Prepaid card outfit M-Cube has lunched a mobile banking application for consumers using pre-paid cards in the UK and Ireland.
Subscribers to the service can carry out a range of transactions directly from their mobile phones without the need to sign into their account via a computer. The secure SMS-based application enables cardholders to activate cards, arrange account top-ups, check balances, order a mini-statement, and report lost or stolen cards. The app also includes facilities for live chat and foreign currency transfer.
It is being released initially to members of the M-Cube Ryanair Pre-paid Programme, which claims to be the largest mass market multi-brand pre-paid programme in the UK and Ireland.
Mashallah H. M. Ali, chief executive, M-Cube, says: "The pre-paid payments industry simply cannot afford to sit on the sidelines whilst other financial services providers seize this opportunity to inject additional depth and breadth into their customer relationships. By providing our clients with a key application, we are also securing our position at the forefront of this fast-evolving sector.
Developed in partnership with information security experts Network Security Solutions (NSS) the system uses the firm's proprietary mobile text messaging security backbone, Xecure Message Service (XMS), for encrypted message transfer. M-Cube is the exclusive license holder for the product in the UK.
The application is available for mobile phones supporting Java (MIDP 2.0) and Wireless Messaging API (WMA).