Bank of Queensland (BoQ) is the latest Australian financial institution to enter the mobile banking market and says it will launch a browser-based service, called BankLink Mobile, in the first half of the year.
The new BankLink Mobile service will be based on technology developed by Australian software vendor Sandstone. BoQ says the service will work with any SSL capable browser.
The service will enable BoQ Web banking customers to use handsets to make payments, pay bills, transfer funds and request receipts. Customers can also use the service to access balances, transaction histories and account details. An SMS-based ATM location service is also included.
Security will be the same as for Internet banking, with tokens used for transaction verification, says the bank.
Dan Musson, group executive, people and corporate services, BoQ, says: "Because our mobile banking platform uses a simple browser-based approach, we will be able to reach a huge number of our customers."
BoQ has not revealed the cost of the service.
News of the BoQ service comes just weeks after National Australia Bank (NAB) said it was launching an SMS-based mobile banking service that will enable customers to access account information using their mobile handsets.
ANZ has also outlined plans to pilot a Java mobile banking system. In addition to the text-based functions, the ANZ service will enable enable customers to transfer funds to other people.