A mobile banking service for Apple's iPhone has been launched
in the UK.
Customers can use the MoBank system to make purchases and check
bank balances online via the phone.
Users have a PIN and can instruct the system to authorise
payments from their credit cards.
MoBank was set up in 2007 by former First Direct and Egg
bankers.
The software can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes Apps Store
or on the MoBank website. "You then register your debit or credit
card, get a secure MoBank PIN, and start to MoBank," said MoBank in
an
interview with The Guardian.
Mobile banking is
set to be the most widely used banking channel in the UK,
according to a survey of 1,000 people.
It looks likely to achieve the fastest rate of mass-market
penetration in history, even outpacing banking channels like credit
cards, ATMs and online banking, according to the research from the
Future Foundation and mobile money specialist Monitise.
E-bank Japan is an example of a bank that
already lets its customers do everything from a mobile device.
It has no branches or ATMs.