While Qualcomm for many is synonymous with wireless, the company acquired Atlanta-based mobile banking startup Firethorn two years ago with an eye to also becoming a major player in the mobile payment space. More importantly, it acquired Firethorn founder Tripp Rackley — the man it hopes will make Qualcomm the Western Union of mobile.

An engineering graduate of Georgia Tech, Rackley first combined technology with banking in 1995 when as a 25-year-old he founded nFront, an Internet banking firm he took public in 1999. In 2002 Rackley founded Firethorn, for which Qualcomm paid $210 million five years later and made a standalone division. Firethorn has gained substantial traction in the space, inking partnerships with the three largest U.S. mobile carriers and compiling a list of more than a dozen banking partners.

Ask Rackley to describe Firethorn’s play in the mobile banking space, and he will talk about what he calls “the Costanza wallet,” that huge, leather-bound mass of stuff that Jerry Seinfeld’s pal notoriously lugged around in his back pocket. That scenario, according Rackley, now a Qualcomm senior vice president and division president of Firethorn, is what Qualcomm is trying to address as it vies for space in the ultra-competitive field. As he explained to me:

“Your phone has 30 different applications to mimic your wallet today, with different user names, passwords, UIs, and feature functionality. It’s really nothing more than a physical wallet that has a rubber band wrapped around it because it’s overloaded.”

Indeed, the mobile payment field today is a remarkably fragmented space, where apps and services vary from bank to bank and handset to handset. Rackley hopes to leverage Qualcomm’s deep pockets and strong relationships in mobile — along with his own financial background — as the segment slowly moves from one of novelty into the mainstream.

There’s no shortage of players in mobile payments, either, which has long been seen as a potential goldmine but has yet to gain much real traction. The tie-up with Qualcomm gives Firethorn substantial street cred in mobile, enabling the former startup to build an m-commerce ecosystem that eventually fuels Qualcomm’s silicon business. And Qualcomm’s massive bankroll can continue to fund Firethorn while the segment gets legs.

“We continue to invest heavily in the chip side of the business,” Rackley said. “We have something that I wouldn’t be able to say we had before with Firethorn. We were by far the best-capitalized private company in the mobile space, but we didn’t have billions of dollars of cash.”

That cash will be necessary to fulfill Qualcomm’s long-term vision of a thriving mobile payments space built on its chipsets. Mainstream consumers in the U.S. are beginning to embrace basic features like checking their accounts on the mobile web, but the industry has a long way to go before the mobile wallet becomes a reality through contactless payments and other apps. So Qualcomm is continuing to invest in a space that it hopes will become a pillar of its business several years down the road. As Rackley said:

“It’s going to be a long time before mobile payments take off; there will be a lot of people trying to make that happen. But until we go into a grocery store and see people pulling phones out to pay, we won’t be there.”

Firethorn faces stiff competition from Obopay and a host of other startups; meanwhile PayPal and Google (s goog) are both expanding their online payment businesses into mobile as well. And Mastercard (S ma) and Visa (S v) have competing programs, furthering splintering the market for mobile payments.

Just as importantly, it’s far from clear that consumers actually want their phones to do everything from conducting online transactions to paying for a soda at the convenience store. Sub-segments of the space seem to be getting legs, but an all-encompassing mobile-payment ecosystem seems far off indeed. So the patience of investors — including Qualcomm — may be needed for a very long time indeed.

Mutually Exclusive is dedicated to providing strategy and consulting services to the Australian mutual banking market: credit unions, mutual building societies and friendly societies.

Determined to put the competition back into banking for Australians, Mutually Exclusive works with mutual banking providers to improve their marketing, customer engagement, customer service, technology platforms and overall banking experience.

via The Knowledge Network [with thanks to Katrien Pype for the tip-off]

Are mobile phones the modern equivalent of Jack’s magic beans, bringing health, wealth and happiness wherever they are scattered? Recent studies might make you think so. According to a 2005 paper by economist Leonard Waverman and colleagues at the London Business School, each 10 per cent increase in mobile phone ownership in developing countries produces an additional 0.6 per cent of growth in gross domestic product per person. Similarly encouraging figures featured in a more recent Harvard case study on Indian fishermen, which showed how the fishermen increased their profits by around 8 per cent by using mobile phones to call coastal markets from their boats.

These and other studies suggest that mobiles can revolutionise the way subsistence farmers and nomadic tribesmen trade crops and livestock. It’s fabulous PR for mobile-phone companies, which see developing countries as offering millions of new subscribers. But how realistic is the idea that mobile phones are an absolute good for the developing world?

Read more…

We live in interesting times!

It looks like mobile banking is coming of age, with the NatWest iphone app. As well as checking balances and viewing statements, it takes mobile banking a step further by also allowing transactions from within the app.

The UK bank has been using TV ads to promote it’s iphone app. This is interesting because the iphone is less than 3% of the total mobile handset market in the UK. Yet Nat West dedicated a TV ad to it. NatWest’s head of mobile, Tim France-Massey was quoted as saying ‘iPhone provides us with a really cutting edge technology platform to support our customers’ needs’.

I’ve not seen any reveiws of it, so I have no idea if it’s any good. I also have no idea if there is a Blackberry or Nokia/java version.

