UK m-banking outfit Monilink is reporting a surge of interest in mobile payments, with over half a million pounds transferred by users in the past month.
The Monilink mobile money service is currently available to over half of UK adults including customers of Alliance & Leicester, first direct, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank.
Customer surveys indicate that the most requested new services are the ability to move money to third party accounts, such as topping-up travel cards, charging electricity and gas pre-payment accounts and paying-off credit card balances.
The vendor is currently expanding its portfolio to offer services for the most advanced smartphone devices, including the latest touch screen handsets. It says the ongoing development of services specifically designed for smartphones demonstrates the growing acceptance of mobile money services by consumers across the UK.
John Milliken, managing director of Monilink believes that big bank backing for the service is crucial to user acceptance.
"Consumers we talk to are still reluctant to give secure information to brands they haven't heard of before," he says. "In the UK the successful mobile money services are all presented to the consumer by the banks themselves which I believe is the crucial difference between the mass-market services here and some of those offered in some other places in the world."
Monilink recently introduced facilities for intra account transfer and international money mover services over recent months.
Says Milliken: "I look forward to continuing this trend with the announcement of our new payment services, including some of those that our customers have requested."