Equifax Inc. said its E-Banking Solutions unit, which provides electronic banking software mostly to community banks, has 15 new customers.
This shows that smaller banks are responding to the competitive challenge from big ones on the Internet, the Atlanta data information services company said.
Indeed, Equifax said, E-Banking Solutions has been adding 15 bank customers a month lately. They are buying at least one of the four products offered by the unit: automatic clearinghouse origination, personal banking, telephone banking and cash management services.
Equifax is expected to announce the names of the latest customers Tuesday. The unit says it has 1,800 clients in all.
Also Tuesday, it is expected to announce a partnership with RDSI Banking Systems Inc. of Defiance, Ohio.
RDSI provides financial data processing and products for community banks. Equifax will become RDSI's "preferred provider" of electronic banking software to RDSI 50 client banks.
Equifax also has a longstanding alliance with the Independent Community Bankers of America Bancard to provide credit card processing and on-line banking services
In addition, Equifax is expected to announce an agreement with Intuit Inc., the maker of Quicken personal financial software. Under that pact, people who use Quicken and are customers of banks that use Equifax on-line banking software will be able to use the Open Financial Exchange specification to download account data to their computers at home.
The pact will allow small banks "to compete with the largest financial institutions offering Web-based banking," said David Peterson, senior vice president and general manager of Equifax E-Banking Solutions.
