CBA broadens mobile banking reach

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) today announced support for mobile phone banking on any internet-enabled device.

CBA's iPhone app (Credit: CBA)

The bank said its NetBank customers could log on to its mobile site via any mobile phone that supports web browsing to check account balances, transfer funds to third parties, use BPAY, and check trading balances.

ANZ started the mobile race in January last year with two mobile offerings: M-Banking, which offers limited transactions on non-iPhone mobiles, and ANZ Mobile Banking for iPhones and the iPod Touch, which includes a broader array of services available on the web such as BPAY.

Westpac followed suit in October last year; however, it has only tested mobile banking on the Apple platform. Other platforms such as Windows Mobile or Nokia's smartphone operating system, Symbian, can access Westpac's banking page, according to Westpac, though neither have been tested.

National Australia Bank (NAB) remains well behind in terms of functionality — NAB's current mobile banking only supports SMS transactions and account balance checks.

To use CBA's new mobile offering customers must be registered to NetBank and sign up to its two-factor authentication security systems, NetCode SMS or NetCode Token Security, the bank said.