No one listening to podcasts from Sun Bancorp, Inc. of Vineland, N.J. will ever say, "great tunes!" But they might learn something about mortgages.

Earlier this month, Sun announced the availability of its first podcast to coincide with the launch of the bank's new residential mortgage subsidiary. Featuring Sun executives, the podcast leads consumers through the various steps of applying for a home mortgage loan.

"What we wanted to do was to create something that was up to date with new technology and would click especially with first-time home buyers," says Brian G. Myers, president of Sun Home Loans.

Myers says Sun's podcast aims to answer a lot of the basic questions consumers have about the home buying process, including what different mortgage programs are available and how to fill out an application. The bank conducted internal focus groups to determine key questions prospective home buyers might have, he says.

Podcasting is the practice of creating audio files that can be downloaded onto Mp3 players such as the Apple iPod (from which podcasting derives its name). In just the past year or so, podcasts have become popular with individuals and companies alike, as a means to get their message out to millions of Internet users who can download the audio onto their portable Mp3 devices.

Sun is one of a handful of financial service firms to venture into podcasting in recent months. Others are UMB Financial Corp. of Kansas City, Missouri and Beverly Hills, Calif.-based City National Corp. (And don't miss BAI's Banking Strategies podcasts on payments).

"These new approaches to delivering content are fairly inexpensive and easy to implement," says George Tubin, senior analyst with Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup Inc..

Podcasts have a regular and loyal following that's growing. According to a study from radio industry researcher, Bridge Ratings LLC of Glendale, Calif., about 9 million people will listen to podcasts this year, almost double last year's 4.8 million consumers. And, about 20% of users download at least once a week, Bridge Ratings reports.

UMB Bank launched its first podcast on retirement planning in December 2005 hoping to "broaden our brand by reaching out to a younger demographic," says spokesman Jeremy McNeive. UMB plans to launch its second podcast on credit risks and credit scores by the end of this month, he adds.

Only about 100 people had downloaded the retirement planning podcast by the end of the year, McNeive says. But, he adds, "it's not the bank's goal to be one of the top downloads on iTunes," referring to a Web site that aggregates music and podcasts. But, McNeive believes that the number of downloads has likely increased in the past couple of months. He says bank officials are pleased with the response that the podcast has received considering it has not been advertised and podcasts are still such a new medium.

City National, whose customer base is composed largely of wealthy individuals and businesses, has used podcasts to disseminate weekly communications from the bank's chief investment officer. It also conveys information about international business through its monthly International Business Outlook podcast, according to Mark H. Middlebrook, City National's senior vice president and manager of eCommerce.

While Middlebrook would not quantify the specific number of downloads, he says "hundreds" of podcasts have been downloaded and usage has doubled since the podcasts were first launched in January.

None of the podcasting banks would quantify their investment, but they all say costs were fairly minimal since they were able to leverage existing internal resources, i.e., their own employees.

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