It is nice to see mobile banking move forward. It’s also another example of how the iphone is driving the apps market, with PR dis-proportionate to it’s market size.

Related Links
A guide to branded iphone apps
The iphone changing the face of Mobile Marketing

Thanks for stopping ,i know you have a busy life,

The WorldWide Investment in Online and Mobile Payment Technologies

SMS has been the mainstay of the Mobile Payments industry for over 10 years. Near Field Communication (NFC/RFID) is the emerging technology supported by Visa, MasterCard and the Global Banking community. It allows users to make payments by waving their mobile phone in front of a compatible reader.

But with the arrival of the Smart Phone other technologies are emerging. For example, Intuit’s GoPayment is an app that turns the iPhone or iPod touch into a credit card terminal that can process payments, track past charges, and generate electronic receipts for the customer.

Then there are the micro-payments players like MobillCash, Zong, Spare Change and BOKU. These start-ups support SMS mobile payments for micro-transactions on social network applications and gaming sites. For example Boku Mobile Payments Users enter their cell phone number on the site, reply to a text message and then all virtual charges are automatically charged to the user’s monthly cell phone bill. While MobillCash users pay by just entering in their phone number and then typing in a 4 digit code they receive via SMS.

Now don’t be fooled into thinking these micro-payment start-ups are minor players. TechCrunch reports that Zong has already processed mobile payments for over 10 million unique users worldwide in 2009. The size of that customer base would make Zong one of the top four banks here in Australia.

4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts

Prior to the MasterCard announcement the big play this year had come from Nokia. In August they announced they would be launching Nokia Money, a new payment service powered by Obopay that allows users to send money to friends, merchants, and service companies simply by using their phone numbers.

The company’s aim is to Build a new ecosystem for mobile payments.

One of the biggest markets for this type of technology is in the emerging markets like Asia, Africa and South America. Places where many people have phones with pre-paid SIM cards but don’t have bank accounts.

As I said in my post A Telco you can Bank on?. The stakes are high. Visa has almost 5 times, and MasterCard almost 3 times, the transaction revenues of the Global Mobile Phone industry. If you are going to play in just one MobCon sector over the next 15 years then clearly forget media, forget software and forget telecoms. This is the game you should be in and it’s a game you should be playing to win.

Other Posts in the series

• A retailer you can bank on?
• A Telco you can Bank on?
• How the Commonwealth Bank made it happen

The other killer iPhone app for me was the idea using your mobile phone as an all in one theatre bookings, payments and ticketing device.

You could get hold of a copy of the local entertainment guide or billboard, scan the QR Code for the show or concert with your mobile phone camera, purchase the ticket with the phone and then display your entry ticket on the phone as proof of entry at the venue.

As I was thinking this through and I quickly came to the conclusion that in the very near future Banks will need to become (MVNO) phone companies simply because of the competition that will be created when telecom companies evolve into mobile banks.

Then I stumbled across this video clip on the future of mobile banking last year.

” In the very near future Banks will become phone companies and telecom companies will become banks. “

Dr Patrick Dixon. [Futurist]

In the clip Dr Dixon basically says it all.

• He discusses how Banks will become phone companies and telecom companies will become banks.
• He talks about mobile payment systems, micropayments, mobile phone credit card transactions and loans.
• The economic impact of remittances from foreign workers using SMS credit to avoid foreign exchange transaction costs.
• How biometrics fingerprint technology will allow large mobile phone payments and the impact on revenues as the major credit card providers move towards mobile phone transactions.

The mobile phone market may be enormous by media standards but compared to the banking industry it’s just small change.

The chart below mixes global credit card transactions and Global mobile service revenues together into a single transaction pool. As you can see Visa has almost 5 times, and MasterCard almost 3 times, the revenues of the Mobile Telecoms industry.

Given the increase in transaction revenues why wouldn’t the Telcos want to become Banks? If anything the problem would be convincing Banks they need to become Telcos. One look at the figures and they’d shrug their shoulders and say: “Why bother? Why make our life more complex for so little return on our investment?”

The Telcos already offer a limited range of payment services via their billing platforms and Premium SMS services. They also have existing mechanisms for intra and inter service billing at a national and global level. So how hard would it be for them to scale up and deliver a full-blown mobile payments network? 

The easy answer is it wouldn’t take that much efforts at all. But the reality is Telcos face enormous barriers of entry into the banking and payments markets.

The first reason why Telcos will find it extremely difficult to become banks is very simple. It comes down to one word. The word is…

TRUST

Trust is the value driver the binds the Bank Industry and its customers.

Without trust the Banker’s business quickly disintegrates. Without trust a Banker’s cashflow simply evaporates. We know this from experience thanks to the recent global financial crisis.

All over the world Telcos struggle with customers over issues of TRUST.

There are the issues of ongoing support and customer service that plague a high churn industry that increasingly struggles to keep its customers close.

More damaging however are the SMS scams and the billing problems that continue to plague the Telecoms industry. Put simply, if customers don’t trust their telco’s billing system why would they ever trust a Telco’s banking and payments system.

The second reason is regulatory and compliance.

Here in Australia (for example) APRA regulates and ensures the compliance of the Financial Service sector while the Reserve Bank  oversees the end of day settlements across the national banking network.

