mShift is the biggest mobile banking player you've never heard of. Despite powering WAP sites for 32 U.S. financial institutions, with several in operation for more than five years (see list below), the company remains relatively unknown. I had a chance to catch up with CEO Awele Ndili and Director of Biz Development Pam Livingston at Metavante's user conference this week, where mShift demo'd its WAP services in the exhibition hall and in a private session.

San Jose-based mShift has 32 clients live, 5 banks and 27 credit unions, many deployed through mShift's relationship with online banking platform provider, Digital Insight, now a unit of Intuit. Only 5 clients have been deployed prior to 2004. More than half (19) launched in the past 12 months, with 8 launching in December 2006 alone. 

Here's a list of mShift clients and when each first deployed WAP-based mobile banking:

2000 (1 deployment)

• Patelco CU (Sep)

2001 (2)

• Alliance CU (Nov)
• VisionsFCU (Dec)

2002 (2)

• BFSFCU (Oct)
• Golden 1 (Nov)

2004 (3)   

• DCU (Jan)
• XFCU (Mar)
• Illinois National Bank (June)

2005 (3)

• Premier America CU (April)
• MACU (July)
• FlagStar Bank (July)

2006 (15)

• VyStar CU (Feb)
• Amplify CU (Mar)
• First Republic Bank (Aug)
• SAFE CU (Aug)
• Owen Com. Bank (Sep)
• Trumark Financial CU (Oct)
• STCU (Nov)
• Metro CU (Dec)
• NIHFCU (Dec) 
• TDFCU (Dec)
• Allegacy FCU (Dec)
• Metro1 CU (First Metropolitan CU) (Dec)
• Sun West FCU (Dec)
• Heritage Com. CU (Dec)
• SEFCU (Dec)

2007 (6)

• CECU (Jan)
• Mazuma CU (Jan)
• First City Credit Union (Jan)
• Salem Five Bank (Jan)
• Cardinal Bank (Apr)
• SDFCU (Apr)

In addition to the usual balance/transaction info, the mShift system can also display check images on the mobile phone display, a service we hadn't really thought would be in high demand. But at least on larger mobile devices, such as a Blackberry or Treo, the check images are very readable. As mobile browsers improve the ability to easily zoom in on selected content (for example, Apple's iPhone), the check-image display should prove popular. It's an important part of online self-service with one caveat: However cute the check-image display on today's small flip phones, they are still largely unreadable.

Update: Steve Bills at The American Banker published an article today that discusses mShift and the advantages of a so-called vendor-neutral WAP mobile service (article here).