Cellular South Customers Enjoy Mobile Banking Application with the Help of BancorpSouth and Firethorn Holdings

Two Mississippi-based wireless phone and banking services companies — Cellular South and BancorpSouth — jointly announced the release of a new mobile banking application that offers flexible and secured online banking to the wireless phone.

 

The mobile banking application, an m-commerce solution for Cellular South customers, is a free wireless application that is offered in collaboration with Firethorn Holdings. The application facilitates Cellular South customers to view their account balances, browse account history, transfer funds and pay bills from their mobile handsets through a secure, PIN-protected gateway.

 

"Mobile banking is a convenient and secure method of managing money through your wireless handset," said Cellular South President Hu Meena, in a statement, "Whether you're a college student or a busy business traveler, our mobile banking application gives you the flexibility to pay bills or transfer funds when you need to make financial decisions on the go."

 

Cellular South is a diversified wireless communications company that provides reliable and advanced nationwide wireless voice and data network and also offers integrated and interactive online and in-store experience to customers. The company also offers a suite of m-commerce applications to customers across the Southeast.

 

BancorpSouth Inc. is a financial holding company that deals with commercial banking, mortgage, insurance, trust, student loans, leasing, credit card, fiduciary services, brokerage, investment, insurance services and broker/dealer as well.

 

Atlanta-based Firethorn is a mobile banking and payment services company. The company links financial institutions and wireless carriers through a unified, secure and scalable technology platform that seamlessly extends full-service banking and payment capabilities to consumers from any financial institution to virtually any wireless device.

 

Cellular South will facilitate mobile banking to its customers through Firethorn that provides a secure application with a simple and easy to use interface.

 

According to a survey conducted by Celent, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, approximately 46 million households bank online.

 

A study conducted by Harris Interactive depicts that approximately 1,072 U.S. adults are interested in mobile banking services, in which 16 percent already using the wireless services and another 35 percent open to checking bank account balances and transferring funds via their mobile phones, smart phones or personal digital assistants.

 

Getting started with this new mobile banking application is simpler. The user will have to open an account or should have an existing account with online access to it. With the help of online Web page of the bank, the user has to sign-in and initiate the mobile banking option according to the instructions.

 

Once signed-in, the link will take user to a form requesting for information such as wireless provider, phone model and phone type. With this, users can access and monitor multiple bank accounts from the same application and the same PIN. The completed form provides the user with secure initialization code that enables the user to activate mobile banking with secure PIN.

 

"We value our partnership with Cellular South and are excited to offer the option of mobile banking to Cellular South customers," said Aubrey Patterson, BancorpSouth's chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement, "Managing bank accounts from a wireless device is the next step in the future of banking, and it will make banking more convenient for BancorpSouth and Cellular South customers."

 

Firethorn allows users to access their accounts at different banks from a single PIN, thereby making the process more convenient.

 

"Mobile banking is the first step in introducing mobile commerce to customers," said Tripp Rackley, Firethorn's chief executive officer, in a statement, "Firethorn is collaborating with these two wireless and banking industry innovators to provide consumers the convenience of mobile banking, which will expand the market and further drive adoption."