IMGCAP(1)]
NCR Corp. Tuesday announced the signing of a contract to provide hosted mobile -and online-banking services to Hanmi Bank, the nation's largest Korean-American-owned financial institution in terms of assets.
Through its NCR Aptra Mobile Banking and Mobile Business Banking unit, Dayton, Ohio-based NCR will provide the Los Angeles-based financial institution an integrated menu of services that includes online banking, mobile banking and mobile business banking, Jeff Dudash, an NCR spokesperson tells ATM&Debit News.
NCR's mobile-banking agreement with Hanmi is one of 10 NCR has signed with financial institutions. NCR, the world's largest ATM manufacturer based on 2007 shipments, will host the services so Hanmi does not have to make a large investment in its infrastructure to provide the services to its customers on its own.
Hosting mobile-banking services for bank clients can range from several thousand dollars to millions, says Nick Holland, senior analyst for Boston-based Aite Group.
"It depends on how sophisticated or unsophiscated they want to be," Holland says. "If a bank wants the full spectrum of text messaging, WAP portals and downloadable applications, it could be expensive."
Except for a few large banks such as San Francisco-based Wells Fargo&Co. or Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp., banks are buying mobile- banking services from a vendor, Holland says.
Even BofA and Wells Fargo are buying some mobile banking services from vendors to complement the systems they have built, he adds.
NCR is a reselling the mobile-banking services of MShift Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and mFoundry of Sausalito, Calif., after signing agreements with both companies in 2007.
"I am not aware of NCR doing anything on its own, " Holland says.
MShift enables financial institutions to reach customers via their cellular telephones through short-message-service text messaging.
In October 2007, NCR was one of the participants in a $15 million round of financing for mFoundry, which provides downloadable applications for cell phones. mFoundry executives a centerpiece of its Self Service Universe Executive Conference last April in Orlando, Fla.
One NCR executive told the audience that mobile banking will become much larger than the dot.com revolution because more individuals have cellular telephones than personal computers.
"Cell phones are outselling personal computers 3 to 1 worldwide," Aite's Holland says.
Mobile banking provides another self-service channel, says Brian J. Bailey, NCR vice president of financial-industry marketing (ADN,10/16).Self-service channels include ATMs, online banking and now mobile banking.
With Hanmi Bank, NCR is expected to integrate the bank's mobile-banking services with its online-banking services that would replace another system that Hanmi already had in place, Dudash says.
"NCR's [products and services] are helping us extend our customer reach and raise our level of service for both retail and business clients, keeping our bilingual needs in mind," Wesley Won, Hanmi senior vice president and manager of management information systems, says in a statement. "We see NCR as a solution partner that can tie these channels together," Won says.
NCR's Aptra Mobile Banking and Mobile Business Banking unit offers SMS text messaging, browser-based mobile banking and downloadable applications that Blackberry phones and Apple iPhones support.
"This service provides much more than checking balances and moving money around," Dudash says. ATM
