This allows bank customers to use their mobile phones to query their bank balance on the morning train, buy shares while waiting in an airport departure lounge, or make a bank transfer while stuck in a traffic jam. Queuing at the bank should become nothing more than an unpleasant memory.

This latest banking revolution is driven by wireless application protocol (Wap) technology, which has already taken Scandinavia by storm. Wap provides the mobile phone with browser capabilities, transforming it into a miniature internet terminal.

This development coincides with a boom in consumer interest in mobile phones, and responds to the demand for permanent access to e-mail. Mobile phone operators offer services including weather forecasts, news, traffic information, flight timetables and stock exchange prices.

Extrapolating from this trend, there have been expectations of an avalanche of financial services accessible via a mobile phone. But for the time being, m-banking just hasn't captured the public's imagination.

Its relatively slow arrival is raising fears that telecoms operators and e-business start-ups might have been wildly over-enthusiastic in singing the praises of Wap. "Some of the advertising in this area has bordered on plain deception, and people are going to be disappointed," one telecoms specialist says.

Philippe Toussaint, president of AGF bank in France, is more optimistic, and believes that the new technology will prove a valuable instrument in time. "Wap has potentially a very broad audience, and can provide a wide range of services," he says. "But for financial services, the mobile phone is still a little clumsy, with sluggish response times and limited features. We are looking forward to seeing some of the promised improvements."

For the time being, banks are limiting their offers to two types of service: the most frequent involves access to personal data such as bank balances and transaction details; the other is the receipt of short message system (SMS) text messages to warn of impending overdrafts or cancelled cheques. Some banks offer a mixture of services combining Wap functions with SMS

messages.

"Wap is just another channel for communicating with the customer," says Franck Franchin, founder of SelfMobile, a Wap information service. "This channel has its own specific characteristics, which enable it to address a certain specific range of needs."

In other words, Wap technology is just one solution among many, along with interactive television and applications like PalmPilot, a handheld portable computer. Some industry observers remain as enthusiastic as ever about Wap's future. Although the screen quality on today's mobile phones is still mediocre at best, new-generation hardware will soon offer larger screens capable of displaying more text.

New standards, with much greater capacity, are also being developed. Universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) builds on the existing global system for mobile (GSM)

communications technology, while general packet radio service (GPRS) promises a 10-fold increase in data transmission rates.

Taking positions4 Major banking groups are already taking up positions in this new market. BSCH, Spain's largest bank, expects more than a million subscribers to its Wap service by the end of the year. Customers will be able to check their bank balances, make transfers, deal in shares, and receive information on companies listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange.

UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, is testing a service covering balance information, transfers, share dealing, and foreign currency orders.

In April, BNP Paribas, the French bank, launched a package of services developed in partnership with SFR, the French mobile phone company. This offer uses pre-Wap "hdml"

technology, a mobile-phone variant of "html", the standard internet language, and enables customer to query up to eight current and savings accounts, access details on the 10 most recent transactions in each account, and examine pending credit card operations.

They can also request direct access to an online BNP adviser. The service is free, apart from the normal mobile-phone connection charge, which is added to the customer's monthly SFR bill.

The m-banking race is well under way. Doubts may remain about its potential, and there may not be a prize for the winner. But nobody wants to see their competitors gain a head start.

Email Muriel Jasor at mjasor.@interne.lesechos.fr