Barclays rings in dot-mobi banking

High street bank Barclays has launched a mobile phone banking service to extend the reach of its online banking facility.

Customers can access Barclays' online banking systems via a 'Barclays.mobi' link on a web-enabled mobile.

The free service will initially allow the bank's pre-registered 1.9 million online banking customers to check their account balance and statements, with more services to be added shortly.

Customers can view pages from Barclays' online banking service in an updated format - designed specifically to be viewed on mobile phones.

A Barclays spokesman told silicon.com: "The technology has moved on so Barclays can now adapt its browser for mobile banking."

silicon.com Financial Services

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The spokesman added: "People are now using mobile phones for a growing number of things, including banking, so Barclays thought it was the right time to provide this service."

However, there are questions over how popular such services would be. Just eight per cent of online customers in the US who own a mobile phone are interested in using mobiles to check account balances, according to analyst house Jupiter Research. Asaf Buchner, an analyst at Jupiter, said the buzz around mobile banking is fuelled by financial institutions' desire to expand their customer relationships via mobile phones rather than consumer demand.

First Direct and HSBC launched a mobile banking service last year which charges customers a set amount each time they use certain services.

Barclays is the first organisation in the UK to roll out chip and PIN devices to more than half a million online banking customers, and it already offers an SMS text-alert payment confirmation system to combat potential fraud.