Redwood City, California, 15 Sep 2008
Clickatell, leading provider of global mobile messaging solutions, today announced that top US financial institutions and technology providers who serve the FI market, including Visa, S1 Postilion, and RSA Data Security, are trusting Clickatell to provide actionable financial alerts and notifications to millions of cellphones via SMS.
The demand for immediate access to personal financial information and mobile transactions is growing rapidly around the world and in the US marketplace. Text messaging is the easiest, most universal and cost-effective way to provide critical and timely financial information to mobile customers. The Wireless Association reports 363 billion SMS texts were sent in 2007, up from 81 billion in 2005, an upward trend that continues to see tremendous growth in the US and across the world.
Red Gillen, Celent's senior banking analyst, added: "Internationally, we've seen that banks have already gone through the tough phases of trying to see what works. They've implemented the applications and the WAP solutions, but a common thread across most banks is the use of SMS, because it provides a solution that is customer-friendly."
"At a time when the 'I want it now' state of mind is prevalent, banks need to provide customers with an easy to use, convenient and ubiquitous mobile banking solution, giving customers the account information they need anytime, anywhere. SMS doesn't require loading, discovery initiating or learning - just type, send, receive," commented Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell. "Needing to keep existing customers and looking to acquire new market share, banks must offer a simple, relevant mobile solution - today. Text messaging is the perfect way to give customers the most needed mobile banking services such as balance inquiries, identity monitoring, transaction alerts, money transfers, notifications, account monitoring, ATM locaters, and more.
Leading organisations, Clickatell establish mobile banking standard
Visa, having recently unveiled its "Transaction Notification" pilot, is counting on Clickatell to deploy its mobile text and e-mail notifications to Visa cardholders in partnership with leading banks. Offering an early mobile warning service via Clickatell SMS, Visa is giving cardholders extra confidence when making purchases with their credit card by providing them with the option of receiving e-mail and mobile text alerts at the time of payment. This innovative service provides cardholders with real-time alerts to mobile phones as well as e-mail, making it possible for cardholders to pay close attention to account activity as they transact in real-time.
Clickatell has partnered with S1 Enterprise and Postilion to provide on-demand text-based mobile services to millions. S1 Enterprise works with more than 100 banks and three million consumer, small business, and corporate users to help them access and manage financial information. Postilion works with over 1 500 banks in more than 50 countries and has led the development of self-service financial transactions and payments, including advanced transactions such as prepay, through Internet access points, ATMs, POS terminals, and phones. Now, customers will be able to take advantage of on-demand, mobile capabilities of SMS banking and payment services, including account balance inquiries, funds transfers, account alerts, and person-to-person (P2P) payments via Clickatell SMS anytime, anywhere.
In addition, Clickatell recently announced a partnership with market-leading RSA, the Security Division of EMC, to enable the delivery of two-factor authentication to mobile devices, via SMS. Clickatell is positioned to provide two-factor authentication directly to cellphones. Banking and enterprise customers can receive an RSA-generated one-time password via text message directly to their cellphone, which allows for immediate and secure access to critical account information without requiring physical tokens to be assigned or software to be installed.
Given the ubiquity of mobile phones across the world, leading financial services organisations are providing interactive financial messaging via SMS to acquire new customers, lower operational costs and ultimately increase the bottom line. Financial institutions are inundated with large volumes of routine customer requests for account status, balance checks, money movement confirmation, transaction verification, and more. As customers become increasingly mobile, SMS is the most effective way to connect with them at a fraction of the cost of traditional channels commonly used to interact, such as bank tellers, ATMs, IVRs, and 24x7 live agent call centres. Text messaging provides a way for financial institutions to reach their customers via their mobile phone at lower costs and with greater efficiency, intimacy and relevance.
"If you've ever tried accessing a mobile Web site or downloading a mobile application for banking - you know how inconvenient and aggravating it can be today. People don't bother when what they really need is a quick balance check or confirmation of an important transaction. These major US brands made the vital decision to invest in text messaging for their mobile strategy to increase their chance for success - which confirms what others internationally already knew - it does not make sense to offer complex mobile applications initially, go for ubiquity and simplicity. Clickatell is the leader in mobile messaging for financial services," concluded de Villiers.
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