BofA, Visa to test smartphone payments

The Bank of America, the largest US consumer bank, and Visa, the world's largest payment processor, plan to begin a test programme next month that lets customers use smartphones to pay for purchases in stores, says Reuters.

The programme, to run from September through the end of the year in the New York area, is the biggest step yet by the two companies toward creating a 'digital wallet' with a host of financial capabilities built into the latest, most sophisticated mobile phones.

Major US banks, technology companies and cellphone providers are jockeying for the lead in the technology, which some say could become a primary means of everyday purchases.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has placed a $220 million bet on the prospects of a rosy future for banking technology firms by snapping up 4.4 million share in US financial processing firm Fiserv, states Finextra.

The Sage of Omaha is known to favour companies promising boring but steady returns. The transaction processing business may not be glamorous, but it is one of the few core banking activities to have emerged relatively unscathed from the market downturn.

Nonetheless, Buffett's investment has banking analysts scratching their heads, since it appears to run contrary to forecasts for further market-wide consolidation in the US banking industry - a prospect, which would ultimately hit Fiserv's prospects.

Kenyan banks are tightening their systems against a new wave of global cyber crime that has seen thousands of British online bank customers lose savings to criminals in one of the most sophisticated attacks of its kind, writes Business Daily.

The fraudsters used a malicious computer programme that hides on home computers to steal confidential passwords and account details from at least 3 000 people.

Standard Chartered Bank says it is changing the mode of accessing the online banking from having user name and password by introducing use of name and one-time password which their more than 16 000 mobile banking customers will receive through their phones.