Smartphone-wielding consumers are always on the mobile move–posting to Facebook, shopping via apps, making commerce connections and more.  This infographic from Mobclix breaks down what happens in a (mobile) 60 seconds.

A recent survey of 1,527 mobile banking users found a gaping void in the typical mobile banking application — a lack of technical support, tutorials and advice. Asked about the one improvement they’d most like to see in their mobile banking application, 60% of these consumers said links/contact information for technical support.

“This was a strong theme in the responses we got,” says Michael McEvoy, managing director at ath Power Consulting, based in Boston and Washington, D.C., the firm that conducted the survey. “Users feel they’re not getting the kind of mobile banking help and guidance that they’d like to have. Some complained about difficulty navigating the app. Some felt there was a lack of support and guidance to help if you’re not sure what to do next.

Easier navigation and chat tools would help banks improve their overall mobile banking adoption numbers, according to the report.

Another thing that would help: better education about mobile banking services. “We found that many people weren’t aware of some of the things that were possible; they didn’t know, for instance, if their bank offers remote deposit capture,” McEvoy shares.

Clairmail’s adoption services team works closely with FIs to maximize customer adoption and usage of their mobile banking solutions by providing training programs, product documentation and demonstration materials. This ensures that all pertinent staff personnel are properly trained and can confidently address all customer questions, while providing FIs with materials to effectively educate their customers.

As reported in yesterday’s MobileFI blog post, Clairmail was honored as the “Best Mobile Application or Service” by the San Francisco Business Times last week. Below is a transcript of the feature article on Clairmail that accompanied the award announcement:

With more people turning to their smartphones for purchases, web browsing and up-to-the-minute notifications, banks are scrambling to get their services to their customers in a reliable, customizable and secure way. By providing those services to banks and financial institutions, Clairmail Inc. has soared, managing more than 500 million transactions for 7 million users in 2011.

“We realize there is no single mobile banking experience that is a fit for everyone, which is why we provide a custom platform tailored to the needs of each of our financial institutions,“ CEO Pete Daffern said. “A key factor that has always been a top priority at Clairmail is ensuring that the entire experience is completely secure, no matter how customers are interacting with their finances on their mobile device.”

The company’s success caught the attention of larger London-based global mobile payment company Monitise, which announced in March it would acquire Clairmail for $173 million in stock.

Since 2004, Clairmail has been managing mobile and digital banking services.

“It took us two years to really build out the basis for our software,” said Carl Tsukahara, chief marketing officer and head of products at Clairmail. “But over the last few years we have been able to work on the next wave of deeper integration so that people are able to deposit checks by just taking a picture or getting text alerts when transactions are pending so that you know what your financial situation is moment by moment.”

Eight years ago, when Clairmail was building mobile software for banks, people were still very apprehensive about how secure their phones could be, but now there’s a race to see who can make the best mobile wallet so that no one has to swipe a credit card or stand in line at a register. Consumer demand is pushing more businesses to bring mobility to every possible transaction.

Clairmail is the provider of the software and platform that banks such as Bank of the West, Fifth Third Bank and Boeing Employees’ Credit Union (BECU) use to provide customers with as many mobile banking options as possible.

BECU, based in Seattle, has been working with Clairmail for more than a year to improve service to its 760,000 members.

“When working in the financial services industry, it is crucial that you find a company that is not just up-to-date on the tech side, but also has a reputation for being a responsible and secure service,” said Howie Wu, vice president of virtual banking for BECU. “We are a fairly large credit union and really don’t have the teller lines or staff to handle the growing need for frequent transactions, so utilizing Clairmail’s Android and iPhone apps has been a significant move in the right direction for us.”

Handling such sensitive financial data, Clairmail has also been sure to take as many measures as possible to maintain its reputation as a secure system, including never storing account numbers or credentials on the device and offering multiple levels of authentication for bank customers to utilize.

Individual banking institutions are easily able to work with Clairmail to personalize and brand their apps and services. Customers are also able to customize the preferences within the app on their phones.

