BankBoston Brazil, a Bank of America Corp. unit, has begun distributing a Nokia Corp. mobile online banking device to customers and is modifying the device’s software to work on Blackberry handheld e-mail appliances.
Angelo Fernandes, BankBoston Brazil’s executive superintendent for electronic solutions, said Monday that the first devices went into use last month and that 10 individuals and five businesses have them now.
The Nokia personal digital assistants use custom software developed by International Business Machines Corp. to access the bank’s Web site and initiate or authorize transactions. Mr. Fernandes said he expects at least 100 units to be in use by the end of March.
BankBoston Brazil, whose customers are mainly businesses and wealthy consumers, announced the mobile banking devices last summer. They were designed to facilitate large transactions.
Mr. Fernandes said that once the Nokia devices are more widely deployed, BankBoston Brazil plans to offer the IBM software for use on Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry devices. He would not say when the BlackBerry version would be available.
He said the technology is available for Bank of America to use in other countries, but B of A has not announced any plans to do so. The software stores details of a banking session to use later if the device loses its connection. It uses passwords and digital certificates to authenticate users.
One corporate customer uses the mobile banking device to approve payments after client meetings. “Every time he closed a deal with some customer, he would have to receive money and transfer money to the suppliers,” Mr. Fernandes said.
Another used it to run his company while on vacation. “After lunch, at 2 p.m. every day, he accessed the mobile phone and authorized the payments,” Mr. Fernandes said.
Corporate customers cannot initiate payments from the device, but they can approve payments of any size that are initiated by employees at the office. Individuals can initiate transfers but are limited to $12,000 a day.
“It’s working, and the clients are very happy,” Mr. Fernandes said.