To participate in this highly regulated market the local Telecoms providers would need to not only meet the rigorous and expensive compliance requirements but also be invited by the Reserve Bank to join the national payments clearing system. Both of which are highly unlikely at this point in time.

I suspect, at least at this stage, if the Telcos do enter into the credit and payments markets in a big way it will be through some type of partnership, J.V. or amalgamated product offering with the Banks.

One day you may find the Market Leaders from both the Banking and the Telco sectors realigning themselves into proprietory mobile payment networks. However this will not happen unless the Banking Industry can see any added value in chosing a single network provider.

This is highly unlikely at the moment given the cross-fertilization of the customer bases across both industries. But things may quickly change once the free mobile phone becomes the hook to retain or grow the Bank’s customer base .

The reality is, if the Banks do encounter competition in the payments, settlements, billing and credit markets, it will not be the Telcos that apply the pressure. The tipping point will come from one or more of the other players in the mobile phone value chain.

The most likely candidates at this stage being the handset providers. (i.e. Nokia). They have both the brand, the intelligent device, the global reach and the hunger to revolutionise the global banking industry.

Other posts in this series

BMI Federal Credit Union is pleased to introduce BMiMobile, our mobile banking platform.  Members can now access their BMI FCU accounts 24/7 right from the convenience of their supported mobile device.  See more information about BMiMobile here.

I often find myself in a banking center simultaneously using an ATM and logged into the Mobile Banking application on my iPhone.

I find that I need the combination of the two experiences to achieve my one desired expected must-have experience.    Which means that I am constantly in a state of dissatisfaction with either channel. 

This is problematic for many reasons, two in particular.  First,  there must be millions of others who feel just like me.  Second, these are the primary business to consumer interaction points.   That being said it’s  imperative to create the best possible channel experiences.

The benefits of doing so could be huge.   It could drive satisfaction.  It could cement critical customer relationships.  And for the early-adopter innovators it could mean new unforeseen markets, products, services, customers, revenues, etc.

Discover has launched a new Discover Mobile iPhone application – now available as a free download from the iTunes App Store. The app allows a Discover cardholder to view account summary including current balance, etc., make a Discover card account payment, view recent transactions and rewards activity, and enroll in rewards programs.

Hier einige von mir mit meinem iphone geschossene Fotos von der Somesso 09. Im Flickr Account von Somesso kann man sich dann die guten und qualitativ hochwertigen Fotos anschauen.

S

Here already in vertical markets * Sleeping giant of consumer banking beginning to stir…

Here’s another blog about NFC (Near Field Communication), the technology which enables Oyster card-like customer-present instant payments on mobile devices.

This post contains the usual “enormous potential” blah, an intriguing new nugget suggesting mainstream mobile banking might not be that far away and several tedious puns on distance.

Juniper Research recently released (or maybe updated) a report, a top line from which is..

in developed regions more than one subscriber in ten will be using mobile coupons by 2014. By this time consumers will be generating close to $6 billion in retail redemption value globally.

One in ten by 2014, close to $6 billion globally: does it seem like all that much? Will it still be a handful of jostling players vying for a few early adopters struggling with fragmented platforms?

Vertical markets ARE experiencing meaningful traction with NFC technologies now, for facilities management and asset tracking – effectively facilitating industrial workflows via tagging and bespoke software.

These will be discussed in greater depth by players like Motorola, Avis, G4S and Microsoft at next week’s Mobilise Your Workforce.

on the right lines..

Progress in the consumer space, alas, has not been on a par.

Long-time NFC drum-beaters and mobile ticketing specialists, Masabi, recently blogged on the stagnation of the technology (my words) in the consumer space. Their understandable frustration scorches through the post.

After many trials, NFC has been on the cusp of launching in Europe for some time now. It is regularly brought up in conjunction with mobile ticketing…

O2 last did an NFC trial in 2008, and almost exactly a year ago they stated that it had gone so well they were looking to run another trial at some point in the future. We haven’t had that trial yet.

already looks a little dated..

So if the device manufacturers and operators are struggling / unwilling to sort it out, could there be another corporate powerhouse out there with eyes on the prize, willing to take matters into their own hands?

Banks.

Since March 2009, most Barclays debit cards that have been issued or reissued have had contactless technology built in as standard, so says their corporate release.

Over one million customers already have Barclays contactless debit cards and over two million have contactless Barclaycard credit cards.

The technology allows customers to pay for transactions of £10 or less by holding their card up to a special reader, without the need to enter a PIN or insert the card into a terminal.

This video http://www.barclays.co.uk/video/contactless/index.html demonstrates it’s a ready-made done deal and there are plenty of shops, stores and customers who are already using it. Can’t say I’d noticed.

And how does it relate to mobile anyway?

At an AIME seminar exploring the widget universe last week, Mobile Interactive Group (MIG)’s David Glennie alluded to dramatic progress in the space during 2010. MIG’s close ties with both O2 – the most visibly active operator in NFC, and Barclays – having recently produced their waterslide iPhone game, suggest it’s a credible insight.

Whether small scale pilot or not, there’s serious potential in the ability of large banks like Barclays to physically send customers NFC-enabled chips or stickers which can be fixed to devices. With the relevant disclaimers and T&Cs, it could eliminate operators and device makers from the equation.

