Banking technology provider EverSystems is working to line up partners for EV Aggregator, an online account management service it expects to start this year.
EV Aggregator will let consumers work with all their online financial accounts from the Web site of any financial institution that has signed with EverSystems to support the service. So, for example, a consumer would be able to work with his mutual fund account from one company while never leaving the credit card site of another company.
“The system will act as a spider,” said Clay Hackney, marketing manager at EverSystems, Sao Paolo, Brazil. “It will grab accounts, track passwords, bookmarks and usage at various sites.”
The company is shopping the service to global commercial banks such as Citibank and Bank of America and also plans to target online brokerage firms. It plans to offer the service in Latin America by the fall and expand to the United States by the end of the year. The first rollout is planned for Mexico, Hackney said, declining to disclose a date.
The 10-year-old company has relationships with global banks including Brazil-based Unibanco, Citibank Latin America, Bank of America and BankBoston. Though EverSystems has not finalized any clients for the new service, Hackney said the company hopes to leverage its client base.
Customers would fill out an application from a member bank in which they would enter information, including passwords, for all accounts they wish to access through EV Aggregator.
Hackney said some financial institutions have objected to EverSystems accessing client accounts and performing transactions. But he said EverSystems does not need authorization from financial institutions; the account holder's OK and password are all the company needs to access the account and perform all transactions requested by the account holder.
The attraction for banks that sign up for the service, Hackney said, is increased stickiness on their sites. “[Member sites] can offer our service and serve as a one-stop shop,” he said.
Member banks will not be able to access or track individual customer information, Hackney said, but they will receive aggregate information about the types of accounts accessed.
EverSystems would make money by charging member banks a fee each time a customer uses EV Aggregator. The company has not finalized the fee structure, but Hackney said it would likely be based on the number of transactions and users that the member bank has.
The company expects the prime users of EV Aggregator to be Internet-savvy consumers age 20 to 40 with two or three bank accounts.
“We are not targeting this to someone with enough money to have a personal banker,” Hackney said. He added that roughly 12 percent of Latin Americans have access to online banking.
Hackney named Yodlee.com Inc., Redwood Shores, CA, as the primary competitor in the account aggregation arena. He said EverSystems differentiates itself from the competition by its existing relationships with global financial institutions.
“If you slice up the global pie, we already have relationships that we can leverage for this service,” he said.
