Bank of America has launched a mobile service for its 20 million online customers, bofa.mobi. The mobile service will allow customers to check balances and view transactions (on checking, saving, credit cards, mortgages, home loans), pay bills, and transfer money between accounts and to other Bank of America customers. The service works via a WAP page. (release, via the Mobile Weblog)
There’s also more movement in Japan towards mobile payments: “This week two of Japan’s largest retail chains roll out electronic and mobile cash: Monday April 23rd the Seven & I Holdings Group started nanaco and tomorrow, Friday April 27th, 2007, the AEON retail group will start WAON“, reports Eurotechnology Japan. These appear to be loyalty/payment initiatives by chains of stores rather than m-banking moves by carriers.
UPDATE: The New York Times has a review article on mobile banking services based on Bank of America‘s effort as well as that of Citibank, which launched a downloadable application to offer its service. A good point is raised: “While banks may not charge for making transactions on a phone, cell carriers do. Wireless carriers continue to charge cell customers by the kilobyte of data used. It’s an inscrutable system for users — how many kilobytes was that Web page? — that can lead to exorbitant charges. For example, checking my balances, making a transfer and confirming a few payments totaled 244 kilobytes, plus one text message, on Citi Mobile. Total charges from AT&T: $2.59. So, if someone used mobile banking as freely as dropping by the local A.T.M., it could get costly.”
Over the pond in the UK Barclays has launched a mobile banking service, reports Silicon.com.
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