Clairmail was honored as the “Best Mobile Application or Service” by the San Francisco Business Times last week. Below is a transcript from the article that ran on Thursday.

"Best Mobile Application or Service: Clairmail" Pictured: Pete Daffern, CEO

The winners of the San Francisco Business Times 2012 Tech & Innovation Awards were revealed Wednesday evening at an awards event at the San Francisco Four Seasons Hotel.

Clairmail received an award for the “Best Mobile Application or Service.”

The Business Times Tech & Innovation Awards winners and finalists are solving incredibly challenging problems — and meanwhile growing companies and creating jobs that have brought the boom times back to the Bay Area.

We began soliciting nominations for 15 categories months ago and received dozens of nominations in nearly every category.

Business Times editors and reporters reviewed the nominations, selected a short list in each category and then presented the pared down list of nominees to our judges to choose the winners and finalists.

Thank you to all our finalists and nominees for participating in the San Francisco Business Times Tech & Innovation Awards and for showing us that technology has no limits in the hands of true innovators

Clairmail recently announced its acceptance to the Secured by RSA ® Certified Partner Program and has certified interoperability between Clairmail’s Mobile Banking Solution and RSA Adaptive Authentication software from RSA®, The Security Division of EMC (NYSE: EMC). Already an RSA Secured® Partner, the new interoperability partnership comes after rigorous RSA certification testing of Clairmail’s Mobile Banking Solution and reinforces Clairmail’s commitment to continually advancing platform security for end users and Financial Institutions (FIs).

According to McAfee’s 2012 Threat Predictions report, mobile security threats are predicted to evolve and grow dramatically in 2012 as mobile banking and payments adoption continues to outpace any other banking channel in customer growth. By expanding their partnership via a thorough testing and certification process of the interoperability of the Clairmail Mobile Banking Solution, Clairmail and RSA are working to mitigate these dangers and stop new mobile risks before they threaten end users, while minimally affecting overall user experience.

The new RSA certification bolsters Clairmail’s enterprise-strength platform security by introducing additional layers of authentication to the company’s rigid security suite. As the first mobile banking and payments provider to achieve Secured by RSA ® Certified Partner status, Clairmail continues to lead the mobile banking and payments industries in protecting FIs and their customers from new vulnerabilities as mobile financial technologies begin to see mainstream adoption in 2012.

“We are pleased to expand our relationship with Clairmail within the Secured by RSA Certified Partner Program. The industry is rapidly crossing over into new and more powerful mobile applications for business and e-commerce. By building in the right protections, security can be an enabler of these exciting new innovations,” said Sam Curry, CTO of Identity and Data Protection at RSA. “Interoperability between RSA and Clairmail will help customers deliver a mobile solution that is both more secure and convenient for the end user.”

Currently used by more than 8,000 organizations worldwide, RSA® Adaptive Authentication software provides Clairmail customers with best-in-class risk-based protection, helping to minimize consumer and financial institution risk by confirming user identities through device identification, user behavior profiling and monitoring fraud data while also working with additional FI and Clairmail-specific resources to further determine suspicious activity. These traditionally disparate elements working in harmony to strengthen end user and FI security further validate the open connectivity and integration capabilities of the Clairmail Platform, which is core to the company’s overall vision of easily facilitating integration within the larger mobile ecosystem. RSA Adaptive Authentication software is immediately available to current and prospective Clairmail customers as an interoperable part of Clairmail’s enterprise-wide Mobile Banking Solution.

“Clairmail’s status as the first mobile banking solution to achieve Secured by RSA ® Certified Partner status substantiates Clairmail as one of the most secure mobile banking and payments providers in this rapidly evolving space,” said Gordon Simpson, CTO at Clairmail. “Our interoperability partnership with RSA continues a demonstrated commitment to security innovation, and Clairmail’s interoperability with RSA Adaptive Authentication software will help to significantly increase consumer and FI protections as mobile threats escalate in 2012.”

