Microsoft Corp. and M-Com announced a solution offering 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. This solution clearly demonstrates that consumer choice and deployment flexibility for banks are key to the success of global mobile payments solutions for the financial services industry. The announcement was made at Sibos 2009, the industrys premier global financial services forum.
Using Microsoft technologies, M-Com BankAnywhere provides a complete end-to-end mobile payments solution for the banking industry worldwide. The comprehensive solution provides best-practice 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.
A Microsoft Gold Certified Solution Developer, M-Com supports BankAnywhere across the globe and, in doing so, utilizes Microsoft resources and best practices in deploying BankAnywhere. The use of standard Microsoft technology, including Windows and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as Internet Information Services (IIS), allows enterprise users of BankAnywhere to benefit from existing industry-standard technology management tools and practices.
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. This is important for banks and retailers, as cash handling is both expensive and a security risk.
For most financial institutions, paper-based payment transactions are expensive to support and offer few opportunities for differentiation. While the cost metrics associated with processing checks and cash payments vary substantively across jurisdictions, financial institutions, and payment types, it is well understood that electronic payments including those carried out through mobile phones have a direct positive impact on for the cost structures of payers, payees and financial institutions alike.
Global consumer demand also is helping to propel this migration. The growing ubiquity of mobile phones and their increasing multifunction capabilities make these devices a compelling candidate for replacing a physical wallet.
As prominent examples, Bangkok Bank and KeyBank both recently selected a mobile financial services solution that leverages the M-Com BankAnywhere platform. The institutions chose Mobile Money from Fiserv Inc., which was launched in conjunction with M-Com in September 2008. Fiserv, a partner of Microsoft and M-Com, is the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions.
D.C.