BANKING AND PAYMENT VIA SMS | Mobile Commerce Applications

TM Cellular offers a secure and convenient mode of personal banking. Named mobile banking and payment via secure SMS, this service marks the synergistic combination of cellular technology and mobile commerce, using an SMS platform to provide convenient banking for subscribers on the move to carry out all banking transactions and payments using their mobile phones anytime , anywhere . Among the services offered are balance enquiry, bill payments, loan payments, and credit card payments.

Subscribers who wish to enjoy this service need to upgrade their SIM cards to 64K browser SIMs and ought to have an account and an ATM or credit card with the respective banks. In addition to providing 64 Kbyte of memory, the 64K SIM card offers access to advanced services that allow users to:

View the name of the person who called when his phone was off or he was not available via the notifications.
Store up to 250 telephone numbers in the phone book.
Personalize and update a part of the menu of his SIM card, if he wishes to do so.
Send the same SMS messages to more than one person simultaneously .

Once the mobile banking and payment via secure SMS service has been activated, subscribers who are the account holders of the respective banks may conduct account balance enquiries, fund transfers, cheque book and statement requests , and PIN number changes; check and pay for credit card balances ; check the due dates of credit cards; pay loans (e.g., housing loan); and check fixed deposit statuses (e.g., the maturity date) via the mobile phone. As a security measure, users are required to input a password before conducting the transactions.

Each user is assigned a mobile personal identification number (M-PIN) that is different from their ATM PIN. Each message related to m-banking is encrypted using 3DES (data encryption standard) before it is sent to the bank to ensure the integrity and security of the message. The encryption is done by the SIM 64K card. Special unique keys that are used to open the message are known only to the bank and the SIM card. The service provider, TMTouch, does not hold the key and does not keep any banking information about the user. The M-PIN is also encrypted using a unique key system known as the derived unique key per transaction (DUKPT), which is supported by VISA. The bank uses the authorized M-PIN to enable the user to access their account. The bank also uses their own encryption system as an additional protection to customer private data.

Each message sent has a unique reference code that allows the detection of duplicated messages. Each successful transaction receives a notification via SMS and the same procedure applies for every message that encounters delivery failure. If, despite the precaution, there is any duplication of messages (e.g., the message for bill payment occurs twice), the customer may call the bank for a refund.