NTT DoCoMo eyes cell phone-based money transfer service

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NTT DoCoMo Inc is planning to tie up with Mizuho Bank to enable cell phone subscribers to wire money to another subscriber without knowing the payee’s bank account number, industry sources said Wednesday. DoCoMo customers will only be required to put the cell phone number of the payee into their phone and the payee will be required to specify bank accounts to which Mizuho Bank will transfer the money, the sources said.

Transfers are expected to be limited to about 30,000 yen a month for each subscriber, a DoCoMo spokesman said. Further details such as DoCoMo’s banking partner and the service charge will be decided soon.

The move follows deregulation in the banking sector allowing non-financial firms to provide such services as money withdrawals, deposits and transfers, as well as personal loans.

DoCoMo has said it will focus on new services and technologies rather than trying to win new subscribers in Japan, where almost everyone already has a mobile telephone and the population is shrinking.