Banco Santander, one of Spain's largest financial institutions, is demonstrating that the excitement about Internet banking is not just a U.S. phenomenon.
Working with BroadVision Inc., the $150 billion-asset bank recently upgraded its Web site to let customers view account information and conduct funds transfers.
"Technology from BroadVision allows us to personalize our banking solution to clients," said Jorge Mata Jimenez, head of multimedia banking at Banco Santander in Madrid.
"We can now give a different page to a different client-each personalized for his or her lifestyle, his or her preferences, or what he or she wants to see."
He did not reveal the cost of the upgrade but said it was "reasonable in relation to the return on investment."
The Web site, Banca SuperNet, serves 10,000 users. The bank expects 40,000 of its 1.2 million customers to be users of on-line banking by yearend.
Banco Santander is considering making its service available to its banking subsidiaries in Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Portugal, and Germany. It is now offered only to customers in Spain.
BroadVision, based in Los Altos, Calif., said building a transactional banking Web site typically costs $150,000 to $300,000. The company counts as competitors Edify Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., and Security First Technologies of Atlanta.
"Our application is the next generation of on-line banking on the Internet," said Samir Mehta, financial services marketing manager at BroadVision.
"It can not only do transactions, but has introduced cross-sell opportunities," he said.
BroadVision's software line, called One-To-One, was launched 18 months ago. It is designed to integrate with banks' core systems so the applications eventually can make use of the reams of customer information stored on them.
"Our scalability and integration capabilities are our key strengths," said Mr. Mehta. "While transactions are important, the next level is to manage customer business and increase it over the Internet," he said.
So far, 17 banks are offering Web-based services based on the One-To-One Application System.
"Because we are able to personalize the information, we're translating it from a anonymous random hit statistic to track people by session visits," said Iang Jeon, vice president of electronic commerce at Liberty Financial Cos., which was of BroadVision's design partners on One-To-One.
"This all enhances the on-line experience," Mr. Jeon said.
The One-To-One software line will include several applications. One-To- One Commerce, for on-line shopping, was released in April. One-To-One Financial, for personalized home banking, is to be released this month; One-To-One Knowledge, a "knowledge management" product for intranets, is slated to be available by yearend.
