“Strands Personal Finance Launches PFM Solution for BMO Financial Group - msnbc.com” plus 1 more

Strands Personal Finance Launches PFM Solution for BMO Financial Group - msnbc.com

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:57 AM PST

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Strands Personal Finance announced today that BMO Financial Group has implemented Strands Personal Finance Management (PFM) solution for their 2.5 million online banking customers. The custom-built online PFM solution, named BMO MoneyLogic, provides their customers with tools to help them better manage and control their finances.

"At Strands, our goal is to help financial institutions redefine the online banking experience for their customers," said Ed Chang, CEO of Strands. "BMO Financial Group is paving the way for other global institutions by providing the latest PFM tools to help their customers monitor and manage their money."

BMO's MoneyLogic is designed to help increase customer retention and provides the financial institution with new ways to tailor offers to their customers. The solution offers features such as automatic categorization of expenses, budgeting and saving goals, alerts and reporting, which will enable their online customers to gain a clear and complete view of their finances.

"BMO is the first major bank in Canada to provide an online financial management tool that enables customers to set and track savings goals," said Andrew Irvine, Vice President, Bank of Montreal. "We are excited about the response from our customers who have been looking for a better way to get a clear picture of where their money is going. With almost half of our personal banking customers doing their banking online, BMO MoneyLogic provides them with immediate insights into their spending and savings habits and will help them take better control of their household finances."

BBVA was the first financial institution to implement Strands PFM solution in 2008, followed by ING Netherlands who formally introduced their TIM solution last year. TIM is currently available to the financial institution's 4 million online users.

Building on their momentum, Strands Personal Finance will demo a preview of their new Business Intelligence (BI) application at the FinovateEurope conference in London on February 1, 2011. The new BI application plugs directly into the Strands PFM platform and gives banking executives a deeper understanding of their customers' needs by providing them with a dashboard view of valuable customer data, analytics and key metrics. The features are designed to help financial institutions improve adoption, ROI and profits from their PFM solution.

About Strands Personal Finance

Strands Personal Finance is a leading global provider of Personal Finance Management (PFM) solutions. With offices in San Francisco and Barcelona, Strands PFM gives banks the ability to further engage customers and help their online users manage their money more efficiently. The scalable and highly customizable application allows users to analyze spending, set budgets, compare themselves to a peer community and save money with targeted recommendations. Strands PFM technology also powers the 2010 Webby award-winning consumer PFM site, moneyStrands.

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New Portland personal finance site Adaptu joins the Minted crowd. - Oregonian

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 06:53 AM PST

Published: Wednesday, February 02, 2011, 6:53 AM Updated: Wednesday, February 02, 2011, 11:57 AM

UPDATED 11 a.m.: Portland's StanCorp Financial Group Inc. officially launched a new personal finance tool this morning: adaptu.com.

To that, It's Only Money says goodlucktou.

Adaptu pledges to combine financial management a la Mint, but with more of a social networking tilt. "We felt it was important to show people not only how they spent their money but also to connect and engage," said co-founder Mark Brundage. "It's organized around all the major phases people go through in their lives. It's not just focused around a money management tool." Join groups. Comment. Upload videos. All that.

It's free, but expect to see either advertising from or referrals to entities that want to sell you something (a mortgage, 401(k) services, IRAs) -- including The Standard, though Brundage says competitors will be on site as well. "If we're going to help empower people to make a better more well informed choice," he says, "they need to understand all the options out there."

Unfortunately, this is already a very crowded net space that has seen players teeter & fold.

Two years ago, It's Only Money reviewed online money management sites, it liked Wesabe best. Wesabe went under last year (Founder and Reed College grad Marc Hedlund wrote about why Mint succeeded while Wesabe didn't). It placed much more emphasis on social networking than did/has Mint.

UPDATE: Hedlund said he spent time on Adaptu last night and liked its design. But he doubts it will overcome the problem all such sites have -- keeping users engaged.

"Getting people to really stick with something or, heaven forbid, really change something in their life is really difficult, and I didn't see anything on their site that had any insight into that problem," Hedlund said.

Hedlund says most users of such sites act like many trying to diet or quit smoking; They're excited at first but they drop off after about a month and don't return.

"We did a great job for a set of people in the 10s of thousands," Hedlund said of Wesabe. "It's very hard to build a business around a group of 10s of thousands of people."

Where are some of the other sites in It's Only Money's review? Geezeo has tweaked its plan to provide services through banks and credit unions, including Portland's Unitus Community Credit Union.

moneyStrands, launched by Corvallis-based Strands Inc., appears to have moved to San Francisco and has a large office in Spain. Its fortunes, too, seem questionable.

And others have entered the scene, including PageOnce, which trumpets its existence on mobile devices.

The social networking portion of Wesabe remains active online. Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union, which is merging with Portland-based First Tech Credit Union, is paying Wesabe to maintain the site as a social engagement tool for members, Hedlund said.

Of course, none of this matters if you find Adaptu much kinder to the eye than Mint or the others.

One thing is clear: It's Only Money needs to update its review.

What online money management site do you use? SmartyPig? Yodlee? Buxfer? Why? Do you like Adaptu? Weigh in below.

Personal Finance

Wednesday, February 2, 2011