LINK to Launch mobileATM Service

With the support of mobile network operators and the UKs major financial institutions, mobileATM™ offers consumers the opportunity to use their mobile phone as a medium for carrying out financial transactions and accessing information about their bank or building society accounts. mobileATM™ will be launched during Q1 2005, initially providing consumers with the ability to execute Balance Enquiries and use a Mobile Phone Top-Up (MPTU) facility, which will allow the addition of credit to any operator prepay account via the user’s bank account. The future roadmap includes a wide range of services, based upon consumer demands and agreed in conjunction with the card issuers and the mobile network operators involved in the delivery of the mobileATM™ service. The next service to be delivered will be Mini-Statements, and this will be closely followed by “push services” (transaction notifications, overdraft notifications, mortgage applications commentary etc.) and online banking services (lost/stolen card notification and cheque book ordering, PIN, and overdraft requests. Consumers can now add airtime to their prepay mobile phones at over 18,000 LINK-branded ATMs. LINK developed the technical solution that offers a convenient, secure alternative to vouchers for bank customers with prepay phones, enabling them to add prepay airtime minutes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As LINK is the central hub for the UKs only branded ATM network, it is uniquely placed to enable the ATM channel for top-ups. We envisage the time when customers of any mobile operator will be able to top-up their airtime at any ATM, 24 hours a day. The ATM top-up service will make it much more convenient for pre-pay mobile phone users to add airtime to their handsets. Customers of participating mobile operators can use selected cash machines connected to the LINK ATM network to top up their phones by simply inserting their ATM card into the machine and following the screens through the mobile TopUp procedure. Payment will be authorised direct from the customers account.