Checkfree Touts Single Screen Home Banking

The president and chief executive of Checkfree Corp. gave investment bankers a sneak preview of his company's retail electronic banking products and services last week even as banks were warned that not building such capabilities on their own can cost them customers.

Addressing the Securities Industry Association's Information Management Conference in New York last week, Checkfree's Pete Kight highlighted the rapidly blurring distinctions between banks, investment banks, and brokerage firms - a phenemonon triggered by advances in technology.

He rattled off several examples, including Internet-based stock and mutual fund trade systems and the proliferation on-line banking services, and electronic bill payments.

Checkfree, a Columbus, Ohio-based firm, has made major strides in building its menu of home banking services through several acquisitions of financial software vendors, including Interactive Solutions Corp., Servantis Systems Inc., and Security APL Inc.

Mr. Kight said Checkfree will integrate several of its newly acquired technologies to provide customers with a "single screen" capability that allows people "to look at their bank accounts, to balance their bank accounts, to pay their bills," and track investments such as 401K plans.

"That's all technology that we own today," he said.

But for banks, Checkfree's success may be cutting a little too close to the bone, warned James Wells, managing director at Furash & Co., a Washington D.C., consulting firm.

Consumers view banking as, "an onerous but necessary task," he said. "Checkfree solves the problem" by allowing consumers to perform banking activities quickly and easily.

Banks need to build similar electronic capabilities themselves rather than further losing customers who may subscribe directly to Checkfree's services, he added.

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