iPhone 3GS Gets Phone Banking With HSBC

Apple’s iPhone can access business banking services from HSBC, accessing credit and debit card details and making payments up to £100,000. The service follows others on the phone.

The HSBC Business Internet Banking service supports iPhones, in response to a large rise in customers accessing the service over the Internet, reports . The service has supported Blackberry handsets since October.

Although V3 says HSBC claims to be the first business banking service on an iPhone, there are others, with Wells Fargo, ANZ and BOQ visible in the App Store, and others promising to support it . In the US Chase supports iPhones, and in the UK the Nationwide building society has supported iPhones for two years. Others include St George Bank in Australia and Westminster Savings Credit Union in the US.

Apple sold a million iPhones in its first three days, around twice as many as analysts had predicted.

Meanwhile, Apple deleted a space from the device’s name, so it is now the “iPhone 3GS”, not the “3G S”. The change, only days after launch, is such an oddity that some commentators attribute it to Steve Jobs’ personal intervention as he returns to work following his liver transplant .

We review the new iPhone software here and here.