ANZ Bank has launched a new Java-based mobile banking application to give ANZ customers the opportunity to perform a selection of banking transactions from their mobile phones.
Registered ANZ customers will be able to make payments and transfer money from their accounts using M-Banking and request statements as SMS messages.
To ensure the security of its customers' accounts, ANZ have implemented SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption similar to regular Internet banking, and transactions from an account can only be performed on a single pre-registered mobile handset and only after password authentication.
According to Brian Hartzer, ANZ Group managing director of the bank's Personal Division, more than 95 percent of Australians use mobile phones and he believes the success of M-Banking lies in its simplicity and convenience.
"Australia has one of the highest rates of technology adoption in the world, so we expect there will be demand for this service," said Hartzer.
M-Banking is available now and is free for ANZ customers until 31 December, 2008, after which ANZ will review the fee structure for its service.
While ANZ is the first Australian bank to launch this service, other banks including the National Australia Bank and Bank of Queensland are preparing to launch similar services by the end of the year.
I just tried this on the iPhone, doesn't work because of it's inability to download and run Java applets. Hmm, so much for 'No one uses Java any more'!