New mobile SMS banking service MoBank launches for iPhone

MoBank is one of a huge number of new m-finance services. Launching early in July, this service connects directly to one of your existing bank accounts. You register a credit or debit card with the service, and all further transactions are done using a secure PIN. This means that no sensitive details are ever stored on your device.
MoBank connects through a transaction system from txttrans - which allow items from cinema tickets to books to be paid for over your mobile. Bill pay options, p2p transactions and account management are all in the pipeline, but aren’t currently available. Speaking of “not currently available”, the service can only currently used on iPhone. Blackberry and Android support are on the way.

From the release:

Russell Sheffield, CEO of txttrans, says: “Mobile Internet use is growing at such a pace that within four years, mobile payments and banking will be the norm for an entire generation of people. MoBank and txttrans are right at the beginning of that curve. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be involved.”

Steve Townend, CEO and founder of MoBank, says: “These days, people – especially the under 30s – expect to be able to run their lives on the move. A mobile phone is the one device most people couldn’t do without. Now you can run your banking, shopping and money management from it, too. It’s about taking control of when, where and how you want to do things.”

What we think?

This service looks good, but it has pros and cons when compared to the exploding m-finance market. The main problem is that it’s only accessible via iPhone. Even when Android and Blackberry support comes on-line, there will still be huge numbers of devices that can’t use it. I do like the PIN system - it keeps your credit card details away from transactions, like PayPal.