Mobile roaming and financial services provider Roamware Inc. has debuted its Cardless ATM platform for financial institutions worldwide.

The Cardless ATM service, already in use in Europe, lets bank customers withdraw cash from an ATM without the use of a credit or debit card. Cardless ATM can be used in case of loss or theft of a cash card, as well as to send money to friends or family at home or abroad.

“Cardless ATM is a Telco-independent solution that enables banks to extend their ATM capability to address a range of unaddressed consumer requirements, effectively maximizing the benefit of ATM infrastructure,” said Abraham Punnoose, vice president at Roamware, Mumbai. “Roamware’s objective of such a solution is central to its strategy to augment the servicing capabilities of our banking customers on the mobile banking front.

“At Roamware, we believe these services would benefit our banking customers by creating  incremental transactions, fee opportunity for banks offering these services and positively impact the satisfaction levels for bank customers,” he said.

“Services like Cardless ATM demonstrate Roamware’s product leadership and have a cascading effect in creating a range of service scenarios that were not possible with an ATM.”

Roamware claims to have 60 percent market share of the voice and data roaming segments for GSM, 3G and CDMA technology platforms.

Permanent TSB is the retail banking and division of Irish Life & Permanent plc, which was formed by the merger of home loans provider Irish Permanent and life insurance company Irish Life.

Permanent mobile financial services
Last year Permanent TSB launched the service in Ireland as part of its mobile banking platform.

Branded as Emergency Cash, the service lets customers send €100 to anyone in Ireland by sending a text message.

Upon receiving the text message, the recipient may go to any PTSB cash point to withdraw the emergency cash—without the need for an ATM card.

Registered customers can request payment five times per month up to a maximum of €500 (€100 per withdrawal). The account holder is charged €2 per withdrawal.

Permanent TSB said that Emergency Cash is one of the bank’s differentiators in the Irish market, giving its customers peace of mind because they know they still have access to cash if their card is stolen.

“The key challenge for them was to enable emergency cash advance to friends and family and the added possibility of withdrawing cash in case one was not carrying their ATM card or in a scenario where the card has been lost,” Mr Punnoose said.

Cardless ATM is particularly of interest in Asia and Africa, where banks plan on using it for mobile money purposes, that is, for consumers to send money to friends and family.

Roamware claims it is a cost-saving platform that could potentially complement bank account offerings to under-banked and unbanked communities in developing economies.

Some of the usage scenarios could include parents advancing money to their children who do not have an ATM card, instant transfer of money across the country to friends and family and enabling cash withdrawals irrespective of banking hours, holidays or banking relationships.

“In the developing markets, the possibilities of this service include a range services for the under-banked and unbanked,” Mr. Punnoose said.

“Customers with simple mobile wallet or a no frills account could now access cash withdrawals from their account via a local ATM, enabling a 24-7 cash-out option for such customers,” he said.

Cardless ATM is one of many mobile financial products that Roamware has made available to banks and carriers since the acquisition of mobile financial services developer Macalla Software Ltd. last year.

“There is tremendous wave of adoption of mobile financial services globally, with banks and operators aggressively pursuing this initiative,” Mr. Punnoose said.

The convergence of mobile and the bank opens up a range of service possibilities across the value of chain for mobile and banking customers.

“At the current rate of adoption, we could see 90 percent of banks across the world offer some kind of mobile banking enabled services in the next five-to-seven years,” Mr. Punnoose said.

“The concept of mobile financial services enables convenience for customers, cost savings for banks and has the potential to enable financial inclusion for billions of under-banked and unbanked people globally,” he said.