NFC has been done with consumers like this in the US already. While stickers don’t sound like the most elegant solution in the world, and yes, there will always be security issues (as there are with carrying a wallet) – it has to start somewhere.

For someone to force a mass market play in the consumer NFC space, a reasonable place to start could be a bank launching a strategic campaign which actively educates, perhaps even experientially, and asks their customers to try.

We might be getting closer.

So, I was headed home from work this evening and decided to stop at a local restaurant for some takeout.  After placing my order, I then paid with my handy-dandy First Federal debit card.  After receiving my food, I headed on home to enjoy my meal.

When I settled in to eat my dinner, I checked my phone to see what alerts came in from mobile banking.  I saw two debit alerts, one that matched a purchase I made earlier, and one that didn’t look familiar.  It seems that what I thought I paid for my meal was not matching the alert I received.

I then logged onto online banking and saw the debit description for the restaurant.  It seems that the cashier added a dollar tip that I didn’t remember giving.

I guess he didn’t know that: #1 I get SMS alerts on my debit card and #2 I work for the bank.  Tomorrow morning, they will most likely lose out on the transaction altogether.

So what have we learned?  SMS alerts can help protect you against fraudulent charges; and small business owners may want to be a little more honest with all this technology in consumers’ hands.

Update

The restaurant adjusted their credit charges at the end of night.  So I ended up being charged the correct amount.

Photo by Skokie

Ok not yet.. but this is the obituary precursor.

Firethorn Quick View

• Acquired by Qualcomm for $210 in Nov 2007.
• Estimated Revenue of $4-8M through MNO fees and bank licenses ($500k-$1M). Qualcomm does not seperate revenue from this unit, nor is it mentioned in filings (http://www.qualcomm.com/investor/index.html)
• Current customers: Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust, Citi Card and now US Bank
• Wachovia is pulling out of $1M arrangement
• JPMC is pulling out

When I was at Gartner Group, I sat down with an “anonymous” analyst and he said let’s think of some catchy titles for a new analyst brief. I asked “what is the subject”? He said “let’s decide that after we define the title that everyone wants to read”. It was then that I decided to leave Gartner, realizing it kept more to its journalism roots (as a prior division of McGraw Hill) then I cared to be associated with.

But alas I regress, growing ever more frustrated by MNO and bank attempts to “mobilize” financial services. Firethorn was a mess from the start. Having been at Wachovia (but never party to Firethorn selection) I can tell you that Firethorn’s banks “wanted to do something in mobile”, without much of a business plan behind it. The lack of a business plan is something that not only challenges the Twitters of the world, it also challenges big organizations. In either case a business plan must be addressed or the initiative will atrophy.. such are the vagaries of life… with perhaps the exception of centralized state planning (thank God for capitalism). The cards were stacked against Firethorn:

1. Firethorn Banks had no “mobile” business plan.. when there is no plan, there is no executive support (because there is no revenue)
2. Active customers are less then 10k per bank, Firethorn’s $1M price tag was hard for Wachovia to justify. Firethorn is actually paying other (card) banks to use the service..
3. Fat clients on mobile phones are a failure (more below).
4. Telecos stopped blocking access to http traffic (bank mobile sites)
5. Consumers don’t perceive value (browser based access is faster).

BAC, JPM and WFC have solid strategies for mobile in support of their business. Distribution is a key facit of any business and it is never acceptable to create a new channel for sales/service without understanding of how it impacts products, customers and costs to serve. From a Bank CEO perspective, business leadership is required in distribution… don’t let the techies or “internet teams” make distribution decisions absent of business involvement. Firethorn’s current bank customers should have been more thoughtful in their decisions. Giving an MNO “control” over your content is not acceptable. Banks must push strategies that support their ownership of data, control over consumer (including authentication), brand and service experience/cost (quality).

My sources tell me that Wachovia has stopped new enrollments and is sunsetting the app immediately. Existing clients will be notified in next few months. The application never took off w/ Citi Card customers. (Poor US Bank.. they just went live with Firethorn last month).

Firethorn was acquired by Qualcomm for $210 in Nov 2007. Current customers: Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust and now US Bank (blind following the blind). I project Firethorn revenue as $8M from both direct sales to banks and MNO service fees. Revenue growth is challenged by issues above. Expect to see Qualcomm refocus Firethorn in NFC payments space, and align with companies like Vivotech. This is consistent w/ 3Q09 guidance in QCOM investor call

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/firethorn-provides-mobile-banking-application-to-metropcs-2009-10-08

http://www.redherring.com/Home/23154

http://www.netbanker.com/2007/03/wachovia_suntrust_regions_mobile_banking_with_firethorn_cingular.html

Citi Card

(side note) Globally mobile banking fat client apps have been a resounding failure. In my previous life at Citi 6 of 6 fat client initiatives have failed. Take a look at the Citi iPhone app.. guess how many people use it? What do I recommend? Low cost…. with no change in consumer “behavior” or support requirements. In the USA.. Create a slimmed down style sheet(s) that fit the mobile browsers. BAC, Wachovia, and Wells to a terrific job here. Most other markets SMS is the way to go. Simplicity is the key to mobile…. My favorite “mobile banking” vendor outside of US is Monitise .. just reuse your ATM transactions and tie to a service (Overview here)

• https://www.wachovia.com/mobile
• www.bofa.mobi
• http://wf.com

Updated 4 Nov (reference to 2Q09 10-Q Unit earnings)

Ok not yet.. but this is the obituary precursor.

