Saturday, August 08, 2009

Innovation Trends In Mobile Banking

The wonders of the markets is that the competition to satisfy consumers (and thereby profit from it) function as a major pillar to technological innovation.

Take for instance, in the realm of mobile banking innovative products and services are rapidly being introduced.

Check deposits, money transfers and bills payment have expanded beyond the computers and can now be accessed through the mobile phone.

This should extrapolate to added mobility, greater financial access and savings (time, effort and resources) for consumers, as well as, efficiency and added productivity for the economy.

From mysanantonio.com, (HT: Mark Perry)

``The San Antonio-based company is testing the feature for its iPhone application among its employees and plans to release it to the public soon.

``It is similar to USAA's Deposit@Home program launched in 2006 that allows its customers to deposit checks from home using a computer and a scanner.

“To my knowledge, they will be the first bank to offer it broadly,” said Bob Meara, senior analyst with Celent's banking group in Atlanta. “I'm aware of some very small pilots going on with banks that plan to offer it to their business clients.”

``In mid-May, USAA released an iPhone app that allows people to access their accounts, pay bills, transfer funds and locate an ATM.



``With the application, USAA members simply sign the back of any check and then use their iPhone camera to take a picture of the check's front side and back side.

``They enter some information into the application — including the amount and where it's to be deposited — and then the funds are credited to the designated account.

``Most checks will get immediate availability of funds,” Dennes said."

Innovation, according to Murray Rothbard (Man Economy and State, Chapter 8) is one of the processes adopted by entrepreneurs.

``Entrepreneurial activities are derived from the presence of un­certainty. The entrepreneur is an adjuster of the discrepancies of the market toward greater satisfaction of the desires of the con­sumers. When he innovates he is also an adjuster, since he is ad­justing the discrepancies of the market as they present them­selves in the potential of a new method or product...

``By launching and producing more of the new process, he is pur­suing the entrepreneurial function of adjustment to consumer de­sires, i.e., what he estimates consumer desires will be. If he suc­ceeds in his estimate and reaps a profit, then he and others will continue in this line of activity until the income discrepancy is eliminated and there is no “pure” profit or loss in this area."

In other words, innovation thrives best in free markets.

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