MOBILE BANKING SERVICES Mobile banking is a system that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct a number of financial transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistant. Mobile banking refers to the use of a smartphone or other cellular device to perform online bankingtasks while away from your home computer, such as monitoring account balances, transferring fundsbetween accounts, bill payment and locating an ATM. Mobile banking differs from mobile payments, which involve the use of a mobile device to pay for goods or services either at the point of sale or remotely, [1] analogously to the use of a debit or credit card to effect an EFTPOS payment. The earliest mobile banking services were offered over SMS, a service known as SMS banking. With the introduction of smart phoneswith 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.[2] Mobile banking has until recently (2010) most often been performed via SMS or the mobile web. Apple's initial success with iPhoneand 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. With that said, advancements in web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 andJavaScript have seen more banks launching mobile web based services to complement native applications. A recent study (May 2012) by Mapa Research suggests that over a third of banks[3] have mobile device detection upon visiting the banks' main website. A number of things can happen on mobile detection such as redirecting to an app store, redirection to a mobile banking specific website or providing a menu of mobile banking options for the user to choose from. n today world Mobile Banking is a popular term. Mobile Banking means a financial transaction conducted by logging on to a bank's website using a cell phone, such as viewing account balances, making transfers between accounts, or paying bills. It is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments etc. via a mobile device such as a mobile phone. In recent time Mobile banking is most often performed via SMS or the Mobile Internet but can also use special programs called clients downloaded to the mobile device. Mobile banking is a facility using which customers can access their bank account using their mobile phone. They don't have to visit the bank or the ATM to check their balance or to perform other banking transactions. This is especially useful for businessmen and professionals who cannot get to visit banks during weekdays (Since they've got their own jobs to take care of) and need to use the banking facilities. Mobile banking can be defined as the ability to conduct bank transactions via a mobile device, or more broadly – to conduct financial transactions via a mobile terminal (Drexelius & Herzig, 2001). This definition is a suitable working one as it includes not only basic services such as bank account statements and funds transfer bur also electronic payment options as well as information based financial services (e.g. alerts on account limit or account balance, access to stock broking). It compares ell with the definition found in (Kiesnoski, 2000) where mobile banking is referred to as the “ability to bank virtually anytime, anywhere”. This definition needs to be expanded to include the two different types of customer account access: a Web based interface and a simple text-messaging interface. This addition is important as it differentiates between the two network infrastructures for mobile commerce: the global, public, and ‘free’ Internet, and the cluster of regional, public, and paid wireless telecommunication networks. Is there a need for mobile banking? The answer is a firm “yes”. Although consumer demand for more sophisticated mobile services has not been very strong, demand for basic mobile banking is more pronounced compared to the general demand for mobile commerce services (Bansai, 2001). The number of wireless digital device users worldwide will reach 0.5 billion by 2003, according to some projections (Kiesnoski, 2001), and an estimated number of 40 million wireless users will have access to mobile financial services during the same period. Accordingly, financial institutions are planning to spend on the development and marketing of wireless devices (about US$40 million in 2003)iii. Many predict that mobile banking is going to be the most important mobile commerce application. Viewed as an additional channel to enhance customer relationship management, mobile banking enables both financial institutions and telecommunication network operators to strengthen their relationship with existing customers, to extend their general user-base and at the same time to target specific, more lucrative niche market segments (Horton, 2001). The widely quoted report (Muller-Veerse, 1999) classifies mobile financial services as a key commercial driver for mobile commerce. Based on survey by Datamonitor, which predicts that in 2004 about 16 million Europeans will conduct their banking in a mobile way, the editor of the Credit-Suisse publication “Bulletin Online” classifies mobile banking as the killer application for mobile commerce (Maier, 2001). As already indicated provision of mobile banking relies on a mobile end-user device; currently there are in fact two basic types of mobile end- user devices – the mobile (cellular, cell) phone and the portable handheld computer known as Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Sponsored Links A mobile banking conceptual model[edit] In one academic model,[4] 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 non-transaction-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 banking may also be used to help in business situations as well as financial Mobile Banking activities can be categorized in two different manners. 1.By the Nature of Service: It can be any of the two, either Enquiry Based or Transaction Based. For example, Account Balance Enquiry or a Cheque Book Requisition can be the good examples of Enquiry Based Services where a Fund Transfer or a Bill Payment is a Transaction Based activity. 2.Depending on the Originator: Again there can be two different types of services; Push and Pull, depending on the nature of the originator. A Push based service is from the Bank to the Client and vice versa. For example, Bill Payment Alert can be a Push based service, when getting Recent Account History is a Pull based one. In different countries, Mobile Banking has already gained its popularity. For example, in the South Korean market LG Telecom teamed up with Kookmin Bank to provide their Mobile Banking services in 2004 and since then they have seen a nice and steady growth. In India, Reliance Infocomm has started providing Mobile banking services to ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank through their R-World environment. The Mobile Banking services will become more popular once the availability of the smart phones or PDA phones shall increase as Smart Phones come with larger screens and bigger memory size. In the application development front, both J2ME and BREW have done excellent work and industry expects by the year 2012, more than 80% of the mobile handsets will be able to run stand alone Mobile Banking applications and that time it will be "Anywhere Banking" in real sense. Mobile banking services[edit] Typical mobile banking services may include: Account information[edit] 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 Payments, deposits, withdrawals, and transfers[edit] 1. Cash-in, cash-out transactions on an ATM 2. Domestic and international fund transfers 3. Micro-payment handling 4. Mobile & Direct to Home package recharging 5. Purchasing tickets for travel and entertainment 6. Commercial payment processing 7. Bill payment processing 8. Peer to Peer payments (e.g., Popmoney, Isis) 9. Withdrawal at banking agent 10. Deposit at banking agent Mobile Banking Services Mobile banking can offer services such as the following: * Mini-statements and checking of account history * Alerts on account activity or passing of set thresholds * Monitoring of term deposits * Access to loan statements * Access to card statements * Mutual funds / equity statements * Insurance policy management * Pension plan management * Status on cheque, stop payment on cheque * Ordering check books * Balance checking in the account * Recent transactions * Due date of payment (functionality for stop, change and deleting of payments) * PIN provision, Change of PIN and reminder over the Internet * Blocking of (lost, stolen) cards * Domestic and international fund transfers * Micro-payment handling * Mobile recharging * Commercial payment processing * Bill payment processing * Peer to Peer payments * Withdrawal at banking agent * Deposit at banking agent A specific sequence of SMS messages will enable the system to verify if the client has sufficient funds in his or her wallet and authorize a deposit or withdrawal transaction at the agent.