SK Telecom, Citi bank on mobile money venture

SK Telecom is teaming up with financial services giant Citi to create a so-called “next generation’ mobile banking joint venture. The joint venture will go under the name of Mobile Money Ventures and create new services around NFC payments, budget planning and tracking, expense management and location based advertisements and discounts.

The new services will be tested with Citi customers from the second half of this year in “selected markets”. The company doesn’t say where the new features will get a run out, but the join venture will be headquartered in the US, where SK Telecom’s other JV Helio operates, so the States is looking like a good bet.

SK Telecom already has some m-banking products out in the market, like its NFC offering Moneta, getting a big name in financial services will doubtless prove useful in taking its mobile money ideas to new ground.