Gemalto Expands Mobile Banking Availabilty

Gemalto says that it is planning to expand the availability of its mobile banking services to markets in South Asia. The firm has been working with India-based technology partner mChek since last September to offer mobile banking services with telecom operators in India and Sri Lanka.

Tan Teck Lee, President of Gemalto Asia said: "mChek has demonstrated an exceptional platform that is flexible and scalable for a broad range of mobile banking and payment applications. By leveraging Gemalto's worldwide partnership programme, we can partner with mChek to better serve our customers be they telecom operators or subscribers. Together we aim to bring new levels of security and convenience beyond India and Sri Lanka into markets such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines."

Facilitating secured transactions on the mobile phone

The rapid adoption of mobile phones around the world, notably in emerging countries, provides an opportunity for the telecom and banking industries to leverage the uniqueness of the SIM card (i.e. a network-enabled personal security device) to provide a range of banking services. While some mobile operators have implemented Stored-Value Account (SVA) wallets, in most countries, banking regulations do not allow non-banks to accept deposits or limit the scope and value of operator managed SVA wallets.

The mChek platform addresses these two issues and provides a solution for telecom operators through Gemalto SIM cards. In a unified environment, mChek enables a broad range of services, including mobile banking, two-factor authentication, secure message delivery, cross-border and domestic money transfer and mobile payments using SVA wallets, direct debit and credit/debit card support.

Posted to the site on 2nd February 2009