Firethorne Quick View

• Acquired by Qualcomm for $210 in Nov 2007.
• Estimated Revenue of $4-7M through MNO fees and bank licenses ($500k-$1M). Qualcomm does not seperate revenue from this unit, nor is it mentioned in filings (http://www.qualcomm.com/investor/index.html)
• Current customers: Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust, Citi Card and now US Bank
• Wachovia is pulling out of $1M arrangement
• Expect firethorn to be “reinvented” as NFC mobile payment solution within QCOM portfolio. Consistent w/ 3Q09 Analyst presentation.
• 2Q09 10-Q:  ”The decrease in QWI’s earnings before taxes and operating margin percentage was primarily attributable to an increase in the operating loss of Firethorn and the effect of…” Expect another decrease in 3Q (investor call 4 November 09)

When I was at Gartner Group, I sat down with an “anonymous” analyst and he said let’s think of some catchy titles for a new analyst brief. I asked “what is the subject”? He said “let’s decide that after we define the title that everyone wants to read”. It was then that I decided to leave Gartner, realizing it kept more to its journalism roots (as a prior division of McGraw Hill) then I cared to be associated with.

But alas I regress, growing ever more frustrated by MNO and bank attempts to “mobilize” financial services. Firethorn was a mess from the start. Having been at Wachovia (but never party to Firethorn selection) I can tell you that Firethorn’s banks “wanted to do something in mobile”, without much of a business plan behind it. The lack of a business plan is something that not only challenges the Twitters of the world, it also challenges big organizations. In either case a business plan must be addressed or the initiative will atrophy.. such are the vagaries of life… with perhaps the exception of centralized state planning (thank God for capitalism). The cards were stacked against Firethorn:

1. Firethorn Banks had no “mobile” business plan.. when there is no plan, there is no executive support (because there is no revenue)
2. Active customers are less then 10k per bank, Firethorn’s $1M/yr price tag is hard to justify
3. Fat clients on mobile phones are a failure (more below).
4. Telecos stopped blocking access to http traffic (bank mobile sites)
5. Consumers don’t perceive value (browser based access is faster).

BAC, JPM and WFC have solid strategies for mobile in support of their business. Distribution is a key facit of any business and it is never acceptable to create a new channel for sales/service without understanding of how it impacts products, customers and costs to serve. From a Bank CEO perspective, business leadership is required in distribution… don’t let the techies or “internet teams” make distribution decisions absent of business involvement. Firethorn’s current bank customers should have been more thoughtful in their decisions. Giving an MNO “control” over your content is not acceptable. Banks must push strategies that support their ownership of data, control over consumer (including authentication), brand and service experience/cost (quality).

My sources tell me that Wachovia has stopped new enrollments and is sunsetting the app immediately. Existing clients will be notified in next few months. The application never took off w/ Citi Card customers. (Poor US Bank.. they just went live with Firethorn last month).

Firethorn was acquired by Qualcomm for $210 in Nov 2007. Current customers: Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust and now US Bank (blind following the blind). I project Firethorn revenue as $8M from both direct sales to banks and MNO service fees. Revenue growth is challenged by issues above. Expect to see Qualcomm refocus Firethorn in NFC payments space, and align with companies like Vivotech. This is consistent w/ 3Q09 guidance in QCOM investor call

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/firethorn-provides-mobile-banking-application-to-metropcs-2009-10-08

http://www.redherring.com/Home/23154

http://www.netbanker.com/2007/03/wachovia_suntrust_regions_mobile_banking_with_firethorn_cingular.html

Citi Card 

(side note) Globally mobile banking fat client apps have been a resounding failure. In my previous life at Citi 6 of 6 fat client initiatives have failed. Take a look at the Citi iPhone app.. guess how many people use it? What do I recommend? Low cost…. with no change in consumer “behavior” or support requirements. In the USA.. Create a slimmed down style sheet(s) that fit the mobile browsers. BAC, Wachovia, and Wells to a terrific job here. Most other markets SMS is the way to go. Simplicity is the key to mobile…. My favorite “mobile banking” vendor outside of US is Monitise .. just reuse your ATM transactions and tie to a service (Overview here)

• https://www.wachovia.com/mobile
• www.bofa.mobi
• http://wf.com

John Bird und Jack Fortune schlagen wieder zu

Sehr komisch, wenn es nicht so traurig wäre.

http://www.ft.com/cms/4fe40d1a-07b4-11dd-a922-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=10664514&fromSearch=n

Und an dieser Stelle die Frage: Warum gibt es in Deutschland keine Satire von dieser Qualität? Vielleicht weil die klassischen Medien glauben, dass man kein Geld mit Qualität verdienen kann?

Müssen Banken einen Beitrag zum Wohle der Gesellschaft leisten?

