Sorry, Google Wallet. Banks can now also enhance their mobile banking services to include commerce functionality, thanks to a new technology announced today by Tyfone, a mobile financial services provider.

Called iCashe, the new mobile wallet blends mobile banking with consumer purchasing, gifting and loyalty programs, according to Tyfone. The first iCashe feature to officially launch allows consumers to purchase, send and redeem merchant gift cards via their phones. Participating retailers already include the likes of Barnes & Noble and Zappos.com.

By infusing additional value into why consumers would use the mobile channel, the vendor argues banks will make more money. Plus, they get a cut. To further lure in customers, iCashe is plugging on its web site the 3% transaction revenue FIs will receive by deploying its technology. Few other details on the new offering are public on its web site.

“A bank ATM card has limited value if a person can only use it to check balances or transfer funds; the same is true for a mobile banking application,” said Siva Narendra, Tyfone’s president of North America, in a statement. “By providing consumers a mobile application that combines banking with commerce capabilities, we’re strengthening the bond between consumers and financial institutions. If banks give their customers something of value, it’s fair for them to make money from it.”

Providing more value to the customer is certainly also key in inspiring greater mobile banking usage, which we also blogged about here.

iCashe is built on top of Typhone’s u4ia mobile financial services platform. If banks add in Tyfone’s secure element technology, the contactless NFC payments’s floodgates are also opened to customers.