Pat, I think it's great that you got to go to the conference and see the exhibits & presentations. I would have enjoyed being able to eyeball coming innovations. Thanks too for the link to that story.
As part of its bold plans to increase its customer base tenfold to a billion clients by 2012, Citigroup Inc. this week launched a project aimed at delivering wireless banking applications to customers by the end of this year.
Have to say, I'm all for wireless banking and its convenience. That's one innovation I'm really looking forward to, as long as security is sufficient.
To make those plans possible, e-Citi has partnered with 724 Solutions Inc., a Toronto-based vendor whose software was designed to connect any device to any mobile network. To secure those transactions, e-Citi has tapped Sonera SmartTrust, a Helsinki, Finland-based mobile communications vendor.
Citigroup, the nation's largest bank with operations in more than 50 countries, previously rolled out mobile phone-based banking services to customers in Singapore and Hong Kong in January and April, respectively. But to use the services of Citibank, Citigroup's consumer banking operation, in those regions, customers must have a specific mobile phone service. The new project is aimed at allowing customers "to manage their finances using any device from anywhere at anytime," said Alan Young, a vice president at e-Citi in New York.
It's no surprise to me that they initiated this service (as a test market?) in Hong Kong. I had the great luck & pleasure to go there in 1994 and I saw more people using mobile/cellular phones than driving private cars. Traffic jams there were "pedestrian jams."
They will IMHO need to do just as they are doing to appeal to a large enough market - make the services available from any device, and not just certain ones.
E-Citi is expected to roll out its first wireless banking applications in Asia sometime during the fourth quarter, Young said. The bank plans to deliver wireless stock trading and bill payment applications sometime next year, he added.
Cool! Wireless stock trading. <G>
Another hurdle for Citigroup: Most of the mobile phones used in the U.S. are analog-based, which means they cannot accept or transmit text-based messages, Marenzi noted. Plus, it will be a "big challenge" for Citigroup to process wireless transactions because each of its country offices has a different back-office environment, according to Bill Bradway, also a Meridien analyst.
Do I hear the need for a standard? <GG>
This link from your link was a good read. Note the connections in this article re: Bell Mobility and 3Com to Phone.com:
nationalpost.com |
