A successful trial of mobile payments reported by Royal Bank in Canada

Earlier in September RBC Royal Bank in Canada launched a new pilot of a text message-based mobile payment service called RBC Mobex. The service designed for person-to-person payments in situations where individuals may not have the cash on hand, such as reimbursing a friend for lunch, collecting for the office coffee run, paying the babysitter, or buying a garage sale item is welcomed by the trial participants.

The project allows participants to use the RBC Mobex payment service on their existing mobile phone. They just need to send a text message to RBC Mobex with the specified amount and the number of the person to receive the money. After submitting the SMS funds are then taken from the sender's Mobex account and moved to the recipient's Mobex account along with the text message informing the recipient of the money sent. The service allows amounts of up to $100 per day. For amounts of over $25 a sender receives a call on his/her mobile device to verify the transaction which enhances the security of the payments.

The services charges no additional fees, yet users will have to pay any regular bank or wireless carrier charges and fees they might have in place. The trial service is available to RBC employees, their family and their friends in Canada, and will run until January 2009. Later the bank plans to introduce a wide scale consumer pilot.