ATM Network MoneyPass Hooks Up Banks With Mobile Money Maven Monitise

MoneyPass, the U.S Bank-owned ATM network, has cut a deal with U.K.-based Monitise to offer smartphone-based banking services to its customers, the two companies announced on Thursday (Jan. 15).

Under the agreement, MoneyPass Network’s 1,600 card-issuing financial institutions will be able to offer their account holders a range of mobile money services and the ability to manage their debit-card capabilities, including core mobile banking services such as balance checks and transfers, as well as more advanced services like mobile check deposit and cardholder-managed security controls.

Monitise will also enable mobile security and fraud alerts for cardholders of participating institutions to provide immediate notification when an account may be at risk. That will allow cardholders to proactively monitor and manage their accounts, the company said.

The deal could put as many as 80 million more payment cards on Monitise’s cloud-based platform. Monitise currently has more than 30 million users for its mobile money services, which means the tie-up could conceivably more than triple Monitise’s use base over time.

For the financial institutions that use MoneyPass as an ATM network, the arrangement could easily let them give accountholder access to some basic mobile banking capabilities — which are no longer premium features, but just the basic ante for banks to appeal to younger depositors, a report from BBVA said this month.

Monitise has partnered with MoneyPass Network’s parent, U.S. Bank, in the past. In 2009, the two worked together on a prepaid mobile app that let users check balances and review their transaction histories, which was revolutionary at the time, according to Forbes.

And in 2013 the two joined forces on a project to link ads in print, or on TV or radio, directly to the product advertised on a company Web site. The goal was to keep a bank customer’s account information and address stored in a mobile wallet, so that a customer could point a smartphone’s camera at a barcode or digital watermark, go directly to the retailer’s Web page, select size and color and confirm shipping and price to complete a purchase.