Barclays has launched what it’s describing as Europe’s first person-to-person service for sending and receiving money using mobile phone numbers. It’s called Barclays Pingit and will allow anyone with a UK current account, UK mobile phone number and compatible smartphone to send and receive money at no additional cost.

The sending part of the service is currently only available to Barclays current account customers but is expected to be available to everyone by early March.

The number of mobile banking users worldwide will reach 530 million by 2013, up from just over 300 million last year, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

It says mobile services are becoming a fundamental component of banks’ business strategies as they respond to the current economic climate.

A new report from KPMG says consumers around the world are embracing new technology - and consumers in the UK are adopting many of these new technologies faster than the rest of the world.

The KPMG report, entitled ‘The Converged Lifestyle’, also says UK consumers appear to be more concerned about privacy and security than other countries.

Mobile banking and payment company mFoundry, which recently announced a partnership with MasterCard, has confirmed it’s received an investment of $18 million (£11.5 million) in growth capital.

The investment was led by MasterCard along with Intel Capital, FIS and Motorola Mobility.

MasterCard and US-based mobile banking company mFoundry have announced an international partnership that’ll that let more banks give their customers the option to pay for items with their mobile phones.

mFoundry has also received a strategic investment to from MasterCard.