Call it a winter coincidence, or maybe it is a portent of deepmeaning, but in the past couple of months Brookfield, Wis.-basedFiservdid a major deal to bring core system developer Open Solutions under its tent, whereasJacksonville, Fla.-based arch-rival FIS plunked down its bet onleading mobile banking app develop mFoundry.

Talk about wildly different strategies.

Fiservhas gone on the record about the meaning of its gamble.

Now, in an exclusive Credit Union Times interview,Susan Hawkins, groupexecutive and general manager, eBanking, Mobile and CommercialTreasury Solutions, at FIS, explained what the mFoundry acquisitionmeans to FIS – and to its credit union customers.

“Mobile is a big part of banking's future and our plan,” saidHawkins, “is to work to find ways for financial institutions toplay major roles in mobile payments, person-to-person payments andthe rest.”

The era of hesitation about mobile is over, said Hawkins. “Noone wants to be the last CIO to implement mobile banking.”

She added: “Mobile banking is banking's fastest growing channeland it also is the lowest-cost channel.”

The market potential for a mobile banking app developer isenormous. Best guesses are that perhaps around 4,000 banks andcredit unions presently have some kind of mobile banking (howeversimple the implementation).

In round numbers, that would leave as many as 10,000institutions in search of a mobile banking app. Even assumingsignificant attrition among the smaller institutions, there has to a marketof at least 4000 currently in need of mobile banking, many morewhen the first round adopters accept their need to upgrade into amore robust app.

Before the mFoundry acquisition, FIS ranked fourth in mobilebanking app installations with around 600. Fiserv was number 1 witharound 1,100, mFoundry 2 with 900 and Intuit 3 with a tick over600, according to well-informed sources. Post acquisition, FISvaults into a big lead over second-place Fiserv.

Note, too, that the FIS installed base was essentially built onmFoundry under a different label because FIS some years ago hadinvested in mFoundry and had acquired some rights to resell itstechnologies.

mFoundry also has had success with retail point of sale apps –it is behind the Starbucks mobile app, which many experts point toas the biggest mobile wallet triumph around – and, suggestedHawkins, FIS will be looking for more retailers with whom it canpartner on mobile wallet apps.

Hawkins in the interview was adamant that the acquisition ofmFoundry was not a one-and-done deal, that FIS's intent is toleverage the skills and expertise of the mFoundry core employeegroup – who will remain in Marin County, California, she said – andto nurture the team so that a “center of excellence”flourishes.

An mFoundry differentiator is that, at last fall's BAIconference, company CEO Drew Sievers announced that mFoundry planned to open up its bankingapp, allowing financial institutions to insert (or not) third-partyapps such as P2P tool Dwollaand gift card company BlackHawk Network.

Hawkins indicated that under FIS's ownership, there was nointent to close the app, that the open architecture trumpeted bySievers would remain.

She elaborated: “We see financial institutions getting a choicebetween Dwolla and the FIS P2Pproduct,” the so-called People Pay tools unveiled by FIS a monthago.

As for mFoundry, industry observers said that what it got out ofbeing acquired is that the deal let it pay off its early investors– Silicon Valley capital has never been known for its patience –and the arrival of FIS's comparatively much-deeper pockets wouldallow the company to more aggressively invest in mobile app R&Dand at least potentially to create products that will keep up withthe ever-slicker apps coming out of money center banks.

That could position the FIS-owned mFoundry to grab a growingmarket leadership.

Hawkins did not disagree with the belief that FIS will fundR&D. “We plan to continue and accelerate what mFoundry hasdone.”

She added: “I believe FIS is in the lead in mobile bankingtoday” – and she left little doubt that the intent is to hold ontothat lead.