FNBO Direct began offering POPmoney on January 18 through its site www.fnbodirect.com.

POPmoney is the first email and mobile person-to-person payment service for financial institutions allowing customers to send an electronic payment directly from their online bank, by simply using the recipient's email address, mobile phone number or bank account information. Likewise, the recipient of the payment can receive the funds directly into his or her bank account either at a bank that offers POPmoney, such as FNBO Direct, or at POPmoney.com. POPmoney includes support for text messaging, WAP and downloadable mobile applications, enabling financial institutions to extend their P2P functionality to mobile phones. FNBO Direct joins a handful of financial institutions nationwide that recently launched POPmoney to their customers.

"FNBO Direct prides itself on giving customers outstanding and innovative products and services," said Rolland Johannsen, president of FNBO Direct. "POPmoney provides our customers a simple, secure and convenient way to send money directly from their FNBO Direct accounts to anyone. We are excited to be among the first banks to offer this new service to our customers."

"FNBO Direct continues to be one of the leading innovators in the industry and we are thrilled that they have chosen to offer POPmoney to their customers," said Neil Platt, Senior Vice President and General Manager, US Banking, CashEdge Inc. "There is clearly a growing demand among consumers for email and mobile payment services provided by their financial institutions, and we look forward to working with FNBO Direct and our other clients to deliver this capability to their customers."

POPmoney leverages the proven reliability, security and robustness of CashEdge's money movement platform, which in 2008 processed nearly $50 billion in online funds transfers for bank customers. For current CashEdge clients, POPmoney is a simple upgrade of their existing TransferNow service.