On-Line Group Probes Future Of Web Sites

The Online Banking Association last week gave bankers and vendors still another opportunity to ask, "Where do we go from here?"

"Now that banks have got transactional Web sites, they're asking, 'What's next?'," said John Long, president and chief executive officer of Quadravision Communications Ltd. For its work on bank Web sites, Toronto- based Quadravision was nominated for seven of the Online Banking Excellence awards given at the association's annual conference in San Francisco.

"Banks are saying they need to give customers more than they've been giving them in the past .... They need to figure out how to make money on this channel," Mr. Long said.

Quadravision counts Fleet Financial Group, PNC Bank Corp., Summit Bancorp, New York Life Insurance Co., and Toronto-Dominion Bank among its clients.

Another hot topic at the Online Banking Association meeting: using customer information to build banking relationships on the Internet.

Mr. Long's company is focused on helping banks do just that. Its software engine, called Me!, helps banks find ways to sell more products to their customers.

Among the financial institutions winning awards for their on-line offerings were: Beneficial National Bank, First Union Corp., Chase Manhattan Corp., BankAmerica Corp., NationsBank Corp., Canada Trust, and Stanford Federal Credit Union.