The app is available for Apple Inc.'s iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, with a version for Android phones expected by the first quarter of 2012.
PhoneFactor of Overland Park, Kansas says its products typically work by sending out-of-band text messages or phone calls to users about banking activity.
The application pushes a notification about such things as cash transfers to the smartphone screen. Users then tap on a button that lets them authenticate the transaction, reject it or report it as a fraud.
"Most other authorization applications available for the smartphone work like a token," Sarah Fender, vice president of marketing and product management for PhoneFactor says. That makes them susceptible to malware exploits, such as man-in-the-middle attacks that can divert transfers, Fender says.
"The benefit here is it provides one more method to communicate with a customer and to get them to participate in the out of band authentication experience," Julie Conroy McNelley, senior analyst for Aite Group, wrote in an email.
Out-of-band authentication can only work to the degree that a user participates in the experience, McNelley says.
"Apps provide the opportunity to plant the notification front-and-center in front of the user the next time they look at their mobile device," McNelley says.
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