Anam Mobile today unveiled a service that will allow global money transfers via SMS as a new value-added service for North American wireless carriers.

SMS Money Transfer allows consumers to send money to people in their contact list using a simple three-step procedure. Firstly the user writes an SMS that begins “#cash” followed by the amount they wish to send and selects the person they want to send it to from their address book. Then the system confirms the transaction and asks for the sender’s PIN. When the PIN is entered correctly the money is instantly debited from the sender’s bank account as a virtual ATM transaction and simultaneously credited to the bank account of the recipient.

The service could be used by parents to send emergency funds to their children at college. Similarly it could be used by migrant workers to send money back to relatives in their home countries. The service could even be set up to pay bills or invoices for work transactions.