news The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Barclays have announced a new technology partnership that is aimed to ease the movement of money between Australia and the UK.
In a statement on the CommBank website, the firms said their retail customers will soon be able to move money between the two countries using “just a mobile number”.
The payments will be enabled via a linkup between the two banks’ respective payment apps – CBA’s CommBank app and Barclays’ Pingit – to provide what they called a “seamless, secure and simple process for moving money across continents”.
“We are delighted to offer customers a simple and secure mobile to mobile international payment option through our partnership. This demonstrates the power of two influential global organisations collaborating to deliver world-firsts in financial services innovation,” said CBA’s Group Executive Institutional Banking and Markets, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.
CommBank is the tenth largest bank worldwide by market capitalisation, and was further recently named Australia’s most innovative bank in AFR’s 50 Most Innovative Companies 2016 list. The bank came in third place amongst all categories of companies.
In the UK, Barclays’ Pingit app has more than 3 million registered users, which can be used by any UK current account holder, not just the bank’s customers.
The banks said the new collaboration marks the first time Australian and UK consumers can send money between the two countries using only a mobile telephone number.
“Today’s announcement marks the first time our Pingit app has allowed two-way cross border payments, enabling our customers to send and receive money to and from Australia quickly, easily and securely,” said Paul Compton, Barclays Group Chief Operating Officer.
“Our partnership with CBA demonstrates how large institutions can and should work together to provide innovative solutions that benefit both customers, and the banking industry as a whole,” he added.
The PingIt/CommBank app solution is expected to be available to retail customers in the last quarter of 2016.
Image credit: CommBank