Speaking at the first demonstration of the Finance Mobility Platform (FMP) technology, co-hosted by Compaq and Microsoft today, Mike Smith, practice principal for mobile finance with Compaq, hailed m-banking as the key to retaining customers, but warned financial services companies of the need to target key customer segments, such as high net worth individuals, small business customers and fashion-conscious younger customers.

The two companies are currently showcasing their joint FMP initiative which aims to create a roadmap and development methodology to minimise the risk for financial services organisations wanting to build and pilot their own mobile solutions. The platform has been developed with industry partners AIT, DAT Group, 724 Solutions, Fincentric and weComm.

David Slight, industry manager for financial services, Microsoft, says: "Customers now expect access to their financial information at any time, from anywhere, and the challenge to financial services organisations is to provide the right services, at the right time, to the right devices."

The FMP includes applications for accessing financial services from wireless devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops and mobile phones.

It is envisaged the FMP will be deployed to provide a 24x7 secure banking channel to improve customers' overall banking experience; target high net worth individuals and offer a single view of financial information; offer customers entertainment channels with tailored portals and location-based information; target small office/ home office customers with affordable mobile solutions; offer younger customers and students mobile devices as a leisure accessory; and increase financial services companies' ability to cross sell products such as personal loans, mortgages, reducing the likelihood of customers switching to competitors.