Asia a key market for mobile banking

Banks are becoming more serious about luring financial consumers online, especially those who are often on the move.

Market leaders in Hong Kong's retail banking business such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Citigroup, have launched mobile banking platforms in the past three to four years and more banks are working on their mobile banking projects.

Initially, many banks considered their mobile banking services - often delivered via special applications designed for mobile devices like Apple's iPhone, for example - would play a supporting role to their traditional offline banking business.

However, they rapidly changed their minds and began to focus more on their online users as greater numbers of their customers, particularly younger generations, quickly got used to paying bills or transferring money online.

Citigroup launched its mobile banking application, called Citi Mobile, for its retail banking customers in the Asia-Pacific region in Hong Kong in 2008.

By the end of September, the New York-based bank, the world's largest financial services provider at one time, reported it had 1.1 million active mobile banking users in the region who conducted their banking transactions online, via their mobile devices.

"New technologies have opened new opportunities … mobile banking gives us greater flexibility to serve our customers where and when they need us," Jonathan Larsen, global head of retail banking at Citigroup, said.