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Alltel teamed with mFoundry for it's Alltel Wallet, consolidated mobile banking, commerce and commerce platform. It includes many U.S. banks.

The platform has pre-built moudules for payments  and other features to allow for third party development.

"Recent research has shown that early adopter consumers are willing to switch mobile carriers to gain access to mobile payments solutions," said Drew Sievers, CEO and co-founder of mFoundry. "We are very pleased to team with Alltel in creating the Alltel Wallet and anticipate that this new application will help drive adoption of mobile financial solutions in the U.S."

The Alltel Wallet will launch in early 2009. Alltel Wireless recently launched Alltel Mobile Banking, a free service giving its customers mobile access to accounts from many of the nation's leading financial institutions. The Alltel Wallet will provide one-stop access to those financial institutions as well as access to many other payment services.

Mobile banking company, Firethorn Holdings has upgraded its mobile banking platform with more consumer features, marketing capabilities and customizing.

Expanded functionality will include typical mobile banking such as balance inquiries, funds transfers and bill pay, as well as features that provide new marketing opportunities for financial institutions, operators and consumers.

Financial institutions also will have the ability to tailor the account information displayed on the customer's mobile device for each type of account. By customizing what customers can access, banks and credit unions are able drive users to the most pertinent account information.

AT&T and Firethorn's mobile banking application for iPhone is now available. Their mobile banking lets users manage their finances, including checking balances and transaction history, transferring funds, receiving offers, viewing and paying bills, and tracking rewards points.

The service is now available for all Firethorn financial institution partners, including America First Credit Union, Arvest Bank, BancorpSouth, Carolina First, FirstBank, Mercantile Bank, SunTrust, Synovus, USAA and Wachovia. Additionally, iPhone customers will have access to any new

The Mobile Banking on AT&T application is now available as a free download from Apple's App Store on iPhone or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore/.

A new report from Aite Group, LLC reveals potential co-opportunities for banks and mobile operators to work together toward consumer acceptance of mobile banking services. The report shows that increased involvement on the side of the operator could lead to greater opportunities to market their mobile data plans.

IBC is now offering a free iPhone banking app through the iPhone App store.

"At IBC, we constantly look for ways to increase convenience by offering our customers services such as IBC Mobile," IBC Chairman and CEO Dennis E. Nixon says. "By adding the iPhone to our list of compatible devices, we are responding to a market demand, offering the most technologically advanced services paired with quick and easy access."

SMobile Systems ( www.smobilesystems.com), the leading developer of mobile security solutions, now offers Secure Mobile Banking and Trading (SMBT) endpoint security solution for financial institutions and consumers.

Sprint customers can now caccess their bank accounts and , send payments PayPal to friends and family from most web-enabled Sprint phones with MyMoneyManager.

MyMoneyManager is a downloadable application that enables Sprint customers with BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank and PNC Bank accounts to conduct banking functions right on their phones, including checking balances, paying bills and finding nearby branches and ATMs.

MyMoneyManager also includes PayPal, making Sprint the first carrier to provide customers easy access to their PayPal accounts, allowing them to send money to almost anyone quickly via their Sprint phone.

To access, Sprint customers should go to www.sprint.com/mymoneymanager for download instructions for participating banks. Customers should then visit their bank's Web site to register and begin the application download process.

ClairMail, Inc., announced that Alerus Financial, a Midwestern-based financial services company offering banking and wealth management services, selected ClairMail to power its new mobile banking offering - Alerus Mobile Access.

Alerus Mobile Access will enable Alerus Financial bank customers to connect to their accounts via text messaging (SMS) or mobile web. The service is free to all Alerus customers and allows users to access any Alerus account, including checking, savings, money market, CDs and loans. Customers will be offered a host of secure banking capabilities and alerts on their mobile phones through ClairMail's secure solution.

ClairMail's mobile banking and payments solution delivers 2-way mobile banking functionality on all mobile phones and across all three mobile user interface types - messaging, mobile web and client applications - known as the "2-way triple play."

Visa and eight North American Banks: (PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity) have agreed to initiate a pilot program with up to a total of 2,000 participants to test the delivery of real-time notification alerts on Visa accounts.

The program, is designed to enhance the consumer payment experience by alerting cardholders in real-time or near real-time of transaction activity on their Visa account - typically within seconds rather than hours or days.

Participants will receive notification alerts from Visa through email or Short Message Service (SMS) delivered directly to their mobile devices. The service allows Visa cardholders to set thresholds that will trigger a transaction alert.

T hrough the alert received via email or SMS text, cardholders can verify the transaction details, and if the transaction appears to be irregular, can immediately contact their bank to help stop further transactions on the card.

The service is designed to help cardholders keep closer track of their transactions and spending levels as they go about their daily routine. According to a recent Javelin Strategy & Research report, consumers view timely alerts as a valuable resource to help detect fraud.

