Metavante Corp. has teamed up with a U.K. payments software company to create a joint venture aimed at developing mobile banking technology in the United States.
Metavante, the payments technology subsidiary of the Milwaukee banking company Marshall & Ilsley Corp., announced the agreement Tuesday with Monitise Ltd., a London division of the information technology consulting company Morse PLC.
Frank D'Angelo, the president of Metavante's payment solutions unit, said there is strong consumer interest in adding banking functions to mobile electronic devices. "Whether it's a mobile phone with an RFID chip in it, or whether it's a mobile phone as a payment device, this is just going to be another vehicle that people carry around."
The software the joint venture is expected to produce will initially permit people to check account balances, transfer funds between bank accounts, and pay bills. Eventually, Mr. D'Angelo said, it could also enable mobile devices to be used to pay for items at merchant locations.
"I think banks are going to move in this direction as rapidly as they can without disrupting" existing payment mechanisms such as debit and credit cards, he said.
Still, he conceded that mobile payments will probably get off to a slow start as consumers become accustomed to the concept.
Monitise is already part of a similar joint venture with the automated teller machine company Link in the United Kingdom. The U.S. partnership will be based in Milwaukee and is expected to be in operation in 60 to 90 days. Metavante will own 51% of it, and Metavante's debit network subsidiary, NYCE Network, will handle the transactions.
Dan Schatt, a senior analyst at the Boston research firm Celent LLC, said that mobile payments in the United Kingdom are more advanced than in the United States, but consumer adoption of Monitise service there has been sluggish.
"There hasn't been a lot of pickup in it," Mr. Schatt said. "You're paying upwards of 25 pence just for a balance inquiry."
He said he expected Metavante would have to find a way to offer the service free to consumers if it is to succeed in the United States.