Im Blog “nackter Kapitalismus” wurde eine spannende Frage thematisiert: “Leisten Banken einen Beitrag zum Wohle der Gesellschaft?” Die Antwort auf diese Frage, würden viele aktuell womöglich sofort mit “Nein” beantworten. Angesichts der, durch das Handeln von einigen Banken entstandenen wirtschaftlichen, gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Schäden, deren Folgen heute noch gar nicht vollständig abschätzbar sind, ist diese Antwort auch durchaus verständlich. Hier wird allerdings ein recht interessanter Ansatz für die Einordnung und Bewertung dessen gemacht, was zum Wohle einer Gesellschaft beiträgt. Angelehnt ist der Artikel an ein Interview mit Roger Bottle, der eine ganz interessante Theorie entwickelt hat.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/10/does-banking-contribute-to-the-good-of-society.html

Nach Roger Bottle besteht das gesamte wirtschaftlich Leben aus einer Mixtur von kreativen und distributiven Aktivitäten. Kreative Aktivitäten bedeutet Dinge, die es vorher noch nicht gab, neu zu entwicklen und dadurch den Nettonutzen zu erhöhen. Distributive Aktivitäten schichten dagegen Leistungen lediglich von einer Gruppe zur anderen um. Es gibt zwar eine kleine Zahl von Profiteuren, die Mehrheit leidet aber eher unter diesen Leistungen.

Nach diesen Kriterien bewertet Bootle Gesellschaften, wobei die kreativen Gesellschaften mit einer höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit auch langfristig erfolgreich sein sollen.

Erfolgreiche Gesellschaften maximieren das Kreative und minimieren das Distibutive. Gesellschaften, in denen Gewinne nur auf Kosten Anderer gemacht werden können, werden als verarmt  definiert. Sie seien in der Regel auch intensiv gewalttätig.

Die Entwicklung der Stellung und Bedeutung des Finanzsektors wird dann so erklärt:

Even when a certain sort of financial activity is purely distributive, the returns to the winning parties are so enormous that the activity is immensely seductive – and the professionals who appear to be responsible for securing these gains are highly sought after and highly rewarded….

Hier gibt es auch ein Interview mit Roger Bottle

Does-banking-contribute-to-the-good-of-society via. telegraph.co.uk

Wie immer man zu der – zugegebenermassen inhaltlich wenig überzeugenden Unterscheidung – zwischen “creative” und “distributive” steht, sie stellt zumindest eine recht simple und nachvollziehbare Erklärung der Finanzkrise dar und zeigt auf, welche Zukunft uns bevorstehen könnte, wenn wir unsere gängigen Wirtschaftskonzepte unhinterfragt fortführen.

Zu viel zu tun?

Und auch Chris Skinner beschäftigt sich in seinem Blog  mit interessanten Fragen, die letztlich klären könnten, warum Banken aktuell so wenig innovativ sind.

For example, how can you expand your business portfolio when capital adequacy needs to be raised?
How can you improve your loan book when no-one wants loans anymore, particularly your bad ones?
How can you innovate when all focus has to go into keeping the lights on?
How can you determine your forward strategy when you have no idea what the policymakers will do next?

The result is that tough decisions have to be made.

In jedem Fall – so Chris Skinner – wären keine Entscheidungen zu treffen, die denkbar schlechteste Lösung.

Der Originalartikel

Können Agenturen Social Media?

In diesem Blog habe ich ja bereits mehrmals die These aufgestellt, dass  mann Social Media nicht outsourcen sollte. Im sehr arrivierten Bruce Clay Internet-Marketing-Blog wurde diese Frage auch thematisert. Die Antwort fällt hier allerdings anders aus. Demnach können Agenturen durchaus erfolgreich “Social Media Marketing” für Unternehmen durchführen. Die Argumentation dort ist durchaus schlüssig, dennoch konnte sie mich nicht überzeugen: Schon die Begriffskombination ist mir zu sehr in veralteten Machbarkeits- und Gesaltbarkeitsthesen verhaftet.  Ich stelle mir gerade vor, dass ich Gespräche mit Dritten führen muss, die im Auftrag der Person handeln, mit der ich eigenlich kommunizieren möchte. Das funktioniert doch im täglichen Leben auch nicht. Oder?

http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2009/10/yes_you_can_out.html

Mpesa funktioniert auch aus England

Mpesa ein Dienst mit welchem Geld über das Mobiltelefon versendet werden kann und der darüber hinaus dass. Bezahlen über Internet Ermöglicht, ist jetzt auch in Großbritannien verfügbar und Ermöglicht Kenianiern die Überweisung von Geld ein Verwandte oder Bekannte in Kenia.

Kenianer im Vereinigten Königreich können jetzt Geld zu schicken ihren Freunden und Familie in Kenia durch M-Pesa UK, direkt auf ihr Mobiltelefon Brieftaschen.

http://wirelessfederation.com/news/18533-m-pesa-launches-in-uk-kenya/

Old economy vs. new economy

Und mal wieder ein interessanter Artikel von Umair Haque. Der Anlass für diesen Artikel ist der langsam intensiver werdende Kampf der Verleger gegen das Internet, bei dem es sich eigentlich – so Umair Haque – nur um den Kampf einer geschlossenen, intransparenten und ausgrenzenden Branche gegen eine offene, transparente und demokratische Welt handelt.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/10/the_new_new_mediaconomy.html

Kein Post ohne Twitter

Frei nach dem Motto: Wo Licht ist, ist auch Schatten.  Nur was ist Licht und was ist Schatten?

http://current.com/items/91075172_twitter-worth-a-billion.htm

+ advertorial +

If you’re a Citibank customer with 3G smartphone who’s constantly on the go, Citibank’s mobile platform could just be the best thing that happened to you.

