IBM Corp has attracted 15 North American banks to support its vision of Internet-based banking and electronic commerce services and has persuaded them to buy equal shares in a new company called Integrion Financial Network which will offer the services beginning early next year. IBM CEO Lou Gerstner and the bank chiefs tried argued the services will be as revolutionary as developments like the automated teller machine, the credit card and the check, but failed to list any services Integrion will offer that aren’t already available from most existing telephone banking systems. Integrion hopes other banks which don’t want to fork out to build their own online networks will join its ranks; what it really needs is to get one of the very big high-street banks to lend its support and most of those already have their own on-line services. Integrion will use the Big Blue’s Global Network and the internet to deliver its services. Banks will be able to compete with each other by offering customized services based upon Integrion technology APIs IBM will publish in the near future. Together the banks have 60m customer households. An IBM source said the services may evolve beyond personal banking to include the ability to sell stocks over the Internet or find information about buying a car. Gerstner estimated electronic commerce – an area it’s invested heavily in through its World Avenue shopping mall, its Net.Commerce technology and Lotus’ Net.Apps – will generate $700m for IBM this year (CI No 2,940). Users will be charged for transactions such as bill payment, the first application IBM is building. IBM’s role will be to provide the network infrastructure and initial applications to Integrion. The company said its network is strictly a North American venture initially, but an IBM source revealed that it will send staff to the UK next month to drum up interest from banks over there. Two years and millions of dollars in the making, privately-held Integrion is searching for a CEO and a home outside of IBM walls. We don’t know how many employees it has. Asked if it’ll adhere to MasterCard International and Visa International Inc’s Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) specification, IBM said it’s evaluating the issue (CI No 2,946).
