LOOKING BACK

Wireless and online banking may seem like a top issue of the day, but six years ago the functionality of this new technology was just beginning to be debated. Credit Union Times looks back to 2004 when credit unions were pushing wireless banking aside as a technological dud and refocusing on text messaging. At the time, credit unions and banks that had started to roll out wireless Web banking were experiencing a lack of interest among consumers. The argument was that consumers could achieve the same results from wireless Web banking as telephone banking. The technology, at the time, was hard to implement and the number of members that would likely switch to a financial institution because of wireless banking seemed to be small. However, technology experts weren’t recommending completely walking away from implementing new strategies involving cell phones. Experts predicted that with more consumers becoming concerned about fraud and identity theft, the ability to instantly alert members through text messaging about a transaction that may be fraudulent could prove to attract members. Experts also argued that this type of technology was better suited for smaller financial institutions because larger regional banks weren’t in touch with their customers enough to know what the demand for the service would be.