Vodafone UK Customers Get Mobile Banking Services

Link: Vodafone UK Customers Get Mobile Banking Services

Interesting news from Vodafone and MONILINK, the mobile banking network. Vodafone UK customers can now get access to their bank account to check balances, request a mini-statement or top up prepay mobile accounts, straight from their mobile handset.

Available now to HSBC, first direct, Alliance & Leicester customers, with Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank adding the service later this summer, the service uses a secure application on their handset to connect to the MONILINK platform, which then in turn interacts with their bank.

Al Russell, Head of Vodafone Internet On Your Mobile said: “With the launch of the Vodafone Internet On Your Mobile we want to give customers access to all the services they see as essential, in the palm of their hand.  Banking is one of the most important services that our customers use and by partnering with the MONILINK network we can ensure that all of our customers are able to access their bank accounts on the move, whenever they wish.”

The MONILINK service has been developed by Monitise, a specialist in mobile banking technology, and VocaLink, the transaction specialists behind the UK’s ATM network, processing over eight billion transactions per year including 15 per cent of Europe’s automated payments.  Monitise is currently working with partners across the world, including Metavante in the United States and T-Systems in Germany, to create a single mobile banking and payments ecosystem for the global population.

Alastair Lukies, CEO OF MONILINK added: “The mobile phone is the world’s personal communications device and it’s only natural that consumers want to use it as the ‘remote control’ to essential services.  Vodafone’s commitment to providing mobile banking services is a great step in ensuring that financial provision in the UK is as convenient and accessible as possible. 

The service is free until the end of 2007. Apart from the lack of a hole to get cash from, it seems very similar to the services you already find on most ATMs in the UK.