Financial institutions, facing declining revenue from traditional credit cards, are looking to use mobile payments to replace cash-dominated lower value payments to generate new revenue streams. Against this backdrop, Microsoft and M-Com have launched a solution that provides banks and payment processors with mobile payments functionality – creating more opportunities for banks to offer mobile payments services to their customers and maximize their revenue opportunities.
Reportedly, using Microsoft technologies, M-Com BankAnywhere provides a complete end-to-end mobile payments solution for the banking industry worldwide. The solution provides security and risk management capabilities, ensuring that banks can effectively manage the exposure of their brands and services in the emerging market for mobile technology. As a fully integrated solution, it reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the mobile channel for banks.
Susan Hauser, vice president of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft, said: “Today’s announcement underscores our efforts to provide multichannel integration that allows financial institutions to benefit from mobile and new media channels as part of the overall connected experience. Our alliance with M-Com expands our partner ecosystem for payments and mobile solutions and further validates our leadership position as a provider of payment processing platforms.”
Adam Clark, CEO of M-Com, said: “It is clear that consumers in Asia and around the world have an insatiable demand for mobile financial services, especially payment transactions. Banks must engage their customers and prospects in the mobile channel in the short term to ensure they profit from sustainable revenues and key customer segments that are adopting these services.”
Karen Campbell, executive vice president at Bangkok Bank, said: “The uptake of this cutting-edge consumer banking technology demonstrates a significant shift in how banks across the world connect with their customer. Customers in Asia are at least as demanding as their counterparts in Europe and the US — they need the portable banking tools to complement their busy, highly mobile lifestyles.”
Allison Landers, senior vice president, Virtual Banking, KeyBank, said: “We needed a product that would scale to a large number of users and could be extended to meet the diverse needs of Key’s multiple lines of business and client segments. Mobile banking is a strategic opportunity area for banks. By adopting the M-Com BankAnywhere platform for SMS, we’re providing our clients a strong first step into mobile banking with a seamless and compelling user experience.”
