Described as “next generation” this new service provides statement and balance information.
What surprises me is that it requires a software download, but this appears to provide additional security.
The banks are now inviting customers to sign up for ‘on demand’, 24 hour access to banking services including mini-statements and balance enquiries through their mobile handset. Consumers can also top up their own or someone else’s prepay mobile. To use the service, they need only download a piece of software onto their phone. As with online banking, once registered and authenticated people will have secure access to their accounts – wherever they are
Source: Finance News | HSBC and first direct launch next generation mobile phone banking
Bankwatch 
The problem with downloading software to the phone is you get into huge version and testing issues. If you consider all the different combinations of phone OS, display type, carrier quirks, keypad particulars and so on, you either deploy a largely unsupported app or you buy your QA department a truckload of phones.