Smart Financial Mobilizes
HOUSTON-Smart Financial Credit Union has launched mobile banking services for its 78,000 members.
Since rollout at the beginning of May, Smart Financial said it has seen more than 3,100 members sign up to use mobile banking in the first month. Approximately 44% of those have been categorized as 'Power Users'-using the service more than 10 times a month.
Mitek Gets 4 New Patents
SAN DIEGO-Mitek Systems reported it has been granted four new patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its popular "Point, Shoot and Deposit" mobile deposit technology.
The new patents broaden the protection on the company's original patent for mobile deposit granted in August 2010. The technology allows individuals to use the camera on their smart phones to photograph and then deposit checks from anywhere, and is compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry and Google Android devices.
The company, which provides white-label technology to a number of vendors for resale of its mobile deposit solution, is now waiting for patent protection on its Mobile Photo Bill Pay technology. The Mitek mobile deposit technology is currently used by NCR; BankServ (formerly NetDeposit); RDM Corporation; 3i-Infotech (formerly J&B Software); Fiserv; Jack Henry & Associates; FIS; Wausau Financial Systems; CheckAlt Payment Solutions (formerly Skyline's DirectFED); Secure Payment Systems, Bluepoint Solutions; VSoft and Ensenta.
Fiserv Signs 375 FIs
BROOKFIELD, Wis.-Fiserv reported that more than 375 financial institutions have now agreed to use Mobile Money from Fiserv. Almost 200 of these banks and credit unions are already live on the service, a figure that has more than doubled within the last 12 months. Consumer usage of the service has soared as well, with the number of consumers using the service growing more than 600% within the last six months, Fiserv reported.
Fiserv reported that its customer institutions have indicated they plan to increase their investments in the mobile channel. Of nearly 2,000 clients polled during the Fiserv Focus client conference in April 2011, more than 74% said that they planned to increase their investments in mobile financial services during the next 12 months.
Virtual Wallet Takes Off
PITTSBURGH-PNC Financial Services Group reported that is opening 6,000 new Virtual Wallet accounts per week, chairman and chief executive James Rohr said.
Rohr cited these signups for the online-focused Virtual Wallet account as an example of the growth in consumers' use of electronic banking services, according to American Banker, an affiliate of Credit Union Journal. PNC began offering the Virtual Wallet account in 2008. It is a package of three linked accounts for checking, short-term savings and long-term savings.
"It's just growing like mad," Rohr said at the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York.
Rohr also said that the company recently rolled out a feature for its mobile banking customers that allows them to deposit checks using their smartphone's camera. The feature is available on PNC's mobile banking apps for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad 2.
