As it became known on Tuesday, Bangkok Bank signed up for Fiserv's Mobile Money service aiming to get access to its Internet banking platform from their handsets.

The new M-Com powered browser-based application now is available in two languages Thai and English. The new service enables customers to view account information, pay bills, transfer funds and top up their mobile phone account.

Fiserv says that Thailand's mobile penetration rate is one of the highest in the Asia Pacific region, making over 80%, and revealing a rapid growth from 44% in 2004. Thus it claims to become the most important regional market for mobile banking over the next five years forcing rapid development of the technology.

Fiserv forecasts the number of people around the world using the technology will grow from 20 million in 2008 to 913 million in 2014, a CAGR of 89%, with Asia Pacific accounting for 65% of the total user base.