Thing 21 of 30: Implement a white-label PFM

September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.

Thing 21: Implement a white-label PFM

Just as soon as we replaced that nasty-10-year-old website at my fictitious credit union, I would jump straight to implementing a personal financial management tool (PFM) inside my credit union's online banking site.

If this PFM term is new to you, imagine the desktop software Quicken or Microsoft Money sitting right inside your online banking system with robust budgeting and tagging (categorization of income and expenses) right there, without requiring your members to download or manually enter transaction data.

Sound impossible? Or futuristic? Not only is it possible and available right now, there are a number of vendors clamoring to offer this service to banks and credit unions.

Web service firms like Mint.com have been doing a bang-up job of sucking the data right out of your credit union online banking sites and giving consumers a slick representation of all of their accounts at various financial institutions for a while now.

You can either live with this reality or fight back with a white-label PFM that sits right inside your online banking system and gives your members everything they need without having to rely on a third-party.

I have personal experience with the public Wesabe service, and I would give it five out of five stars. Wesabe is now offering a white-label version called Springboard. In addition, I know of a number of others worth checking out. Jwaala MoneyTracker, Geezeo, FinanceWorks from Digital Insights and a local Canadian company, PennyMinder. I am sure there are more, but this will give you a good start.

I know in Canada, many credit unions are on a standardized online banking system and having a PFM may not be available to you. You need to pressure your provider to put it on their roadmap pronto. There is a tremendous opportunity for credit unions to differentiate themselves if they can implement a robust PFM solution before their bank competitors.

If you believe this is a passing fad for a niche audience, ask yourself, "Why did Intuit, the makers of Quicken, QuickBooks and QuickTax, just pay $170 million for Mint.com?"

Tim

TD online banking: a critique

I discovered a neat thing today when I checked out my sad little balance at the TD. For those of you who've forgotten, I opened accounts at Canada's 5 major banks to do mystery shopping for this blog.

Anywho, I logged in and found this:

Here's my critique:

1. Too much copy.
2. Haven't we gotten beyond the ALL CAPS full name thing in (de-) personalizing our offers??
3. Use it sparingly, not every time I log in.
4. It's brilliant.

Now, I already know that you're thinking two things.

First, you're worried that my boss, Tim, will tear me a new one for spending 3/7 of my time (check out the tabs) on non-work-related internet surfing. Thanks for the concern, but he actually encourages us to use social media, as it will play a big role in the future of marketing.

The second thing you're thinking is, "How can she have 75% of her criticism be negative and yet say it's brilliant? Is she taking Will Ferrell's crazy pills?"

Here's why it's brilliant:

1. I took the time to read it.

Do you know how hard it is to get people to read your marketing messages? Very hard. I will clarify, though - the IDEA is brilliant. The execution sucks.

Are you "helpfully interrupting" your members

Nala

My credit union website was my lifeline while traveling abroad

I recently returned from a beautiful 16-day trip to Italy. Rome, Venice, Verona, Florence... historic and artistic places I'd only dreamed of seeing. But one thing was consistent throughout my trip—I was always thinking about money. And so was everyone else.

In the larger cities of Rome and Florence, you could find several Internet access services throughout the city. The number one thing I saw younger travelers check as soon as they sat down was their account balance. "My balance is what?"; "Thank goodness my cheque went in."; or "Oh, I forgot that payment was coming out." If two friends were lucky enough to sit beside each other (these Internet spots were always crowded), they would discuss each other's financial situations and compare balances. Us older folk have the maturity to check e-mail first and then our balances.

My relationship with my credit union is mostly through online banking and POS transactions. I'll admit it, I take it for granted. But when I was so far from home, other than e-mail from my family, my credit union's website was my lifeline. It became much more important to me. I spent more time there. One time I even compared site features with another traveler and her bank's website. It became a source of pride.

Is your credit union doing everything it can to make your online banking an experience your members will talk about?

Nala