Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

U.S. Brokerages and Banks Push to Close Wireless Cash Gap

But U.S. will lag far behind Europe, Asia

January 15, 2001 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - The number of people around the world who transfer money using wireless devices is expected to jump from 4.6 million today to 60 million by 2004, according to a new report that was published last week by Celent Communications LLC. But the number of mobile payers in the U.S. is expected to grow to only 2.5 million by then.
The reason for the disparity?
"There are more financial institutions in Europe and Asia that offer these services," said Octavio Marenzi, managing director at Cambridge, Mass.-based Celent.
The proliferation of mobile financial services has been spurred by the push among countries in these regions to standardize on certain types of devices, he added. In addition, he said, a higher percentage of Europeans use digital phones - there are virtually no analog cell phones left there. By contrast, 40% of the mobile phones used in the U.S. are analog.
With a large market of potential customers that's been virtually untapped, a number of U.S. banks and brokerages are trying to close that gap with wireless payment services for consumers and business customers.
For example, Bank of America Corp. will soon be rolling out a national online bill payment platform that will eventually include a wireless component, said Mark Williams, a spokesman at the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank.
"That's high on our list of something that our users are going to want and we will be developing," he said, although he declined to give a time line. Bank of America, which passed the 3 million mark for online customers last week, has the largest base of online banking users in the country.
Online brokerages, such as San Francisco-based Charles Schwab & Co., have been offering wireless services to their customers since last summer.
Given the proliferation of wireless devices, such as cell phones, pagers and personal digital assistants, these companies usually go through a third party to link with customers through different telecommunication companies.
Toronto-based 724 Solutions Inc. is one of the market leaders in this field, with a core platform used by banking and brokerage services that is now moving into mobile e-commerce.
Easy Payments
For example, a customer at Bank of Montreal - one of 724's clients - can visit a shopping site affiliated with the bank through the bank's e-commerce portal. The customer can then select a product and pay for it using an automated process that fills in the required fields.
Bank of Montreal supports more than 70 different devices and already offers other connectivity tools, such as third-party electronicwallets, according to Chris Jarman, 724's executive vice president for mobile commerce.
Another start-up, Bellevue, Wash.-based CheckSpace Inc. already lets business users send money to an e-mail address - via the Internet and through the use of wireless devices. Palo Alto, Calif.-based X.com's PayPal lets individuals send money to each other in a similar way.
The key to ensuring success in the U.S. wireless payments industry, according to Marenzi, is for the major players - including financial institutions, telecommunications carriers and merchants - to partner with one another. Those firms seeking to set up closed, proprietary wireless payment systems "are unlikely to succeed," he added.



Jump to comments

Financial

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER
Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.
WHITE PAPER
Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.
WHITE PAPER
Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
Learn how to successfully deploy a WAN optimization solution that is specifically tuned for a mobile environment!  

Faster, Cheaper and Easier to Maintain
Can you afford not to upgrade your servers to today's advanced, energy-efficient technologies?  

Effectively Implementing Datacenter Automation
Effectively select and deploy the best datacenter automation solution today!

Aligning IT to Business: The Rising Importance of Application Delivery Networks
Application Delivery Networking (ADN) will play a vital role in helping enterprises incorporate strategic technologies to achieve business initiatives.

Mitigate Risk, Lower Costs and Improve Network Efficiency
Create a stable IP network that not only meets today's challenges, but is flexible enough to also meet future demands.