Top Components to Look for in Online Banking Hosting

by Kirk Drake

If you think your existing online banking provider and solution are doing a great job-  than this post is not for you.  If however, you are looking for something more from your provider read on.

To begin, let’s look at how Online Banking got started.  Originally, it was a replacement for dial-up banking or PC banking.  At the time, your financial institution would send you a disk or you would call in with a modem and download your transactions.  Eventually, some folks had the idea that using the Internet was a much better way and whamo – Online Banking was born.   Along the way, an explosion of online banking vendors entered the market.  As this market matured they would offer new features and some new add-ons.  About ten years ago, the credit union I worked at even bought a mobile banking solution.  It turns out the market wasn’t quite ready for that.  Now it is.  In between, Bill Pay came along and the market was ready for it.  Huge adoption and stickiness came through getting your online banking members to use your bill pay.  The problem though was that bill pay was actually more profitable and stickier than online banking.  This perverted the business model and many of the online banking vendors now rely on reseller agreements and revenue shares from bill pay to make the economics work.  Ultimately, this leads to stagnation in and poor performance in the root product – Online Banking.   You may have even noticed that your Online Banking provider hasn’t offered any new enhancements or features in quite some time, consequently – you may be looking at a change.

If you are looking at a change in 2013 then here are some key things to consider:

continue reading »