Standard Chartered has launched a new mobile application for its corporate clients using Google’s Android smartphone platform.

The bank claims that this is the first corporate banking application designed for Android smartphones that covers authorisation for cash and trade functions.

The Android app is part of the bank’s mobile banking platform, which is fully integrated with the existing online Straight2Bank system which provides a range of e-banking and information to customers.

“Smartphones are quickly changing the way people do business and manage their needs for financial information and control,” says Thomas Wiles, global head of channel management at the bank.

“With this launch, we are thrilled to extend the benefits of anytime, anywhere authorisation to our Straight2Bank clients using Android devices.”

This is a move away from the Apple iPhone platform for the bank, which rolled-out the use of iPhones for its managerial staff globally in 2010.

“Smartphones are quickly changing the way people do business.”

The new application also comes soon after Standard Chartered launched two iPhone apps in 2010, aimed at providing cash and trade functions to corporate clients and providing trade service information to financial institution clients.

Google’s Andriod smartphones have surged in popularity in the past six months; shipments of the phone from the last quarter of 2010 reached more than 33 million units, up from 4.7 million units in the same period of 2009.