Mobile banking is becoming increasingly popular all around the world. However, it hasn’t been something that the Middle East has seen until now. The National Bank of Kuwait has recently partnered with a number of mobile service providers to roll out the very first mobile payments trial in the region. If the six-month-long trial is successful then it will mean another big step forward in the development of global mobile banking options.

The trial is a partnership between the National Bank of Kuwait, Visa, Nokia, ViVOtech and Zain. We’ve seen a mobile partnership between Visa and Nokia in the recent past. Visa started rolling out mobile payment options in Malaysia earlier this year on the Nokia 6212 handsets which are NFC-enabled. This means that the Nokia phone can be waved in front of a card reader at the time of a purchase and the payment for the purchase will be made through the Visa card that is linked with the mobile account. It is these same Nokia handsets that are being used in the Middle East trial. ViVOtech is providing the underlying technology to make this happen and Zain is the telco that’s participating in the trial.

There are three major milestones to be achieved during this trial:

1. Consumers in the area will be introduced to “smart posters”. These are the same type of point-of-sale mobile card readers that are being used to make mobile payments in other parts of the world. The handset is tapped against the smart poster and the purchase is processed.
2. Customers will be able to use the smart posters to download a free Visa prepaid card. This is the first time that this particular mobile payments offer is available. It’s an interesting marketing offer.
3. Customers will be able to use either the prepaid card or their credit card to make purchases. They will be able to choose which card they want to use when using the smart posters to make purchases. This shows greater flexibility than most mobile payment services to date (which typically only link your mobile phone to a single account).

The National Bank of Kuwait assures its customers that the entire transaction process will be as secure as normal banking with them has always been. Should the trial be successful, this will not only be the first mobile payments system in the region but will also set a good example for the development of mobile banking systems throughout the world.