Consumers’ near-insatiable addiction for mobile technologies has helped to revolutionize a number of spaces, including the banking industry, which has spent the last year working on “mobile wallet” software that encourages users to make point-of-sale purchases using just their cell phone.
Smartphone-based payment systems are being developed by the likes of Google, PayPal (News - Alert), Amazon and even a consortium of carriers like AT&T Mobility, Verizon and T-Mobile, who have partnered with credit card companies Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express (News 
- Alert) to launch their own initiative.
Although the enabling technology – near-field communication (NFC) – has yet to become ubiquitous, other companies are already making the next step forward, creating banks that don’t rely on credit cards or physical braches at all.
Movenbank, which describes itself as the world’s first everyday cardless bank, launched its alpha test services toward the end of last year and is expected to commence commercial operations in the second half of 2012. The bank will operate on its “no plastic” vision, which means that customers will embrace their smartphone as their primary payment medium and their access to everyday banking, Movenbank founder and chairman, Brett King, noted in a statement.
“Banking is no longer about a place you go to, it is something you do,” he added. “At Movenbank we’re focused on building a better mobile bank that works for every customer, everyday, no matter where they are or what they need.”
In a recent interview with PYMNTS.com, Scott Bales, Movenbank’s chief mobile officer, suggested that banking will be the next domino to fall in line with the new mobile lifestyle of today’s consumers.
Cash and checks are “dead,” Bales told the website, and mobile commerce is “everywhere.” As for NFC? It is “not yet understood by bankers, but [it] will change the world,” Bales added.
Looking at recent projections, Bales may be right. Research firm Gartner (News - Alert) expects the market for mobile payments to increase to more than $1.1 trillion by 2014, up seven fold from current numbers.
In addition, the folks down at In-Stat (News - Alert) have speculated that the growth of the mobile payment industry – along with declining technology costs – will help push global annual shipments of NFC chips to over 1.2 billion by 2015. Within the next four years, the technology is expected to reach 30 percent global penetration.
Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
