Fiserv launches triple play of mobile banking

Hoping to capitalize on a recent wave of interest in mobile banking, information technology provider Fiserv is adding banking dimensions to accommodate more mobile use cases. The vendor today launched Fiserv Mobile Money, a mobile banking and payments platform that leverages SMS, a WAP site and downloaded mobile applications, as well as offers online and offline enrollment capabilities to future-proof its platform and broaden the potential customer base.

Fiserv is using technology from New Zealand-based Mobile Commerce Limited (M-Com), an international mobile banking and payments provider, to power the platform. Calvin Grimes, Fiserv product manager, said this platform marks the first attempt by a mobile banking provider to combine native support for text banking with a downloadable app and phone-based browser support in a single platform. Consumers can enroll via a mobile device at a branch, ATM or customer contact center or through Fiserv’s online channel. From a carrier standpoint, he hopes this will increase adoption as it appeals to a broader user base – both the consumers looking to complement their online experience and the offline consumers getting into remote banking for the first time.

“Customers may see it as a complement,” Grimes said. “They are already online and need a quick way to get their balance while they are out and about. For the consumer who’s not online, they can be driven to the mobile channel first and become an online consumer later. As the technologies change, from the handsets to speeds of networks, there is an opportunity to improve the experience through the mobile channel where users could become highly mobile, but we are not there yet today.”

Fiserv already has relationship with AT&T and Verizon for its billing services and is looking to expanding into other areas of mobile banking and e-payments as the handsets and networks become more comparable with the online experience. Grimes said that today’s problem is moving from e-payments only for established online channels to e-payments that can be set up on the fly for any payment needed. Tomorrow’s problem will be how to move into near-field communications (NFC) and true mobile commerce. This is why any mobile banking platform can’t just focus on solving today’s problems but must also be positioned to solve tomorrow’s, he said.

“It’s very versatile; that is one thing we’re especially excited about,” Grimes said. “Because we’re working with a vendor from outside the US, we are bringing a platform that is capable of supporting NFC and payment solutions going on outside the US. It is fully extendable into that, and financial institutions can expand into the product as they go forward.”