Banks adopt wireless technologies
By Ephraim Schwartz
From InfoWorld.com
Published at: Tuesday, Jul. 11, 2000 1:21 pm PT
THE BANKING INDUSTRY continues to shed its staid image as one financial institution after another rolls
out leading edge wireless services to its both its internal sales force and business customers.
Chase Manhattan Bank, in New York City, the third largest financial services company in the U.S.,
announced on Tuesday a wireless service that will give traders in its Global Markets division real time
market updates.
The technology, developed by DataLink.net in San Jose, will work on multiple wireless platforms anyone of
which traders may be using, such as cell phones, the Palm operating system and the RIM 950.
DataLink licenses the electronic market feeds from the exchanges; combining the raw data with parameters
set by the traders pushes the filtered data stream down to the wireless device. The system allows the traders
to set up a portfolio based on market conditions that they indicate and send queries back through the
system.
"The service makes our traders more productive. It keeps them in touch and they are no longer tied to their
desks," said a Chase spokesperson.
Hosted by DataLink as an ASP solution, currently the service will not allow for two-way trading
transactions. But according to DataLink that will be rolled out in the next phase.
Like most companies Chase does not have a single cell phone standard for employees, so DataLink created
the system for five standard cell phone displays.
"There was no way we can modify it for every single cell phone type viewer, but we made it to be a
consistent format so that the technology knows enough to format and keep appropriate data together," said
Pamela LaPine, a DataLink vice president.
Meanwhile, Wachovia Corporation, based in Winston-Salem, NC., the nation's 16th largest financial
institution, announced Tuesday a two-way wireless banking solution for its retail and commercial customers.
The service will aggregate bill payment and give banking customers access to real time account information.
The service will also let consumers transfer funds between accounts, and monitor selected stocks.
The system was developed by 724 Solutions Inc., which is headquartered in Toronto, and will work on
multiple platforms including cell phones, pagers and personal digital assistants.
Commercial customers will also be able to access treasury functions such as balance and transaction
reporting, payment approvals and account notification, according to Wachovia officials.
Rather than presenting a button-downed banking image, the bankers of the new economy appear to want to
promote their image as technology leaders.
"Wachovia has established itself as an innovator and technology leader by leveraging the Internet in the
development of enhanced financial services," said Lawrence G. Baxter, head of Wachovia's eBusiness
Division.
InfoWorld Editor at Large Ephraim Schwartz is based in San Francisco.
Copyright (c) 1999 by InfoWorld Media Group, Inc., a subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc.
Reprinted from InfoWorld, 155 Bovet Road, San Mateo, CA 94402. Further reproduction is
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