I’m not a Citibank customer, but it was nice to receive this piece of news about Citi Mobile that points to the next step in mobile services for banking.

What Is The Citi Mobile Platform?

It’s a mobile banking service launched by Citibank on 14 August 2009 that consists of Citi Mobile and Citi Alerts.

Looking at the screenshots, it seems that the service has been well designed for the multitude of transactions that take place everyday. Because of the design simplicity, navigation and interaction is a breeze, and all the heavy lifting is done in the background. I’m already a fan of Internet Banking, and this looks exactly like how it’ll be a good user experience.

And Now It Shines!

Well, banking services aren’t everything, I mean, sure you could spend a couple of minutes commuting and getting your banking errands done, but it’s this portion of the service that I believe the Citi Mobile Platform shines. Truly understanding the mobile customer and providing information on the go, there are 3 additional services: Gourmet Pleasure, Promotions and Find My Citi.

Gourmet Pleasure

At a touch, you have access to finding out where Citibank is accepted and having promotions for Singaporeans’ favourite past time: Eating!

Promotions

And if you’re love the offers and promotions that come with getting a credit card, it’s always useful to stay up to date with the latest good tidings. I mean, I know not all of us read the monthly brochures that come with our credit card statements, it’s the 21st century!

Find My Citi

And the last bit of usefulness that comes the service, is the ability to find out just where your standalone Citibank services are, just in case.

Is It Secure?

If you’ve ever used Citibank’s Online Banking Service, then it is equally as secure, after all, the Citi Mobile Platform is essentially a customized version meant for the mobile browser. But to put you at ease, Citi Mobile utilize a secure process with end-to-end encryption and a flash SMS alert that sends you a One-Time PIN (OTP) to complete any transactions. These are almost universal security standards, so you can rest easy.

I’m really impressed with the comprehensiveness of the Citi Mobile Platform. You can tell that it’s a truly complex infrastructure that supports you every mobile banking need, while ensuring your privacy and security. The beauty is that it doesn’t overwhelm you, truly a high point in service design.

I’m Sold, But Can I Use It On My Mobile Phone?

According to Citibank, the Apple iPhone has a dedicated optimized offering, and is mobile web optimized for other mobile devices. Of course, the platform is designed of new generation phones like Nokia N97,HTC dream etc and hence looks better on these devices

If you’re an existing Citibank customer, you owe it to yourself to use this service more often, and maximize the 21st century experience.

I recently finished compiling a mobile banking vendor assessment at a client’s request.

After we looked at the results we reexamined their mobile banking strategy, having a long-term plan is the only way to select the proper mobile banking solution.

Why do I say that??  Because complimentary offerings vs. basic banking features and which or how many communications protocols will be utilized are critical before selecting a mobile banking vendor solution.   And those are the easier decisions to make.

To set the stage and look at a few of the decisions that need to be made, let’s look to ABI Research which recently ranked/rated mobile banking vendors and the criteria used in their rankings.

ABI Research Ranking Criteria

Implementation:

The seven categories are:
1)    Bank relationships (both the relative size and number of banks they have relationships with)
2)    MNO relationships (both the relative size and number they have relationships with)
3)    Solution breadth (does the vendor offer solutions by SMS, mobile Internet, and mobile application
4)    Complementary products (products related to mobile banking that a prospect might be interested in, such as domestic p-to-p, mobile top-up, mobile international remittance, bill pay, mobile commerce, etc.
5)    Partnerships (distribution partners beyond banks or MNOs, such as device manufacturers, IT companies, etc.)
6)    Financial and organizational health
7)    Supporting products and services (products and services that facilitate mobile banking so the company does not need to partner [provides some cost and information advantage such as an SMS gateway, GRX, or integration services]).
Innovation:

The three categories are:

1)    SMS — Functionality and Security
2)    Mobile Internet -Functionality and Security
3)    Mobile Applications – Functionality and Security.

Although I did not utilize the ABI report for my vendor assessment I think the criteria is a good benchmark when evaluating mobile banking vendors.

So do you just pick the winner and go?  Or maybe you select the most cost effective of the top 5?   Issue an RFP to the top three?

Features are relatively irrelevant from a vendor software solution standpoint or put another way they are identical for all vendor solutions.   Any features your financial institution provides to its online banking customers can be delivered via the mobile.  It is very difficult to select one vendor over another because they can extend your online services to the mobile.

Features being equal do you focus on what is likely the biggest concern?  Security.

Security is first on consumer’s minds and financials institutions as well but how secure the solution is or needs to be really depends on the mobile banking strategy.

If you are using SMS for example you will have very different security concerns than a downloadable application.  Also, if information is stored on the phone, the security strategy becomes much different for solutions that do not store information on the phone (USSD for example).

Triple play is a buzz word (SMS, Mobile browser and downloadable application) or quad play (SMS, USSD, Mobile browser and downloadable application) for mobile banking.   Is it good that a solution can offer all these access channels to your customers?

