A new survey claims that almost one-third of the world's leading financial firms plan to launch mobile banking services in the next 12 to 24 months.

The survey, conducted by market researcher Loudhouse for mobile messaging service Sybase 365, showed that 66 percent of banks consider mobile banking as an opportunity to improve existing customer service.

"The network speeds are there, the device capabilities are there and people are used to using the phone for more than voice," said Haridas Nair, senior director of m-commerce at Sybase 365, Dublin, CA.

"As customers use these phones and the banks look at them, they realize that this is one of the only devices where they can proactively establish a relationship with the customer that offers convenience and immediacy," he said.

Although mobile banking is advanced in Europe and Asia-Pacific, the United States is expected to post the strongest growth.

Survey results show that 53 percent of U.S. banks surveyed expect to launch mobile banking services within the next 24 months.

U.S. banks have approached mobile banking in several different ways.

"Some banks have started with using SMS for alerts and notifications, which allows the bank to establish a proactive relationship with the customer," Mr. Nair said.

"Other banks have used a browser model, which definitely provides value to customers if they want to look up their accounts, statements and balances while they are mobile," he said.

"Finally, banks have launched a rich-client-based solution that provides convenience to the customers for banking on-the-go."

Upwardly mobile
A separate study from Boston market researcher Celent claims that an estimated 46 million U.S. households currently bank online.

Also, a recent Harris Interactive study showed that 16 percent of U.S. adults are already using mobile banking services another 35 percent are open to checking bank account balances and transfer funds through mobile phones, smartphones or PDAs.

The Sybase 366 survey results come just as wireless carrier Cellular South, Jackson, MS, and BancorpSouth Inc. partnered with chipmaker Qualcomm's Firethorn Holdings LLC for mobile banking.

With this deal, Cellular South customers will be able to view account balances and history, transfer funds and pay bills from their mobile phones using a password-protected gateway.

These mobile banking customers will need to have an account with BancorpSouth as well as online access to their account.

In a related Sybase 365 mobile banking survey released last year, 33 percent of consumers expressed an interest in mobile banking.

Sybase said one reason for the increasing adoption of mobile banking is the level of awareness that customers have of that service.

In fact, 65 percent of the banks who currently offer mobile services said that marketing budgets and activities to increase awareness are part of their strategy for this year.

Among the most common mobile banking services available to consumers currently are balance on demand, which is offered by 87 percent of banks with mobile banking services, transaction alerts (77 percent), money transfers (74 percent) and balance alerts (71 percent).

Sybase 365 said that of the banks that offer these services, the main reasons for such offerings is to better the customer experience (87 percent), extend online banking (81 percent) and for achieve competitive advantage (71 percent).

A subsidiary of Sybase Inc., Sybase 365 processes more than 100 billion SMS and MMS messages each year through 700 carriers. It has a significant presence in mobile commerce services.

Mr. Nair's advice to banks is to start with the basics and then ramp up.

"Alerts and notifications are at the heart of mobile banking," he said. "Because that is the only medium that allows you to proactively reach the consumer and provide clear value and immediacy."