Bank of America, whose MBNA subsidiary is Europe’s largest credit card provider, is offering a mobile banking text service to customers through a partnership with Oxygen8 Communications, the micro-billing, communications and mobile enablement firm.

The partnership enables Bank of America customers to request account information by SMS, and also includes a text message-based fraud prevention service. The service was also used by Bank of America during the volcanic ash cloud disruption as a means of keeping in contact with its customers abroad. 

The mobile banking text service acts as a communications gateway between Bank of America and its card holders. Customers can initiate requests for account information, including balance, payments and transactions, via an SMS request to a dedicated mobile shortcode number, or to a more traditional mobile should customers wish to use the text messages included within their mobile plan. The service is available across the full range of credit cards managed by Bank of America, which includes more than 5m customers.

Oxygen8 was handed the task after Bank of America carried out a review of the mobile messaging  marketplace. “The review concluded that the Oxygen8 platform was the most flexible, scalable and functionally rich solution in the market place. Oxygen8 provided most of the core functionality we needed as a standard component of their solution and were also able to undertake custom development speedily, enabling us to launch new features and services more quickly and easily moving forward,” says Phil Weston, head of mobile services at Bank of America.

“As the market evolves with new and improved technology, our customers’ expectations change too. Customer research has shown that people want far greater choice of how and when they obtain account information. Through mobile messaging, the web and voice recognition services, we are investing heavily in meeting these customer demands.”