ING Bank, the Wilmington, Del., arm of ING Group NV, is offering a mobile banking service.
Rudy Wolfs, the chief information officer and chief technology officer at thrift, said recently that it began offering the "Orange Mobile" service to customers in June after testing it for six months in-house.
"We're generally one of the front-runners in supporting the direct banking model," he said.
ING developed the mobile service in-house, adapting the company's Web site to what Mr. Wolfs called a "thin Web skin" suitable for the small screens of mobile devices.
The service lets customers check balances, transfer funds between accounts, locate surcharge-free automated teller machines, check the status of bill payments and pending transactions, and refer friends to the bank.
"It's what you would need between picking up the kids and buying groceries," Mr. Wolfs said. ING has not formally announced the service, he said, adding that this is a "soft launch" before notices are sent to customers this month.
The thrift has a page on its Web site dedicated to frequently asked questions.
There, it specifically cautions, "we don't officially support any specific device or browser," but it says it has tested the service with a range of hardware and software combinations.
One category notably not supported is BlackBerry mobile e-mail devices that use browsers such as AT&T Corp.'s proprietary Edge browser, because that software does not support standard Internet encryption. The kinds of BlackBerrys that use a browser developed by the device maker Research in Motion Ltd. will work with Orange Mobile, the site says.
Mr. Wolfs predicted a good future for mobile banking sites.
"In 12 months to 24 months, every bank will have one," he said. "Some banks will execute it better than others. We tend to be very good at execution."
