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Bankers have reservations about building apps for Google's much-hyped wearable device, but they see real promise in adopting technology that would work with wireless beacons in branches and stores.
April 24 -
The cutting-edge bank it already offers smart watch apps is testing the technology on its employees' mobile devices and, if all goes well, it plans to roll it out to its customers by late summer.
April 15 -
Google last week rolled out its new operating system for smart watches, and some banks, including U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and ING Direct Canada, are already looking into developing apps for it. But are consumers ready to do their banking on their wrist watches?
March 26
Bankers in Australia have something new up their sleeves: a reloadable prepaid card.
Heritage Bank in Australia recently teamed up with Japanese clothing manufacturer MJ Bale to do something unexpected: thread its contactless payment chip and antenna into a dozen suits. In so doing, the wearer can use his sleeve to pay for transactions under $100 and can load up to $1,000 into his account.
The wearable computing prototype is meant to make transactions faster than paying with a card or cash. The power suit is the latest example of a bank exploring a nascent tech category that is expected to become popular with consumers.
Sure,
Some U.S. banks have experimented with wearable computing in recent months.
More tests are expected to come as the tech matures and consumer adoption grows.
"I think we will see a variety of tech and wearable payments come to market," says John Williams, chief operating officer at Heritage Bank.
The bank's "power suit," which it refers to as "wearable computing that a gentleman would actually wear," is quicker than other forms of payment because a person need not pull out a wallet or phone. Transactions less than $100 don"t require the customer's signature or PIN, a flexibility that allows Heritage Bank to create the suit payment experience it wanted: wave a sleeve within four centimeters of a terminal for half a second, and voila, the transaction is done. Near-field-communication, technology based on a set of standards that has yet to take hold in America, is what lets the card speak to the Visa payWave terminal.
To be sure, the suit is still an experiment. But Williams says the bank's customers have expressed interest in it and exercise companies have approached Heritage to talk about similar deals. The suit manufacturer, meanwhile, will decide whether or not to grow out the suit pilot.
MJ Bale approached the bank in January to work on the suit, which then debuted in the spring. It is but one new idea the bank is testing in a digital age.
For a much larger intended user base, Heritage Bank is readying a mobile payments app. The app, designed to run on Samsung mobile devices, will use NFC to let people make purchases. The bank plans to open the test up to 1,000 people in the upcoming months. The ultimate goal is to help inspire people to convert from paying with cash a widely used payment for transactions under $35 in Australia to using smartphones to transact.
Arguably most important for the near-term, however, is Heritage Bank's work to create branch of the future concepts. Like most American banks, Heritage aims to transform its brick-and-mortar locations into sales and services hubs at a time when transactions are increasingly taking place through online and mobile apps.
Regardless of the tech project, Williams says the technology itself is the easy part. Less easy is applying it within financial services.
"As an organization, it's adopting digital disruption in society in general and applying as best as we can within a banking environment," says Williams.
