Imagine paying for your dinner without getting up from your seat in the restaurant, or even closing a business deal, all with a few simple clicks on your mobile phone.
You don't need to imagine, since such services are already within reach - mobile banking has already been introduced to the Jordanian market.
This all-Jordanian effort, which encompasses the preparation of software and applications needed for mobile banking, was put together by the local firm Access to Arabia.
Omar Khouri, executive chairman of the communications and software development company, told the Jordan Times that the company believes the world is moving rapidly towards mobility and easy access to information and transactions.
Khouri, whose company specializes in using cutting-edge technology such as Internet and mobile phones to link service providers to their customers, stressed the basic need of such companies to hook up with clients.
On this basis, he said, Access to Arabia had taken the initiative to introduce on the market the technical means to provide the service of mobile banking, adding that the service was already available at two banks in Jordan.
"Our first collaboration was with the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (HBTF), which accepted our prototype of the software needed for the service, and started offering [mobile banking] to the bank's clients over a month ago," Khouri said.
He said the Jordan Kuwait Bank (JKB) collaborating with Access to Arabia introduced mobile banking for its clients too, all in collaboration with mobile phone providers.
Mohammed Abu Zeid, HBTF's assistant general manager for marketing, said that while using a mobile "a client can inquire about his account transactions, make transfers from one account to the other, inquire about the last ten movements and transactions that took place on his HBTF account, make payments on bills... access information on currency rates... and the bank's interest rates on the Jordanian dinar or other foreign currencies." He added that this was only the first stage of this service, and that HBTF planned to develop the service further, in line with its strategy to move towards electronic transactions.
The new developments would depend on "customer needs studies conducted by the bank," Abu Zeid said.
For his part, JKB Marketing Director Suheil Turky said that his bank was very optimistic about the horizons this new service was expected to open in banking transactions.
In addition to services similar to those mentioned above, the JKB provides clients with the ability to make payments on electricity, water, and phone bills through mobile banking, as well as internal account-to-account transfers.
The "gateway to facilitate mobile banking" is provided by mobile phone providers, according to Samer Bazian, the firm's director of marketing.
"We provide a leased line to the bank to which all calls are transferred. All transactions use the most sophisticated encryption codes available to insure the security of the transactions," Bazian said.
He added that this transaction was much cheaper than any other kind of banking if one considered the cost of going to the bank to make a transaction in person and the charge for the call to use mobile banking services. ― ( Jordan Times )
By Yacoub Abu Ghosh
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
