bank account aggregation in the UK
Following the news about Kublax's failure there's the inevitable speculation about whether or not a) there is a market for account aggregation in the UK and b) whether anyone can make account aggregation and related services profitable.
My inkling is yes to both.
The first thing to say about the potential market for account aggregation is that the online banking market in the UK is huge. We knew as far back as 2006 there were 17 million odd of us using online banking services. We are also well aware that internet and mobile usage in the age groups you'd expected to use account aggregation (25yrs-45yrs) is huge.
On top of this, anecdotally, I've replied to probably 60% of the customer feedback to lovemoney.com online banking and am genuinely amazed ( even in context of my BBC radio player days) about the level of excitement people have for a product that helps them manage their daily finances.
Surely, there must be something in it.
On the subject of whether anyone can make account aggregation and related services profitable remains to be seen. If US sites like Mint, Wesabe and MoneyStrands have proved there is an appetite for account aggregation from consumers, they have arguably also indicated that the ways of making money from such services are probably going to be more tricky.
But, that doesn't mean that they wont.
When it comes to personal finance, isn't convenience and ease priceless? If you consider that at it's most basic account aggregation does something that your bank simply will not do in a hurry. If you consider that there are multiple great reasons why (when you take the leap and sign-up) it's simply brilliant to view your money this way (analysis, visibility, control, awareness - it goes on an on.) If you consider that, actually, your income and expenditure is precisely where all for financial planning and provision begins and ends.
Considering all that you'd have to say that profits will come.
What do you think? I'd really like your perspective, especially if you've used an account aggregation service.
Carl Knibbs
Reader Comments (9)
I've been using Microsoft's Money product for years to aggregate all my information (current, savings, credit, loans, investments) in to one place. It's great being able to see everything together and track transfers between accounts.
However, products like this, in the UK at least, seem to be dying. Maybe there's no call for them? Or maybe the future is on the web.
Now, I'm a tech savvy person and work in IT, but having financial related information all aggregated by a third party on a remote system somewhere scares me. I'm fairly comfortable with it all being on my own PC, but how do I know whether I can trust these websites?
I'll definately watch with interest to see where this field of personal finance goes over the coming years.
Thanks for the post Tim.
I agree, it is interesting. Time will tell if the UK really does have an apetite for this kind of service (on any decent scale.) I have to say that I think one such service will succeed. For me, it is about taking what is fundamentally useful about a service of this kind and building on it to the point where it really is easier and more convenient to manage your 'financial life' in one (or a small group) of places. If someone delivers this, it stops being niche and becomes more applicale to 'everyone.' I wouldn't agree services like this are dying. I just don't think that anyone has fully sparked consumer imagination yet.
I agree that third party systems storing this data can make people feel uncomfortable :-) However (without going in to dull work mode) my personal take on this is that I use a few of these sites and I have no reason to believe there is any higher risk than providing your bank details to eccomerce sites, retailers etc. In fact the security levels appear to be scrutinised that much more!
Thanks again for the comment - I am interested in how it turns out too! You may enjoy the recent stuff about PFM on "ReadWriteWeb" btw...
Carl
I live in UK and have been using www.buxfer.com. It does not integrate with UK bank accounts directly but lets me upload CSVs which works fine for me. The insights into my finances are invaluable and I think there's definitely a market for such tools in the future. In fact, I would not mind paying a small subscription fees if there was a fully integrated service in UK.
You mention that the likes of Wesabe and Mint have not yet proven the existence of a revenue model. Any ideas on what are their revenue streams? Do they sell any of the (anonymised) aggregated data or charge consumers for subscriptions?
Thanks for the comment.
Agreed, the more I use services like these the more convinced I am that there is a future for them.
I know that in the case of Mint.com their revenues are generated from acting as an intermediary between the customer and banks/financial institutions for financial products. Their model is not unlike the 'price comparison' model in the UK where a commission is taken for passing customers on to these products.
Yes, I think both aggregated data and charging customers are both 'second phase' means of generating revenues. These rather depend on a) having lots of customers b) having a product customers are happy to pay for. (There's not much detail out there on plans for either of these two points.)
Will be interesting to see how it goes...
Best,
Carl
I have been using egg money manager for years to aggregate account balances and it's been excellent. It's the only reason I have kept the account open and I can't believe other uk financial institutions don't provide this. It uses accountunity with a local encrypted safe so you never provide your passwords to a third party.
Thanks for the comment Tom. Yes, I believe Egg Money Manager is a popular service. Best, Carl.
I fully agree with Tom but Egg Money Manager is closing in January for all (ex) Egg credit card users (business sold to Barclaycard). I will continue to use it until it is taken away from me. Is there any UK replacement for it?
After a day of searching, I've found the answers to my own question, so I hope this will be of help to anyone else who comes across this blog.
Egg Money Manager system was provided by eWise. The same software also powers First Direct's Internet Banking Plus and eWise's own Accountunity.
I've signed up for First Direct's Internet Banking Plus (I didn't need to be a First Direct/HSBC customer) and I'm happy that security wise it works the same as Egg Money Manager (i.e. account details are securely stored on my PC, not their server), but as a bonus far more organisations can be administered such as utility accounts.
Service is free, they must plan to make some money out of advertising (I had to agree to some targeted advertising & other banners to be served up on the pages).
Hi Pete,
Thanks for your comment on the blog!
You can of-course also try lovemoney.com/track
Best,
Carl