The trend is to go simple & easy and so mobile payments using cellphones is on the rise. Our question to you: is this desirable?

In fact, this form of banking has been possible for a while now. An example: since 1998 the African company Celtel allows people to transfer phone credit to another phone using text messages. This has proven a very popular service.

Another example is the recently launched Safaricom payment service, which is almost identical to Rabo SMS payments in the Netherlands. Customers can transfer money to any other person, regardless of their bank.

Virtual wallet
How it works? Customers open a virtual wallet in which they deposit an amount of money. Next, they send a text message to the bank in which they specify the cellphone number of the receiving person and the amount of money they want to transfer. When the transaction is confirmed, the money is automatically wired to the other person.

Other applications used in the Netherlands are more limited in their functionality. Payter allows users to pay by holding their phone next to a special tag on Payter locations. Users of Paydutch can transfer money to other people, but only through a middle-man. So these services are a little less advanced.

Your opinion?
Recent spurts of innovation show once again the swiftness of developments in the world of mobile banking. Our question to you: is this desirable?

Banking will increasingly become an individualistic and impersonal affair and the physical branch office seems further away than ever. Other issues are of course the security of mobile banking applications and their resilience against fraud. And where does it end? Will we be able to authorize payments using only our voice? It would sure save us from the strain on our fingers.