Verizon Wireless customers with the BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Pearl8130 and BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphones can now use Verizon Wireless' Mobile Banking application. Also available on a number of popular Get It Now-capable phones, Mobile Banking offers customers the following capabilities and features on their handsets:

• Account Balance and Transaction History -- Get account balances and account transaction history.
• Transfers -- Transfer funds between eligible accounts at the same financial institution.
• Bill Payment -- View and pay bills when enrolled in their financial institution's Bill Pay service.
• Mobile History -- View the last five transactions successfully completed on their mobile devices.

Verizon Wireless customers must be account holders of a financial institution that offers Mobile Banking to enroll in the application. Currently Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust, USAA, Synovus, America First Credit Union (AFCU), Arvest, Bancorp South, FirstBank, South Financial and BECU offer the service. Once customers sign up for Mobile Banking through their financial institutions' online banking site, they will receive an eight digit secure initialization code that will allow them to access the Mobile Banking application on their phones.

The time is right for banking, money transfers and online payments to make the move to mobile handsets and services concludes IMS Research in a new report. Improved coverage, greater uptake of feature phones and smartphones, higher mobile penetration and service availability have all contributed to this. As much as anything, greater demand from consumers, operators and financial stakeholders has seen the number of application developers and platform providers all multiply in numbers in recent years.

The number of active users of mobile banking and payment services is estimated to grow by 662%.

IBC Bank, a subsidiary of International Bancshares launched a new bilingual mobile banking application from mFoundry, a provider of mobile banking and payments.

IBC leveraged mFoundry's mobile financial services platform to launch this bilingual mobile banking application. IBC is offering its mobile banking application as a free service to customers in both English and Spanish languages.

According to mFoundry, with IBC's mobile banking application, customers can have on-demand, secure access to IBC checking, savings and loan accounts. Customers can view account balances, search and retrieve account transaction histories, transfer money between accounts, pay bills, and search for IBC branches and ATMs. The application is available across carriers on a wide array of handsets including mass-market devices as well as BlackBerry devices.

Dennis Nixon, chairman of International Bancshares, said: "We are very pleased to offer bilingual mobile banking services to our ethnically diverse customer base. mFoundry provided us the most flexibility and the best end user experience in the industry so we're anticipating great adoption and usage of these services by our customers."

Washington Mutual has launched mobile banking delivering account information: real-time account balances, real-time transaction history and branch/ATM locations.

WaMu customers can benefit from the mobile banking services by logging into their accounts online at www.wamu.com and opting into the free service. Mobile banking is easy and offered free by WaMu (customer's wireless provider may charge standard fees).

"We develop products and services based on what makes sense and is of value to our customers," said Richard Blunck, SVP, and Director of eCommerce for WaMu. "Internal and external research tells us that the SMS text banking tool that we've launched is an application consumers find valuable because it is a fast, simple and affordable way to keep track of the most important account information -- account balance and recent

Satyam Computer Services Ltd., a global consulting and IT services provider, announced that it has entered into an alliance with Tyfone, a global provider of mobile financial services, infrastructure and fully-integrated mobile payments capabilities.

The alliance combines Satyam's deep domain expertise and system integration experience with Tyfone's complete mobile financial services infrastructure, and will provide institutions with enhanced solutions and technology.

Tyfone's technology suite currently encompasses an independent, issuer-branded solution for secure mobile banking, mobile contactless payments, mobile retail, mobile remittance, and mobile identity management services, enabling institutions to communicate quickly with their customers via mobile phones.

Tyfone's patented technology enables secure, end-to-end communications and has the adaptability to provide plug-and-play implementation with current core banking, internet banking, and payment systems.

Huntington customers can now stay on top of their finances with Huntington Mobile Banking, a new banking service.. Huntington Mobile Banking is a secure, convenient and easy way for Huntington customers to access their bank accounts anytime, anywhere, using a cell phone, smart phone or any other mobile device with browser access.

Existing Huntington Online Banking customers can log in today using their existing username and password at http://mobile.huntington.com and have free* access to:

• View up-to-the-minute account balances and history on Checking Accounts, Savings Accounts, Lines of Credit and Loans.
• Transfer funds seamlessly between Huntington accounts.
• Pay your existing bill pay payees with on-time delivery guaranteed.
• Find the nearest Huntington location on the go.

Firethorn Holdings LLC, a Qualcomm company today announced that it has added BECU (formally known as Boeing Employees' Credit Union) to its growing roster of financial institution customers. The nation's fourth largest credit union, BECU plans on launching the Firethorn mobile wallet application in the first quarter of 2009. By collaborating with Firethorn, BECU will enable its members to check their account balances, transfer funds and view and pay bills through their mobile devices. Future service capabilities will include more advanced mobile transactions and mobile commerce.

With more than 550,000 members and more than $8.3 billion in assets, BECU is the largest credit union in Washington state and is one of the top five financial cooperatives in the country. BECU has more than 45 branches and more than 150 ATMs located throughout Western Washington.