Deal or no deal

JUST like Noel Edmonds, more and more of us now have a direct line to the banker, according to global study by analysts Juniper Research.

However, it won't be him calling us. Rather, some 800 million people around the world will be accessing our accounts via our mobiles by 2011, with the number of transactions climbing from 2.7 billion in 2007 to 37 billion in three years' time. Despite fears over how secure this method will be, the average value of payments made in this way is expected to double over that period, and quadruple in emerging markets.

Juniper Research reports that the greatest number of mobile banking users will be found in China and the Far East, following by Western Europe and the Indian sub-continent.

Will this uptake encourage us to behave with more restraint when we're out shopping, pricked into logging on while in the mall? RR certainly hopes so, but won't hold its breath.