Bank of America (Asia) has launched a new wireless transactional banking service using technology from 724 Solutions.
The service will allow customers of Bank of America (Asia) to access banking services with various Internet-enabled mobile devices — such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) - regardless of the network carrier to which they subscribe.
The wireless offering will enable Hong Kong personal banking customers to access real-time account information and perform banking functions, such as account balance and transactional enquiries, mutual fund and share trading account portfolio enquiries, fund transfers, bill payment, and the purchase and sale of foreign currencies. Wireless share trading and actionable alert services are also planned for the second half of 2001.
Bank of America (Asia) customers will be able to access the new Wireless Banking Service simply by activating a pre-set profile on their wireless device for a secure, end-to-end connection with the bank's WAP site. The service is currently available to all WAP-enabled Siemens and Nokia phones, and other selected GSM and CDMA phones, as well as Palm PDAs. Existing Bank of America (Asia) online banking and bank-by-phone customers will be enrolled in the new service automatically.
"We are harnessing the market potential of wireless applications, and in doing so, we can significantly expand the online banking services we offer to our customers," says Samuel Tsien, president and chief executive officer, Bank of America (Asia).