Harris Adds Cell Phone Access to Accounts
Harris Bank rolled out wireless technology Tuesday that enables customers to check investment and deposit accounts using cellular phones.The Chicago-based unit of Bank of Montreal is working with Toronto-based 724 Solutions Inc. and Kansas City, Mo.-based Sprint PCS. The 100 Harris customers who have signed up for the service can view their account balances and transactions in real time, transfer funds between accounts, reorder checks, look at stock and index quotes, and view personal investment portfolios. The service is currently free, but the banking company said it will eventually charge a fee.
Wireless services have been available to Bank of Montreal customers in Canada since May.
"There is an announcement every other day that a bank is interested in wireless banking or that they think it is neat, but we have put it in the customers' hands," said Mark Dickelman, Harris Bank's vice president for wireless and mobile initiatives.
Harris plans to expand the service to include other portable Internet devices such as Palm Pilots and pagers.
Mr. Dickelman said he expects users to be able to conduct wireless investment transactions by the middle of summer.
State Street Research Hires Evergreen Exec
State Street Research and Management appointed an executive from First Union Corp.'s Evergreen Funds unit to its international equity team on Monday.Eleanor Marsh has joined State Street as a vice president and associate portfolio manager.
The newly created position was designed to increase the company's investment efforts in Asia, said Jim Weiss, the bank's chief investment officer and head of the group.
Ms. Marsh, 40, was a portfolio manager and an international funds analyst for Boston-based Evergreen Investment Management Co., where she worked for 11 years. At Evergreen, Ms. Marsh focused on the Japanese and Asian markets.
State Street Research and Management, a unit of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., had $53 billion of assets under management at the end of January. Ms. Marsh's duties are being handled by the fund's management team until a successor is appointed, an Evergreen spokesman said.
U.S. Bancorp Unit Extends Contract with SEI
First American Asset Management, the asset management arm of U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis, said Tuesday that it renewed its contract for SEI Investments to provide fund accounting and subadministration for its fund family.Terms of the multiyear contract were not disclosed. First American Funds has $33 billion under management.
SEI Investments, of Oaks, Pa., has serviced First American Funds since 1992. It also provides services to 15 other banking companies, including SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta; Unionbancal Corp. of San Francisco, mostly owned by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi; and Allfirst Bancorp of Baltimore, a unit of Allied Irish Banks PLC.
SEI company manages and administers more than $255 billion of investable assets and processes over $1.5 trillion of assets.
Evergreen Buys Assets of Two Bond Funds
Evergreen Funds, the fund unit of Charlotte, N.C.-based First Union Corp., has completed the acquisition of $372 billion of assets from two Santa Cruz, Calif., bond funds.Evergreen put its name on the Davis Tax-Free High Income Fund B, which has $343 million of assets. The company merged the Davis Intermediate Investment Grade Bond Fund, which had $29 million of assets, into the Evergreen Intermediate Term Bond Fund.
Evergreen, which has $83 billion of assets, announced its plans to acquire the Davis funds in December. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
- Compiled by Matt Ackermann
