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Thursday, March 29, 2007
07:25 AM Texas Time

Trade Tech Talk

Mortgage technology announcements

March 27, 2007

By COCO SALAZAR

The latest news about mortgage technology innovations include announcements about applications for wireless phones.

Starting today, BancorpSouth Inc. customers who subscribe to AT&T Inc.'s wireless service can download an "innovative" mobile banking application directly to their cell phone to view their account balances, transfer funds between accounts, and receive and pay bills, just as they do now through a computer. All information on the mobile banking application is password-protected and encrypted, according to an announcement.

"At BancorpSouth, a key emphasis is on offering our customers convenient, time-saving new ways of managing their money," said Aubrey Patterson, BancorpSouth chairman and chief executive officer. "That is why we were the first financial institution to participate in a trial of mobile banking with AT&T and Firethorn [Holdings LLC], and that is why we are now making this application available to all of our customers."

The overall reactions of BancorpSouth customer participants in the trial were "overwhelmingly positive," Firethorn said in a separate announcement. Among the trial's key findings were that 30 percent of the respondents would pay all of their bills using mobile banking, about 75 percent believed they could make more informed spending decisions, and 83 percent were likely to recommend mobile banking to others.

Other lenders that have signed on to offer the mobile banking service to its customers are Wachovia Corp., Regions Financial Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc., according to Firethorn, which will roll out a nationwide, multimillion-dollar consumer adoption and education campaign designed to make the mobile banking and payments market. Among the reasons cited by the three banks for choosing the application were "a proven business model for generating revenue through new account openings and increased share of wallet."

"Today's announcement represents a critical tipping point in the emerging mobile banking and payments industry and reflects a growing preference by the nation's leading financial institutions for the Firethorn solution and federation strategy for going mobile," Firethorn's CEO said in the written statement.