Group Executive People and Corporate Services, Daniel Musson, said the Bank's new mobile solution was unique because it actually linked customers to internet banking through their mobile phone, rather than being a separate application that customers had to download.

"BOQ customers can now use their mobile phone to check their balances, pay bills, transfer money across their own accounts and into other people's, and authorise transactions on company accounts. And they don't have to download any memory-hungry new applications to their phone to do so!

"Our customers can just set up Mobile banking through their internet banking profile, and they're ready to go.

"And in addition to the easy set-up and user-friendly design of our Mobile banking service, it will be protected by the same high level of security employed on our Internet banking service, including transaction verification via BOQ's security token."

Mr Musson said the tight integration between mobile and the Internet is perfectly suited to the banking needs of small to medium businesses.

"Business customers may have an office junior creating a transaction, but the manager needs to authorise it.

"BOQ's Mobile banking gives them the convenience to do that over the phone. Transactions set up via the Internet on the desktop will be accessible by mobile, so the manager can approve a payment on the road through a mobile phone, without having to find a computer and log in to Internet banking."

"It's just another way BOQ is trying to make banking more convenient for our customers, and I think it will have the same impact on customer behaviour as Internet and Telephone Banking. It really will revolutionise the way people do their banking."

Mr Musson said the Bank was also launching a mobile-friendly version of the BOQ website, so users can access a 'light' version of the Bank's website.

"Customers can also use BOQ's Mobile Web to access the latest features and information such as product detaiails, announcements, and our branch and ATM locator tool."

BOQ Mobile banking functionality
BOQ's Mobile banking system will allow customers to:

Check balances

Check transaction history

Check their account details

Make payments

Pay a bill

Transfer money

Have a receipt emailed to them

Check their payment history

Authorise payments

Receive account alerts

BOQ Mobile website

Branch and ATM locator

Product information (personal and business)

Latest news

The technology

Bank of Queensland will use BankLink Mobile, an easy-to-use, browser-based mobile banking solution provided by Sandstone.

BankLink Mobile works on any mobile phone with an SSL capable browser, including PDAs and Blackberry devices often used by business people. This enables access to a much wider customer base than is possible with older Java Applet-based solutions that have to be certified on specific handset models.

This removes the usability barriers that have hindered past mobile banking efforts and means that BOQ customers can use their existing mobile handsets without requiring special SIM cards or software downloads.