Here's another sign that the mobile web is going mainstream. I've seen a huge increase in the number of banks offering web based mobile banking recently. Banks are very conservative when it comes to rolling out new online services. Until recently, there were only a few banks offering any sort of mobile banking and many of those that did, like CitiBank, took the route of using downloadable applications. Bank of America was the first major US bank to offer mobile web based online banking. I've heard that CitiBank experienced low rates of adoption for their mobile app because it supports relatively few handsets and is too hard for users to download and that the bank considers their mobile banking implementation a failure compared with BofA's. The trend seems to have changed. In the last month I've learned of 23 new mobile banking sites and no new applications
I've added just added the 23 new mobile banking sites to the Wap Review directory's Business/Banking and Payments folder. I discovered most of these on the Oh! Mobile Directory and the Mobility.mobi forum where a couple of member's; GijsZePa and Pred have been doing a fantastic job of finding new sites.
US National Banks
Washington Mutual (m.wamu.com), which was recently aquired by JPMorgan Chase Bank still operates under it's own name and URL. The mobile site lets users find branches and ATMs, view balances and transactions, transfer funds between their accounts and receive SMS account alerts.
JPMorgan Chase Bank's mobile site (chase.mobi) is more full featured than most. It lets users pay bills, transfer funds between eligible Chase accounts, wire money to or from non-Chase accounts in the US, display balance information. view transaction history, find ATMs and branches and view contact details and mobile banking FAQs.
US Regional Banks
66 Federal Credit Union (66fcu.mobi) serves 75 employee groups Lawrence Kansas and Springdale, Arkansas. The mobile site lets users view account history and cleared checks, make loan and credit card payments, transfer funds between credit union accounts and to and from your accounts at other financial institution, view and pay bills. Public features (no login needed) include a branch locator and listing of current interest rates.
KU Credit Union (kucu.mobi) which serves Kansas University students, staff and Faculty is part of 66 Federal Credit Union and has the same features and User Interface.
66 Federal Credit Union also operates the ConocoPhillips Credit Union in Houston Texas with a mobile site at copcu.mobi.
Prosperity Bank (prosperitybank.mobi) operates 16 branches in Northeast Florida. The mobile site lets users access account information, transfer funds, pay bills,find branches and ATMs and "view check images on smartphones".
West Suburban Bank (mywsb.mobi) operates in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois. The mobile site provides account balances, transaction history and fund transfers.
Rcbbank.mobi, the mobile site of RCB Bank, which has 10 branches in Oklahoma, offers balance Inquiries, real-time transaction information, fund transfers and email alerts of specified events or transactions.
Northwest Bank (bank-northwest.mobi) operates 15 branches in Iowa and Nebraska. The mobile site 's features include view account balances, pay bills online, transfer funds and find bank and ATM locations.
City Bank Texas is a big regional bank in the Lone star State. The bank's mobile site at bnkngo.mobi offers the following services: display account balances, find ATMs by zip code or address, transfer funds. A feature I haven't seen elsewhere is the ability to send yourself an SMS receipt of current mobile screen.
Commerce Bank is another big regional with 360 branches in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado. The mobile site at commercebank.mobi lets customers view account balances and account activity from the last seven days, transfer funds between accounts and make loan and credit card payments.
Freedom Bank has just two locations in Fairfax and Vienna, Virginia. The bank's mobile site at freedombank.mobi doesn't actually offer online mobile banking, however it does have addresses, current CD promotions and click to call numbers for branches and telephone banking.
Midstates Bank operates in Council Bluffs, Avoca, Harlan, Missouri Valley and Mondamin, Iowa. The bank's mobile site at www.midstatesbank.mobi has account balances, recent transactions, online bill payment, fund transfer, rates, and an ATM/branch locator.
Rainier Pacific Bank operates 12 branches and 18 ATMs in Pierce and South King Counties in Washington state. The mobile site (rainierpacificbank.mobi) is limited to a branch and ATM locator and click to call contact numbers.
Easthampton Savings Bank has eight branches in Hampshire and Hampden counties, Massachusetts. The bank's mobile site at bankesb.mobi has an ATM and branch locator and click to call contact numbers.
