Banks are eager to turn mobile phones into a new channel, and some began working on specialized applications to reach customers even before carriers had shown much interest in supporting the technology. But experts said that this early approach, where applications were designed to reach customers of a single bank, failed to get broad consumer acceptance.
The new model has carriers trying to put as many financial services — and providers — as possible in front of their customers to ensure their lineups appeal to just about anyone.
The latest example is Sprint Nextel Corp.'s MyMoneyManager application, which can be used to manage funds at BB&T Corp. and International Bancshares Corp. of Laredo, Tex., and to initiate transfers through the PayPal Inc. unit of eBay Inc. mFoundry Inc., which developed the software, said it will soon support accounts at Citigroup Inc. and at least one other bank, and that it expects other carriers to introduce versions of the application within three months.
Nick Holland, a senior analyst at Aite Group LLC of Boston, said the fragmented mobile banking offerings have hindered their use. Some carriers are preloading some mobile banking applications on some of their phones, some let users download certain applications, and other users can reach their banks through the browsers built into their phones.
The result is a hodgepodge of applications that may or may not reach the right customers, Mr. Holland said. Letting carriers take over is "the model that has to work," he said, because they are the point of contact when consumers have problems, and the carriers would rather focus on a single application that supports many financial companies than deal with many individualized ones.
Such collaboration was inevitable, and the next wave of mobile banking technology will resemble Sprint's, Mr. Holland said. "There really isn't any option."
Using one application to reach many banks is "a step forward," Mr. Holland said. "It's good to see there is a mixture of players who are bringing this to market."
mFoundry's mobile banking software rival Firethorn Holdings LLC has also tried to offer consumers access to different financial companies. People with accounts at multiple companies that use its software can use their phonesreach each of the companies.
Sprint began offering the software in March but has not formally introduced it.
Drew Sievers, a co-founder of mFoundry and its chief executive, said that Citi and another mFoundry bank customer, which he would not name, would be included in the application by the time the telecom company announces the service, which is expected this month. He said that agreeing to work with mFoundry on a unified application shows that many big banks are serious about trying to attract more customers to mobile banking. "Some of these bigger players are finally turning their battleships in the direction of mobile payments. I don't think there's going to be any stopping those guys," he said.
Red Gillen, a senior banking analyst for the Boston market research firm Celent LLC, the financial research arm of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.'s Oliver Wyman consulting unit, said that Sprint's application, and others that follow this model, would likely boost use of mobile banking services because they make it much easier for consumers to begin banking with their phones.