That depends on if you are prepared for the maintenance and customer support that will be required to support each.   Not to mention, each will have its own security issues, implementation cost, technology issues, customer education, etc.

If your organization is ready is the customer ready?  In the geography you operate, customers may have limited exposure (if at all) to USSD for example or have limited experience with downloading applications to phones.  So maybe SMS is the right answer or focusing on Smartphone’s such as the iPhone and Blackberry?

Arguably the quickest and easiest way to offer mobile banking is via WAP and a mobile browser.   Even this requires a marketing strategy, support and customer education.  Again, first you would need to understand if mobile browser would work for your current customer base.   Are data services common where your financial institution operates?  Is it expensive for customers to use?

The complexities keep growing if you do not put some forks in the road early and often.   To confuse things a bit more, the mobile banking vendors are in ‘partner mode’ at the moment so identifying a clear strategy is key to investing in technologies that will work for all your customers.

Considering it is cheap for banks and other financial institutions to support when compared to other channels such as call centers and more and more customers are expecting their banks to offer it, mobile banking is here to stay.

Putting the long-term plan in place early will allow your mobile banking offering to grow properly over time with limited investment risk.

Read More?

Mobile Banking Users, who are they?

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Card swipe on iPhone.

• http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=20618
• http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/twitter-founder-jack-dorseys-squirrel-project-revealed-as-th/

Roberto Garavaglia was nice enough to share this finextra story on linkedin. Is this a consumer play.. or a “merchant play”? Will I see my local ticket scalpers taking credit cards on their iPhone? This start up was certainly “in the black”.  Data we know:

• Squirrel has a “signature” line in the app
• Have hardware on the phone
• Alpha test in NYC
• Receipt in engadget pic above shows consumer payment (you paid)
• Mind behind it is Dorsey
• Top VCs know about it, and seem to think it is a merchant play.
• Very US centric.. no EMV (Chip and Pin)

There are certainly some conflicting data points. If a consumer play.. this signature will not be valid… and transaction will be treated as a CNP (so why the signature?). If this is a merchant play who would possibly want to act as acquirer (fraud loss)? The merchant use would make most fraud heads loose a little sleep, for they would have a whole new threat vector. Can you imagine the buyers of the merchant use?.. The bank and I will have to worry about every kid in a fast food window and every waitress holding my card swiping on their iPhone (in addition to paying for my dinner). My guess is that squirrel has the technology working.. but haven’t figured out the “banking side”.

Fraud attacks the “weakest link” in payments quickly. Would love to hear from others on the community, but my view is:

• Interesting as a merchant play…. but acquirers will shy away from originating transaction in either network without solid fraud controls. The merchant owns the loss here by rules of network in a “CNP transaction”. Signature capability will be debated…
• Squirrel biz model.. questionable as anything but a hardware business. The fraud numbers of leading merchant selling digital goods is astounding. All top merchants have had to develop their own internal specialist teams to handle.  If Apple and PayPal have trouble with teams of 300+ (after 10 years) this will be a challenge for any new “merchant”. As a payment method, squirrel will have to take this on. Having access to the physical card may allow them to try something disruptive like MagTek which reads the randomness (noise) in the card stripe to establish a “unique” card… which has the downside of card registration. Something like this would push squirrel further into a “US centric” model as it appears that they do not support EMV (aka Chip and PIN).  
• “No go” as a consumer play. Why not just keep my card at the Apple app store? or at PayPal? What is the incremental value that this provides me? Why not just key in my card data.. why add a reader to my sexy iPhone .. .in its sexy case.

Innovation in payments is tough…  if I were going to add something the Steve Job’s product plan for the iPhone what would it be?

• Global
• Ubiquitous
• Unique to every person
• Globally Accepted for use in Payment and Authentication, by merchants, banks, networks, regulators
• Low error rate
• Impossible to clone
• Difficult to crack

The answer is… (   ). OK so nothing fits my criteria, but any appendage on my iPhone must certainly seek to optimize the goals above. Only item I’ve seen that comes close it IRIS scanning.. now being miniaturized to fit on a chip the size of your thumbnail (below). Just for fun.. I bought “paybyiris.com” domain as I finished this article (today). 

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2002/01/07/2002-01-07_credit_card_cloners___1b_sca.html

http://4g-wirelessevolution.tmcnet.com/news/2009/08/19/4331395.htm

First Federal has now launched Mobile Banking for its customers.  I have to say, I am really excited about this new service.  While I was skeptical about the benefits of the service a couple of years ago, I have to admit that having my bank in my pocket is great.

Being a lead on the project was a lot of fun.  After looking at most of the vendors in the market, we finally decided on ClairMail.  We felt that text alerts was a very crucial piece to mobile banking and ClairMail fit our needs nicely.  One added bonus is that we are the first bank/credit union to offer mobile banking without requiring the customer to be an online banking user.

I believe this will allow the bank to tap even more potential users that may not necessarily want to use online banking.  Customers can use text messaging and/or mobile web for mobile banking.  Some of the features that are currently available are daily balance alerts, deposit/withdrawal alerts and transfers.  There is also a stylized iPhone version.  If you are a First Federal customer, you can register for mobile banking here.  Some screen shots are listed below.

Facebook Testing Credit Card-less Virtual Payment | CScout Trend Consulting

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