Nigeria hosts conference

The African Banking Technology conference is on its way to Lagos, Nigeria in May, says allAfrica.com.

A major issue to be discussed will be whether or not the e-banking channels have been delivering on their promise for all stakeholders. The theme of this year's event is "Competing in a borderless world".

The event will be hosted by AITEC Africa, and will take place at the Eko Hotel from 6 to 7 May.

SK Telecom will set up a joint venture with Citigroup to sell mobile banking and payment solutions in North America and Asia, says The Korea Times.

The two firms will invest $8 million each to launch Mobile Money Venture, which will be based in San Francisco.

The joint venture plans to provide various mobile money transaction services, such as SK Telecom's Moneta service in Korea, from the second half of this year in major American cities and Hong Kong.

HSBC will continue to increase investment in technology, despite its profits being hit by a $17.2 billion write-down on bad debts from its US business, says ZDNet.

The write-down cast a shadow over the bank's 10% increase in pre-tax profit for the last year to $24.2 billion.

But HSBC says technology is the key to creating better banking products and also adding new customers in emerging markets.