This week, Bank of Valletta launched BOV Mobile – a platform that uses the latest technology and harnesses the widespread use of mobile internet – to enable customers to make payments and effect banking transactions, anytime, anywhere through their smartphones.

“We are delighted to become the first bank in Malta to respond to changing customer preferences by launching our mobile customer proposition that we are calling BOV Mobile,” said CEO Charles Borg.

Mr Borg said that BOV Mobile Pay is one of the services the bank will be offering through the mobile channel, making person-to person-payments from a mobile phone a really convenient and simple process. “It will become easier and much simpler to pay someone else using BOV Mobile Pay than to exchange cash or write a cheque,” said Mr Borg, underlining that in the coming months the bank will be showcasing its intuitive and easy to use product with a view to creating a large base of mobile banking users that would effectively be creating a new payments system for Malta.

Mr Borg said that BOV Mobile is a major deliverable in BOV’s multi-year, multi-channel banking strategy. “We have embarked on a journey of sustained trend-setting innovation that will not only re-define the customer experience but will, concurrently, continue to strengthen BOV’s position as the financial service brand of choice in the market,” he said.

BOV Mobile is available across a wide range of Apple iPhoneTM and AndroidTM smartphones and tablets and can be accessed both locally and abroad using either 3G or WiFi. The BOV Mobile app is available free for download from the Apple App Store and from Google Play (formerly known as the Android Market).

BOV CO Information Technology Victor Denaro explained that BOV Mobile provides a secure banking and payments service thanks to the multiple layers of security it employs. “Bank of Valletta has always been at the forefront of banking technological innovation in Malta and today we are once again raising the bar by layering multiple security features into BOV Mobile whilst ensuring a straightforward customer interface that reduces the transaction authentication mechanism to just one screen and one field,” he said. “We are pleased that we have managed to combine robust security with the convenience and simplicity required by our customers without making any compromises.”

BOV CO Operations Michael Galea said that much thought and work had gone into designing the BOV Mobile service. “Our teams have worked to make BOV Mobile customer-oriented and to make the whole process straightforward and intuitive,” said Mr Galea, explaining that registration for BOV Mobile is done through the BOV Internet Banking service in a self-explanatory, three-step process where the customer determines the mobile phone number to be used for the service. At that stage, the customer receives an SMS on his smart phone with an activation code that is entered into the App on the smart phone, giving immediate access to a wide range of mobile banking and payments services.

Through BOV Mobile, customers can:

• make mobile payments through BOV Mobile Pay

• view the balances on any of their registered accounts

• view the transaction history on their registered accounts

• transfer funds between their own accounts

• effect payment of a bill and

• authorise transactions created on other BOV 24x7 channels

Concluding the launch, CEO Charles Borg said that a mobile phone linked to a mobile payments and banking platform is one big opportunity that the bank is determined to develop for the benefit of its customers. “BOV mobile is our response to this opportunity. It is one big innovation that we are proud to be bringing to the market and that is set to change the way people prefer to bank and to pay,” he said.

Further information about BOV Mobile can be obtained from any BOV branch, the bank’s Customer Service Centre on 2131 2020 or from the bank’s website www.bov.com. A comprehensive list of tips for safer mobile banking and payments is also available from the bank’s website.