Seems like one of those things that should’ve happened a long time ago: using your cell phone for banking. But this week Citibank is joining just a handful of other U.S. banks in offering such a service.

“We’re changing; banking is changing,” Citigroup CEO Charles Prince said. “You got to keep up with that change; you have to lead change; we’re ahead of this; we’re leading change in the banking industry.”

Citi Mobile says this is the first downloadable banking application here in the United States, which they say makes it quicker than similar so-called browser-based applications from competitors like Wachovia and Bank of America that have to load every page from the web.

“We just think the downloaded application is going to be so much more immediate and so much faster for the customer,” Jennifer Vos of Citi Mobile said. “It provides balances, payments, transfers, you can connect directly to customer service, you can connect directly to an ATM or branch in the location where you are.”

Mobile banking, just like mobile phones themselves, has taken off more quickly overseas. Here in the U.S., the big challenge is convincing users it’s easy and safe.

So far it seems those who bank online think it’ll be a smooth transition to the cell phone, but there are those who aren’t too comfortable with the switch, especially those who are worried about keeping track of their cell phone.

Citi Mobile insists its application has the same encryption as the online site and is just as secure.

“It only assigns the accounts you choose to your phone and so I couldn’t access your account from my phone and vice versa and there’s no data stored on the phone itself,” Vos said. “If you lose your phone you can either just sign on and deactivate your phone immediately or just call us and we can instantly separate the link between the phones and the accounts.”

Citi Mobile works on over 100 phones and initially through Sprint, AT&T/Cingular and Verizon.

Right now, only customers in Southern California have access, though it plans to go nationwide within the next few months.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Cell Phone Applications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.