The First National Bank in Trinidad, Colorado's mobile ATM/Branch finder (fnbtrinidad.com/mobi) lists hours, addresses and click to call numbers. No online banking yet but the mobile site has a poll with one question on it; "Do you want mobile banking?"
American Bank of Texas has 15 locations in Central Texas including Austin. The mobile site (mobile.abtexasna.com) offers balances, transaction history and funds transfer. There is a phone number for telebanking on the site's homepage which is not click to call, unfortunately.
Southern California's Fullerton Community Bank's mobile site is fullertoncb.com/mobile. I'm not sure what the features are as I don't have a login and there's no promotional information on the banks full site. There is a list of locations (with links to Google mobile maps and driving directions) which does not require a login.
Non-US Banks
South Africa's Standard Bank has a mobile site (standardbank.mobi) where customers can check balances, transfer money between accounts, buy prepaid airtime for Cell C, MTN, Vodacom and Virgin Mobile. There is also a branch locator and mortgage calculator. The branch locator has an option to use cell tower IDs to show the nearest branch without the user needing to key in their location. Cell ID based geolocation is currently only available to Vodacom customers, with MTN support coming soon.
Australia's Bank of Queensland's mobile site is at boq.mobi. It features include account balances, viewing transactions, online bill payment, fund transfer, current interest rates, and an ATM and branches locator.
Big Malaysian bank, Public Bank Berhad, which also operates in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Laos, has a mobile site at www.pbebank.mobi that offers an extensive list of services including balance inquiry, transaction and payment history, fund transfer including transfers to 3rd party accounts and interbank transfers; bill, credit card and loan payments and stop check requests.
Standard Chartered Bank, with branches in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Singapore, has a mobile site at standardchartered.mobi that offers account balances, transaction history, fund transfers and online bill payment.
Spain's Banca March has a mobile banking site at telemarch.bancamarch.es/bancamovil. The site is available in Spanish, Catalan, English and German. I can't tell what features it offers as the bank's sites, both mobile and full-web,offer visitors nothing but a login page.
Did I leave out your bank's mobile site? Leave a comment and I'll add it.
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Here's a new mobile site that helps you find the lowest price for any book. It's a mobile friendly version of 
Usability: 
Nokia launched a new mobile site yesterday called "Here and Now". It's a mobile portal emphasizing music news and movie reviews from Rolling Stone and also featuring news from Reuters, gossip from US Weekly, game and application downloads, videos and a small directory of 3rd party mobile websites. Nokia claims Here and Now is targeted at 18 to 35 year olds. That's OK by me if it keeps the marketing pros at Nokia employed but I really don't see how interest in music, news, sports, celebrities and games is unique to any one age group.
I'm definitely not in the target demographic but I did find "Here and Now" a nice little portal. The easiest way to get to it is to start at 
I've been pretty disappointed with attempts to offer online event ticketing via the mobile web. The sites I've looked at have been marred by pretty serious usability issues. A lot of the problems are related to payment. There really aren't any convenient ways to pay for purchases on the mobile web that are also widely adopted. The mobile versions of PayPal and Google Checkout are easy to use but don't seem to have caught on with consumers or merchants. On the full web most purchasing is done with credit or debit cards. For mobile, purchasing with plastic is too complicated to be very practical. You need to enter the 16 digit card number, full billing address, the card's expiration date and 3 0r 4 digit security code. Way too much typing. Barely acceptable with QWERTY, it's an intolerable pain with a standard 12 key mobile keypad. Mobile commerce desperately needs some sort of seamless payment system built into the phone or network.
Ticketmaster's mobile site is uninspiring visually but a model of simple effective design. Enter an artist or sports team or choose from a list of categories and you are prompted for a zipcode or city and state. You are then shown a paginated listing of matching events in chronological order starting with today. Clicking an event brings up a page with event and venue details and a click to call number to order tickets. The whole process can be accomplished quickly with a minimum number of clicks. Making a phone call may be low tech, but it's still the easiest way to complete a complex credit card transaction with a mobile phone.
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