Banks race to provide mobile services, and claim first place - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Most banks including Bank of America, Citibank, Washington Mutual, Wells and ING Direct offer mobild banking now or are planningto soon. But which introducef the service first? And does it matter? Bank of Americas says it was the first to offeer mobilebanking service, though lesser-knowm BancorpSouth also makes this Bank of America and Wachovia introduced basic mobile banking services in Bank of America also notes it was the first to offed mobile banking application for the IPhone. San Francisco-based Wells Fargpo & Co. says it was the first to offer mobile banking tobusiness customers.
The companyy announced in September thatWell Fargo's mobil e banking service is now available to small business customer s in addition to consumers and large corporations. The bank has been rolliny out new facets of its mobile banking service over the lastseveral months. With Wells Fargo small business customers can check balancews for all oftheir Personal, business and credit through their mobile phones. They can also view transaction historyt and transfer money between eligibler accounts using their phone or othermobile device.
Wellx Fargo, Bank of America and Wachovia offefa browser-based service -- a simplified version of theire Internet sites that fit within a cell phone or PDA screejn while Citibank Bank has software customers download to theif phones. Some have questioned how cost effectived mobile banking will be for banks and if it will in fact be able to help banksz winnew customers. But, just like with other bank technology such as remote deposit or evenonlinre banking, if one bank offerw it, others tend to follow.
Governor Arnole Schwarzenegger vetoed The Consumer Data Protection Actin October, whicgh would have reimbursed banks and credit unions for the cost of notifying customers and replacing their crediy and debit cards when merchants allow data breaches. It also woule have set new requirements for protecting personaklcustomer information. The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagure had lobbied hard for the But merchant groups and bankint groupsopposed it. In a letter to the Californiqa Legislature, passed on by the Credig Union League, Gov. Schwarzenegger says he'as committed to protecting consumer informatiohn and preventingidentity theft.
"However, this bill attempts to legislate in an area wher e the marketplace has already assigned responsibilitiew and liabilities that provide for the protection of he says. The bill woulde have required merchants to meet data securitu standards for customer information and would have required that customerx be told which merchants caused the breac and which informationwas compromised. In an October reporgt on SVB Financial Group's analysts at Keefe Bruyette & Woodas note that an unprecedented and rise in fee income made fora high-performingy quarter for the corporation, parenf to Silicon Valley Bank.
Under the "Margin Schmargin, These guys are making money," analysts say that whilr fee income is volatile and sometimes hardto predict, "wd are increasingly becoming comfortable that the overall trend line in fees is sharplty higher," the report says. Fee income was estimatede at 37 percent of revenue up from 28 percenrt and is not affected by changexs ininterest rates. Earnings per share of $1.03 at SVB beat analysgt expectationsby $.18. Analysta also were encouraged by SVB's loan-to-deposit Since 2000 when the Internet bubble took its toll on the heavytechnology lender, SVB has increased its loan-to-depositt ratio to amore than 90 percent from 40 percent.
"Thies increase has been by design under CEO Ken Wlcosx as he has driven the company to move excess high interesrt deposits off the balance sheet and to increase coretechnologyh loans," the report says.