nontransaction-based services of an informational nature are however essential for conducting transactions for instance, balance inquiries might be needed before committing a money remittance. The accounting and brokerage services are therefore offered invariably in combination with information services. Information services, on the other hand, may be offered as an independent module. Mobile phone banking may also be used to help in business situations as well as financial [edit]Trends

in mobile banking

The advent of the Internet has enabled new ways to conduct banking business, resulting in the creation of new institutions, such as online banks, online brokers and wealth managers. Such institutions still account for a tiny percentage of the industry.
[citation needed]

Over the last few years, the mobile and wireless market has been one of the fastest growing markets in the world and it is still growing at a rapid pace. According to the GSM Association and Ovum, the number of mobile subscribers exceeded 2 billion in September 2005, and now (2009) exceeds 2.5 billion (of which more than 2 billion are GSM).
[citation needed]

This article appears to contain unverifiable speculation and unjustified claims. Information must be verifiable and based on reliable published sources. Please remove unverified speculation from the article. According to a study by financial consultancy Celent, 35% of online banking households will be using mobile banking by 2010, up from less than 1% today. Upwards of 70% of bank center call volume is

projected to come from mobile phones. Mobile banking will eventually allow users to make payments at the physical point of sale. "Mobile contactless payments will make up 10% of the contactless market by 2010.
[3]

Another study from 2010 by Berg Insight forecasts that the number of mobile banking users in the
[4]

US will grow from 12 million in 2009 to 86 million in 2015. The same study also predicts that the European market will grow from 7 million mobile banking users in 2009 to 115 million users in 2015. Many believe that mobile users have just started to fully utilize the data capabilities in their mobile phones. In Asian countries like India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines, where mobile infrastructure is comparatively better than the fixed-line infrastructure, and in European countries, where mobile phone penetration is very high (at least 80% of consumers use a mobile phone), mobile banking is likely to appeal even more. [edit]Mobile

banking business models

A wide spectrum of Mobile/branchless banking models is evolving. However, no matter what business model, if mobile banking is being used to attract low-income populations in often rural locations, the business model will depend on banking agents, i.e., retail or postal outlets that process financial transactions on behalf telcos or banks. The banking agent is an important part of the mobile banking business model since customer care, service quality, and cash management will depend on them. Many telcos will work through their local airtime resellers. However, banks in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and other markets use pharmacies, bakeries, etc. These models differ primarily on the question that who will establish the relationship (account opening, deposit taking, lending etc.) to the end customer, the Bank or the Non-Bank/Telecommunication Company (Telco). Another difference lies in the nature of agency agreement between bank and the NonBank. Models of branchless banking can be classified into three broad categories - Bank Focused, BankLed and Nonbank-Led. [edit]Bank-focused

model

The bank-focused model emerges when a traditional bank uses non-traditional low-cost delivery channels to provide banking services to its existing customers. Examples range from use of automatic teller machines (ATMs) to internet banking or mobile phone banking to provide certain limited banking services to banks customers. This model is additive in nature and may be seen as a modest extension of conventional branch-based banking. [edit]Bank-led

model

The bank-led model offers a distinct alternative to conventional branch-based banking in that customer conducts financial transactions at a whole range of retail agents (or through mobile phone) instead of at bank branches or through bank employees. This model promises the potential to substantially increase

the financial services outreach by using a different delivery channel (retailers/ mobile phones), a different trade partner (telco / chain store) having experience and target market distinct from traditional banks, and may be significantly cheaper than the bank-based alternatives. The bank-led model may be implemented by either using correspondent arrangements or by creating a JV between Bank and Telco/non-bank. In this model customer account relationship rests with the bank [edit]Non-bank-led

model

The non-bank-led model is where a bank has a limited role in the day-to-day account management. Typically its role in this model is limited to safe-keeping of funds. Account management functions are conducted by a non-bank (e.g. telco) who has direct contact with individual customers. [edit]Mobile

Banking Services

Mobile banking can offer services such as the following: [edit]Account

Information

1. Mini-statements and checking of account history 2. Alerts on account activity or passing of set thresholds 3. Monitoring of term deposits 4. Access to loan statements 5. Access to card statements 6. Mutual funds / equity statements 7. Insurance policy management 8. Pension plan management 9. Status on cheque, stop payment on cheque 10. Ordering cheque books 11. Balance checking in the account 12. Recent transactions 13. Due date of payment (functionality for stop, change and deleting of payments) 14. PIN provision, Change of PIN and reminder over the Internet