Banking Review

Second coming for account aggregation?

ANZ’s online aggregation service has attracted more than 4,000 registrations in its first two weeks, according to ANZ head of online banking Sam Plowman.

“Take-up of ANZ MoneyManager has been very successful,” says Plowman. “Users have shown incredible support of the ‘beta’ concept, sending in both positive feedback as well as suggestions for future versions of the tool.”

ANZ MoneyManager – Login via kwout

Several banks, including the Commonwealth Bank, Suncorp and Macquarie Bank flirted with account aggregation in 2001, only to later shut down the offerings due to a lack of take-up. Only Westpac continues to offer account aggregation with its eWise solution.

Anyone interested in a history lesson, and the security concerns raised about account aggregation back in 2001, may like to wade through this 65 page report from ASIC.

With financial consolidation sites like Quicken Online, Wesabe and Mint gaining traction in the US, perhaps ANZ felt it was worth another crack?

ANZ MoneyManager is powered by US online banking vendor Yodlee which provides its account aggregation solution to hundreds of banks around the world, including HSBC.

Perhaps that’s why MoneyManager is so slow to bring up its list of accounts – it has to trawl through products from over 9,000 institutions. Registering for MoneyManager is relatively easy (it’s available to non-ANZ customers), but I found loading individual accounts very slow, receiving error messages on two occasions.

MoneyManager requires users to disclose their individual Internet banking login details, something that has always proven controversial as it means consumers are essentially breaching the terms and conditions of Internet banking, and potentially making them liable for any fraud that occurs.

Speculation on this is already under way at discussion forum Whirpool with some BankWest customers advising they have been locked out of Internet banking after uploading their feed to MoneyManager. We’ve asked BankWest to clarify if this is the case, and await a response.

In addition to summarising financial information in one page, ANZ MoneyManager also allows users to chart their spending, work out their monthly bill commitments and develop a statement summarising their net worth.

Users can register to receive alerts to remind them of upcoming bills, or when balances are low, however the system currently only supports email alerts and not SMS.

The service also lacks the social community features offered by Wesabe, or the savings tips on offer from Mint.

Nevertheless it stands up well against Wesabe, Mint and Quicken Online for its financial management capablity. There are several reviews available online comparing Yodlee, Mint and Wesabe.

ANZ will bring some brand loyalty to the table, but the question remains whether there is enough local consumer demand for account aggregation.