SOURCE: MOBIbucks
October 11, 2011 08:00 ET
New Smart App Features "Alerts," Transactional Analysis and Virtual Card Capability in Addition to Standard Banking Features
LOUISVILLE, KY--(Marketwire - Oct 11, 2011) - Mobile payments and marketing leader MOBIbucks (www.mobibucks.com) is encouraging financial institutions to "bring the bank to the customer -- all customers" with the launch of the industry's first smart mobile banking app that works with any phone -- Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, etc. MOBIBanked™ has all the usual mobile banking capabilities such as viewing account balances, history and transactions, transferring funds and paying bills. But the app goes further with real-time account alert push notifications and transactional analytics and is the only app with the ability to serve as a virtual card at the point of sale.
The new MOBIBanked smart app is based on MOBIbucks' patent-pending technology platform that enables mobile payments on essentially every phone -- using a phone number and PIN. The platform provides an all-in-one mobile payments and marketing solution for banks and financial institutions. MOBIBanked integrates with financial institutions' existing applications as a new vertical. It is customizable to an institution's brand and can include an array of feature sets. Many of the features of the new smart app are also available in the current text messaging app from MOBIbucks.
MOBIBanked's "Alerts" let customers easily and securely manage their finances better. Alerts can be set up to show the daily balance and notify customers of low balances, checks cleared, and when thresholds on withdrawals and deposits are exceeded. On the flip side, "Alerts" allow banks to create in-the-moment sales opportunities by notifying customers of important account activity, and introducing new or enhanced bank service opportunities at the moment of need.
With the smart app's "transactional analytics" feature financial institutions will be able to deepen their understanding of customers and provide opportunities to increase customer loyalty and retention. The smart app's marketing features provides new value added services such as personalized mobile coupons, loyalty campaigns and promotional messages to customers.
The MOBIBanked "virtual card" capability enables consumers to make payments at the point of sale, without a debit or credit card. Customers can create a "virtual card" through their bank account. Utilizing MOBIbucks virtual technology which connects to the point of sale, the "card" enables the user to pay with their phone number and pin.
"Mobile banking has now taken hold," said Jorge Fernandes, CEO of MOBIbucks. "Today's customers want to fit their banking chores around their lives and not their lives around their banking chores, and using their mobiles, they can."
He added, "Banks need to start offering full mobile banking services which allow their customers to make deposits, balance transfers and the like as soon as possible, because it's those banks which build up mobile trust in the short-term who are going to gain the most when m-commerce becomes commonplace."
Fernandes also noted that while we continue to see rapid growth in e-commerce, the unbanked and under-banked population has typically been excluded from this transformation due to limited access to acceptable forms of electronic payment. "MOBIBanked offers financial institutions an opportunity to reach this segment of the population too."
The new smart app includes the full suite of mobile banking features:
- View accounts/Check balances. The application securely displays all the customer's accounts and account details such as account number and balance, as well as transaction summary and details.
- Transfers. Transfer money between linked accounts or transfer money to third-party accounts.
- Pay bills on the fly. The app will let customers manage the same bill pay preferences they have set up through their bank's online site.
- Pay people. The app lets customers send money to existing contacts in the Person2Person address book.
In addition to these standard features, the new app also includes a helpful "Find ATM/Branch" feature that uses geo-location capabilities to find the nearest bank. For the bank, this means it can contact customers where they are with an appropriate alert, if needed or desired.
MOBIBanked integrates with social media applications. It lets users check out what savers have to say with one touch access to the bank's social media networks, including Twitter and Facebook.
"My expectation is that someday you won't need a wallet, you won't need a bank branch, you'll do all of your banking on your mobile device, and it will also become your payment device," Fernandes said.
The MOBIBanked smart app is currently available. MOBIbucks also provides support for web banking and text messaging.
About MOBIbucksMOBIbucks is a global mobile payments technology company and a leading provider of mobile marketing and payments solutions for banks and merchants. MOBIbucks is led by a combination of payment industry veterans from Apple, SGI, Stored Value Solutions and ViVOtech and innovative entrepreneurs working together with leading edge banks and retailers to create the next generation payment infrastructure. For more information, please visithttp://www.MOBIbucks.com/.
