During the last 12 months, 11% of Finns aged between 16 and 60 years have used mobile banking services and 30% would like to use them in the future. Mobile service is seen as a complementary channel and will not, however, replace other service channels in the near future*.

Mobile services enable customers to manage their personal finances wherever they are. The mobile phone is like a pocket-sized personal banking advisor. - Online banks have allowed people to manage their banking transactions using computers while OP-mobile will allow people to do the same thing anywhere securely and easily, explains Kristian Luoma, Development Manager.

OP-Pohjola will launch its OP-mobile savings and investments services onto the market, first for iPhone but later also for Android and Windows Phone. These services are specifically designed for experienced investors willing to track stock prices and follow news in support of their investment decisions.

- This service is aimed at providing customers with a real-time market place. Through this application, customers can make buy and sell orders, monitor their book-entry accounts, read Pohjola Research analyses, stock exchange releases and news from the Kauppalehti business newspaper, and keep their own monitoring list of the stocks of their choice, explains Niko Mikkola, Development Manager.

OP-mobile will help lower the barrier to buy stocks. Customer-focused user experience plays a key role, and the service will guide the customer step by step, if necessary.

- Customers will have the opportunity to calculate the number of stocks they would like to buy with a certain amount of money, says Mikkola.

Just before the summer, OP-Pohjola also launched OP-mobile service for Windows Phone. This service enables its users to monitor their accounts, track the prices of the stocks of major Finnish corporations, search the nearest bank branches and Otto ATMs, and pay bills using the phone's camera that ra that reads th phone's camera that ra that reads the barcode.

The application can be downloaded from App Store.

* TNS Gallup conducted its Mobile Life 2012 Survey in 58 countries with 48,000 interviewees aged between 16 and 60 years. The number of interviewees in Finland totalled 5,000.