It seems that the mobile and financial worlds are really beginning to converge in Japan. It started with 'o-saifu keitai' or 'wallet phones' – containing contactless IC chips that you can load with electronic cash.

DoCoMo’s collaboration with Mistui Sumitomo bank to produce their iD credit card service for mobiles created further links between the mobile and financial industries. Now the divide is set to blur further as KDDI and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ have today confirmed that their new mobile-online bank will open in mid-2007.

Full details have yet to be confirmed, but the aim of the bank, which is a 50:50 JV between the two companies, is to offer “an unprecedented financial service centred on the mobile phone”.

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 1:13 pm