PNC Program Allows Transfers with Outside Accounts

PNC Bank Corp. has begun offering an unusual remote banking program that provides Internet access and lets customers conduct business with the bank's competitors.

The program, based on a customized version of Managing Your Money software from Meca Software LLC, was introduced in December.

"We added a couple of key things (to Managing Your Money), said Martin E. Evancoe, vice president and manager of on-line banking for PNC. "We added a browser to it, which was our version of a customized Netscape browser, and we added external transfers, the ability to move money back and forth from PNC bank to other financial institutions."

Last summer, PNC began offering customers the ability to bank on-line through Intuit Inc.'s Quicken personal financial management software. At yearend, the bank added Managing Your Money to its product line.

Because of the browser embedded in PNC's Managing Your Money program and an arrangement the bank has made with MCI Communications Corp. for Internet access, PNC customers who sign up for the Meca software can have free access to the bank's Web site whether or not they already have Internet service, Mr. Evancoe said.

For $17.95 a month, customers can get unlimited Internet access through PNC, he said.

Moreover, customers can use the on-line banking program to transfer money among accounts with other institutions, like mutual fund companies and insurance providers.

"We're trying to position ourselves as the gateway," Mr. Evancoe said. "People can go to our Web site or others, like Fidelity's, and all of the time they see our logo spinning there."

He added: "You need to recognize that customers have different financial relationships and want to manage all of them together. We believe we've accomplished that."

Mr. Evancoe declined to say how many customers have enrolled in the service, but said that "hundreds a day" were signing up, exceeding the bank's expectations.

David E. Weisman, analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., said PNC is among the first banks to embrace the concept of "open finance," or facilitating customer transactions with other institutions.

"This is one bank that's understanding, 'Hey, consumers do have multiple financial relationships and we shouldn't force them to go around us,"' he said.

PNC's program is also significant for Trumbull, Conn.-based Meca, which is owned by six financial institutions.

PNC-which declined to purchase an ownership stake in Meca-is the first nonowner institution to roll out the company's Managing Your Money software.

Mr. Weisman interpreted PNC's decision to work with Meca as one of several signs that Meca is undergoing a revival. "We had written them off for dead, like most of the industry had," he said.

He added that Microsoft and Intuit, which "were so dominating" a year ago, are less so today.

Paul E. Harrison, president and chief executive officer of Meca, said PNC now has "the most innovative version of Managing Your Money in the marketplace."

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