ING Direct Launches iPhone Bump P2P Payments

ING Direct, the largest direct bank in the US, has launched Bump Person2Person Payment technology that enables customers on its Electric Orange checking account with iPhones to send money to each other instantly and securely. ING Direct is the first US bank to offer this bump-enabled feature to checking account customers. 
To use the service, Electric Orange Customers simply enter a dollar amount into ING Direct’s mobile Person2Person Payment feature and “bump” their two iPhones together. This will initiate an instant payment between their Electric Orange accounts.

“Today, cash is no longer king,” says ING Direct president and CEO, Arkadi Kuhlmann. “Only 7 per cent of ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Customers say they pay primarily with cash. With Bump technology, customers can leave the cash at home knowing they have a smartphone in their pocket.”

The service launches at a time when the number of Americans using only a smartphone for banking is increasing – up from 1m in 2010, to 2m in 2011 and expected to increase to 10m in 2015, according to NetBanker’s Online Banking Report. Americans’ use of online and mobile Person2Person Payment will increase 550 per cent from 2m in 2010, to 13m in 2015. At ING Direct, there has been 200 per cent annualized growth in mobile Person2Person Payment usage in the first quarter of 2011, compared to the last quarter of 2010.

Customers using ING Direct’s BlackBerry or Android banking apps, or the mobile website, can continue to send money for free using the email-based Person2Person Payment feature. They can send money to anyone who has a checking or savings account in the US, through a secure link connected to the user’s email address. 
There’s more information about ING Direct’s mobile services here.