Citi has launched the pilot of a new mobile person-to-person money transfer service with Obopay Inc., a mobile payments service provider.

The Citi-Obopay mobile payment service is being offered to all Citibank customers in the U.S., with a focus on Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Maryland and New Jersey. This is the first time that a real-time, person-to-person mobile money transfer service with the ability to link directly to a bank account has been offered in the U.S.

"Citi's goal is to be where our customers need us and interact with them in the way that they choose -- in person, online, in transit, or on their mobile phone -- both in the U.S. and around the world," said Michael Garelik, vice president of innovation for Citi, New York. "To that end, Citi has been working to bring consumers a suite of services that they want or will want in the future.

"We view mobile transfers as one of the core services of such a suite," he said. "We are marketing the Citi Obopay trial separately from our other mobile offerings, but in the long term we hope to integrate this functionality into future versions of a holistic Citi Mobile offering."

Citibank customers participating in the pilot program can activate and connect the mobile service to their Citibank checking account or setup up a new mobile payment account at http://citi.obopay.com.

Then, using their handset's Web browser, text messaging or the downloadable mobile application, customers can send and receive money nearly instantly. They need only the mobile phone numbers of friends and family members.

Assuming that the trial is successful, Citi hopes to proceed into full commercial roll-out within a year, although no decisions have been made officially.

Citi will market the Citi-Obopay mobile payments service through a variety of traditional and non-traditional means, including emails and other direct communications to existing Citibank customers.

In addition, Citi will run a more broadly-based online campaign in its focus markets, including banners and search. The marketing campaign will also include some mobile placement.

The Citi-Obopay service is available on virtually all handsets and carriers.

The SMS-based service is supported by AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.

The downloadable Obopay application is available on Verizon, AT&T and Helio handsets, as well as for RIM's BlackBerry devices.

The mobile Internet version, available at http://m.citi.obopay.com, is accessible on all Web-enabled handsets.

"Citi-Obopay is the first real-time, person-to-person mobile money transfer service with the ability to link directly to a bank account that has been offered in the U.S.," said Gregory Holmes, president of the U.S. division of Obopay, Redwood City, CA. "We are pleased that response to the initial trial in 2007 was strong and is now being offered to all Citibank customers."

Citi and Obopay first joined forces in 2007 when Citi became an equity investor in Obopay and launched a consumer trial with Citi customers in select U.S. markets.

The Citi-Obopay mobile payment pilot is one of many services Citi is rolling out around the world.

Financial services company Citi Group has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries.

The company provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage and wealth management.

Citi's major brand names include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex, and Nikko.

Obopay is a service that lets consumers and businesses buy products, pay bills and transfer money via any mobile phone using Obopay's mobile application, SMS, the mobile Web, or Obopay.com.

Obopay works on any phone and any carrier to provide consumers and businesses with the convenience of mobile payments.

"Mobile transfers is an exciting service, and one we expect our customers will come to demand," Mr. Garelik said. "We believe that partnering with best-in-class technology providers such as Obopay allows Citi to be at the forefront of bringing innovative products and services to market.

"The Citi Obopay service allows transfers between Citibank customers with the service, but also allows transfers to and from other Obopay subscribers, including those who are not even Citi customers," he said.