NAB tries to Flik off Kaching

Three of the big four banks in Australia now possess a peer-to-peer payments app, with the National Australia Bank (NAB) joining the fray with its own app called Flik, which is available now on Android and iOS platforms.

The app will allow users to send and receive payments from/to their transaction accounts without needing to enter account information. Payments are able to be sent via email, SMS, Facebook, NFC, or with QR codes.

People who receive a payment via email or SMS, but are not users of the Flik service or NAB itself, are only able to claim their payment via the Flik app.

This means that users who are not running on iPhone or Android devices, or do not wish to install the Flik app, have no method for claiming the payment.

Any payment that remains unclaimed for 48 hours will be expired.

Flik has a daily transaction limit of AU$1,000, and can handle up to 10 transactions at a time.

The app was released after an internal NAB test of 1,000 participants.

"We were able to learn a lot from the people who participated in our internal trial, and we want to repeat that process with our customers," Antony Cahill, NAB executive general manager Digital and Direct Banking, said in a statement.

"We welcome feedback on the app, and will use it to shape how we update NAB Flik in the future."

The mobile peer payment space is already occupied by ANZ's goMoney app, which was launched three years ago, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA) Kaching app that first appeared in October 2011.

Last month, CBA stated in its annual results that Kaching has seen more than 1 million downloads across the Android and iOS platforms on which it is offered, and has handled over AU$9 billion in transactions.