(March 15 – 15:45 ET) – Royal Bank today introduced North America’s first wireless banking service for Palm hand-held devices.

The service was developed in partnership with Toronto-based Sona Innovations Inc. Royal has a 20% equity stake in Sona.

Early next month, customers will be able access online banking features such as account balances, funds transfer and bill payments.

“This Palm application is a demonstration of our commitment to extend the reach of our online services to the wireless world,” said Tom Wolf, senior vice-president, eBusiness at Royal Bank.”

A key feature of the Sona technology is that does not use “middleware”. Asecure connection is established on the Palm device itself and communicates directly with Royal Bank servers, just as an Internet browser would.

Royal Bank / Sona Innovations architecture was reviewed by Palm Canada and rated the most secure wireless banking service currently available on the market, offering an impressive level of customer convenience and ease of use.

To begin using the services, customers need a Palm handheld device with eight megabytes of memory connected to a digital cellular telephone with wireless data service from carriers such as Fido, Bell Mobility or Roger’s and an Internet Service Provider.

The Palm application can then be downloaded at royalbank.com/mobile. The service is free for customers enrolled in online banking. Additionally, Royal Bank expects to introduce wireless brokerage services.