The global value of mobile payments is set to reach close to $1 trillion (£591billion) worldwide by 2015. The driver will be consumer demand for devices with NFC technology, which are expected to instigate a 97 per cent growth per year, over the next three years, according to a report by KPMG.

Demand will also be driven by consumers’ growing desire to shop in environments that are “always on, always fast and always accessible”, the report added.

“Growth in the m-payments marketplace will be driven by customers’ increasing need for convenience and the development of a raft of new applications enabling commerce in the palm of our hands,” said David Hodgkinson, senior manager at KPMG.

“Today premium SMS dominates mobile payments, but by tomorrow contactless and cloud-based services will dominate, with an expected market share for contactless of 37 percent by 2015.”

The acceptance of m-commerce as an alternative to cash or credit card payments owes as much to the expansion of the smartphone marketplace, as it does to retailers recognizing the need to adapt.

According to KPMG’s report, smartphone shipments accounted for 29% of all mobile phone sales in 2011 – almost double the figure sold in 2009.

The KPMG report is consistent with the Juniper Research report we discussed in yesterday’s mobileFI blog post, which forecast that mobile commerce will reach $74 billion by 2015, fueled largely by increased consumer use of NFC technology.

To learn more about Clairmail’s mobile payments solution, download our white paper.

A new study by Juniper Research forecasts that NFC will facilitate transactions valued at $74 billion by 2015, as near-field communication is increasingly used for the payment of goods; this is more than triple the estimated value of this market in 2011.

The increasing use of mobile devices as an alternative to credit cards and paper tickets is one of the fastest growing segments of the mobile commerce market.

The Mobile Commerce Markets report shows that the rapid adoption of mobile devices for commerce-related applications is by no means limited to NFC. All segments—money transfers, banking, payments, and coupons—are forecast to exhibit significant growth rates.

Report author David Snow says: “Our report demonstrates the spectacular growth we see across all segments of the mobile commerce market. Four of these segments (money transfer, physical goods, NFC, and coupons) will more than treble in transaction value over the next three years, while digital goods, banking and tickets will still on average, double over the same period.”

Further findings include:

• SMS is the key to widespread mobile banking service adoption.
• Without interoperability, mobile money transfer services will struggle to gain a critical mass of users.
• While mobile coupons still represent the smallest mobile commerce segment, it is demonstrating the highest growth rate.

Congratulations to Clairmail customer Bellco Credit Union, which recently announced that its mobile banking services now includes the My Deposit feature to allow customers to deposit checks using Bellco’s free iPhone or new Android smartphone applications.

Customers have enjoyed My Deposit for online banking using their home scanner, but now they will be able to use their iPhone or Android app for greater flexibility. Bellco customers can simply and securely use their mobile phone to take a picture of the front and back of an endorsed check and then submit it for deposit.

“My Deposit is the next evolution in Bellco’s mobile banking services and part of our commitment to providing convenient, secure banking options to meet the needs of our customers,” said Deirdra O’Gorman, Vice President of Customer Relationship Management for Bellco. “Whether our customers want personalized service at a branch location, access to a nationwide network of shared ATMs, or to reference account information on-demand from their pocket or purse, Bellco can now be where you need us, when you need us.”

My Deposit for iPhone and Android and the new Android banking app are the newest additions to Bellco’s mobile banking services that include text banking, and the freedom to check account balances, transfer money, view transaction history and set up account management alerts while on the go. Bill payment options are included on both smartphone apps and via the mobile website, which also features branch locator information and easy viewing of current loan rates.

As Clairmail exhibits at the NACHA Payments event this week, we thought we’d share infographics on the four leading models for mobile payments from visual.ly.

Today’s infographic is on Mobile as a Point of Sale:

As Clairmail exhibits at the NACHA Payments event this week, we thought we’d share infographics on the four leading models for mobile payments from visual.ly.

Today’s infographic is on Mobile Wallets: