Agence France Presse: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 Visa to Launch Trial Electronic Money Services in Tokyo Visa International said Tuesday it would experiment with electronic money services in central Tokyo [Shibuya district] for about 18 months from June 1998 with Japanese commercial banks and credit card companies. The US-headquartered international credit card firm said it would be the world's largest experiment in terms of the size of participating companies and cards to be issued. The project will be joined by five Japanese commerical banks -- Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd., Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd., Fuji Bank Ltd., Sumitomo Bank Ltd., and Tokai Bank Ltd. Five Japanese credit card companies, including Credit Saison Co. Ltd. DC Card Co., Sumitomo Credit Service Co., Million Card Service Co. and UC Card Co., will also take part in the trial. Visa said it hoped to use the experiment to assess commercial feasibility and customer affordability before introducing full electronic money services. Visa plans to install its electronic money terminals and issue more than 100,000 cards, including those with built-in integrated circuits, for the experiment. Visa said it had already conducted an electronic money experiment in Atlanta during the Summer Olympic Games. The company is also preparing to try similar systems in Hong Kong and Australia. American Banker: Thursday, December 12, 1996 REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK Home Financial Network Offers Web Software By DREW CLARK The house lights dimmed and music started blaring. Smoke billowed out from the stage and red-and-white lights flashed onto an audience of thousands. Despite the rock-concert atmosphere, complete with an emcee peering out from giant video screens like a live-action "Max Headroom," most of the audience in the Dallas Convention Center Arena was in suits. Welcome to Retail Delivery '96, the new-wave Bank Administration Institute conference covering all that is new and exciting in financial services technology. Having grown into banking's biggest convention, with more than 7,000 people and some 350 exhibiting companies, Retail Delivery made bold promises. Promotional brochures said it would go "beyond the buzzwords." Frank Feather, the Canadian banking consultant in the Max Headroom role, said the event would "unlock the secrets of how to make real money off technology." When the "virtual" Mr. Feather introduced Robert W. Gillespie for the keynote speech last Wednesday, the KeyCorp chief executive officer drew a laugh from the audience by declaring: "This may be the way to start shareholder meetings." Mr. Gillespie and the master of ceremonies were the first of a parade of speakers referring to the dramatic change the industry is undergoing. Mr. Gillespie captured the spirit by describing how his company, the "New Key," is evolving in three directions: national consumer finance, corporate banking, and community banking. His multimedia computer presentation took the audience through a virtual branch and displayed video clips of KeyCorp executives including Steve Cone, its renowned marketing strategist. Mr. Gillespie showcased a marketing campaign so unified that the voice of Anthony Edwards, the company's star ad spokesman, is also heard when consumers dial into KeyCorp call centers. Branding is big in retail banking, nowhere more than at Banc One Corp. The point was reinforced by Kenneth T. Stevens, chief executive of Banc One Corp.'s retail group, who previously worked at Pepsico and its Taco Bell subsidiary. "Strong brands get winning price-earning multiples," he said, which translate into easier entry into new markets and the ability to resist competitive attacks. "Historically, banks didn't need branding because of location," Mr. Stevens said. "With the leveling of competition, the control of brand names will be essential." He said banks' problems are typified by the jumble of logos on automated teller machines -- a stark contrast to the clarity of Coke and Pepsi. Despite such doses of high-level retail strategy, technology held center-stage. The enthusiasm about it was palpable, fueled by the appearances of executives from the Silicon Valley companies Intel Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. Generally admonishing the audience to get on the highway before it's too late, both spoke to banking issues. Intel executive vice president Frank Gill demonstrated remote banking with interactive video; Sun CEO Scott McNealy was critical of bankers' willingness to turn technology management over to others. "I can see a forestry company outsourcing information systems because their assets are in the ground," Mr. McNealy said. "But a bank's assets are information. Outsourcing (for banks) is a self-imposed lobotomy. It's like Budweiser outsourcing beer manufacturing." At the closing session Friday, Mr. Feather came out from behind the big screens to discuss his own keys to the future. Foremost, he said, is the Internet -- "the biggest thing ever in human history. It is not a technology, but a socio-economic system changing the way we live." Yet some bankers still "don't get it," Mr. Feather said. They prefer to think of the Internet as a passing fad, like the videophone, or an important but slowly evolving technology. Referring -- though not by name -- to Citicorp chairman John Reed and his prediction that full electronic banking would not be mainstream for 50 to 75 years, Mr. Feather dismissed it with a barnyard epithet. He suggested Citicorp is just trying to throw its competition off-balance. Mr. Feather's counterprediction: Within 25 years, there will be no full- service branches or tellers in North America. "Tens of thousands of branches will be closed, the entire distribution system will be rationalized," he said.