NYCE is allowing customers to mobilize their balance inquiries.

The payments giant is extending balance inquiries to mobile to participants of the NYCE Network. Participants will pay no additional fees for mobilization of balance inquiries

"With mobile financial services quickly becoming mainstream, NYCE believes that consumers will soon expect the ability to access their demand deposit accounts using their mobile phones -- in much the same way they expect that access through an ATM today," said Steve Rathgaber, president of NYCE, Secaucus, NJ.

"As a network provider, we deliver better customer satisfaction for our financial institution clients by making sure they can easily adapt to the ways consumers want to access their accounts," he said.

The basic text message transactions will be an extension of the balance inquiry functionality commonly available at NYCE Network ATMs.

The new service, powered by Monitise Americas, will allow consumers to use text messaging to request and receive real-time balance information on their primary accounts.

Text message balance inquiries will work for all mobile phone users regardless of their wireless carrier or the type of handset they use.

In a recent survey of North American consumers, commissioned by Monitise Americas and conducted by MaCorr Research, more than three-fourths of the total respondents said it was important for them to have real-time information regarding their accounts.

Of those who said they would like to use their mobile phones for financial services, more than 90 percent stated that they are interested in basic informational capabilities such as checking their account balances on the go.

NYCE's mobile services are fully integrated with the network's infrastructure, leveraging existing NYCE services such as settlement and reporting.

This approach simplifies the provider relationship and allows institutions of all sizes to offer mobile to their customers without significant investment in new technology infrastructure.

"Text message balance inquiries further extend the reach of our nationwide ATM network directly into the pockets of the country's mobile phone users," Mr. Rathgaber said.