Cambridge, MA, USA, July 7, 2000 Wireless Financial Services: A Global Overview Communications
Number of users projected to reach 150 million globally by 2004. Little activity, however, in North America.
The past three years have seen an explosion in the number of wireless communication devices, especially in Asia and Europe. The emergence of this new mobile delivery channel presents an opportunity for retail financial institutions looking to proactively engage their customers with additional services and products. Not surprisingly, however, many financial institutions have been reluctant to fully embrace the wireless delivery channel so far, still trying to determine how best to capitalize on the PC-based Internet channel. Meanwhile, telecommunications operators are taking advantage of the increasing penetration of new generation mobile devices and are forging ahead full speed to deploy innovative wireless services.
Members of Celent Communication's Retail Banking and Retail Securities & Investments and research services can download this report electronically by clicking on the icon to the right. In this 27-page report, " ", Celent Communications examines the global penetration of wireless devices and analyzes its impact on financial services. The report also provides an in-depth overview of the technological trends associated with the wireless delivery of financial services and identifies the strategic issues financial institutions must address in order to develop comprehensive business and technology strategies for mobile financial services. "While mobile commerce is still in its infancy, wireless financial services are already a reality: In some regions like Scandinavia or Japan, driven by the successful launch of mobile Internet services, mobile financial services are already among the top services in terms of customer demand," explains Octavio Marenzi, Managing Director at Celent. "European and Asian financial institutions will lead this trend over the next 2 years; deploying a wireless access channel is an absolute necessity for financial institutions in these markets. However, in North America, there is no compelling reason for financial institutions to offer wireless services. US banks and brokerage firms implementing mobile services are likely to see very low numbers of users, and have difficulty achieving positive returns on their investments."A Table of Contents is available online.
