Early next month, customers will be able to access online banking features such as account balances, funds transfer and bill payment on their Palm devices says the bank. In the near future, wireless brokerage services will be introduced.

The service was developed in partnership with Toronto-based Sona Innovations. Royal Bank took a 20 per cent equity stake in Sona last May.

Sona's technology does not use the "middleware" or gateway servers commonly used in other wireless banking services, and is thus much more secure, claims the company. Most mobile banking applications typically require customer data such as passwords to be decrypted as they arrive at the gateway servers. The information is then re-encrypted before going on to the bank. For the Royal Bank service, the secure connection is established on the Palm itself and communicates directly with the bank's servers, just as an Internet browser would.

The architecture was reviewed by Palm Canada and rated the most secure wireless banking service currently available on the market, claims the bank.

"This is the way all Palm applications should be developed," says Michael Moskowitz, president and general manager of Palm Canada. "Royal Bank and Sona Innovations took a customer-focused approach in designing the application to ensure the service delivers the power of wireless banking without compromising on its commitment to delivering true end-to-end security.

To begin using the free services, Royal Bank online customers need a Palm handheld with eight megabytes of memory connected to a digital cellular (PCS) telephone with wireless data service from carriers such as Fido, Bell Mobility or Roger's and an Internet Service Provider. The Palm application can then be downloaded from the Royal Bank Web site.