Security First Technologies Using Web to Help Banks Target High-Income

Security First Technologies Inc. wants to help financial institutions become private bankers on the Internet.

"The trusted adviser role is more important in the information age," said Charles Ogilvie, executive vice president of sales and marketing at the technology offshoot of Security First National Bank, which calls itself the first Internet bank.

"We're playing in managing finances with one password, one user identification, and with consumer data input," he added.

Personalized services to the upscale would be an outgrowth of Atlanta- based Security First Technologies' core software, Virtual Financial Manager, which it developed in 1995.

Financial institutions use it to provide Internet-based services that include banking, investments, credit cards, and loans.

Slated for the future are insurance, customer care, and customized marketing and information-service approaches in partnership with BroadVision Inc. and its One to One software.

Mr. Ogilvie said banks fall into three categories: those that want to have a full on-line package, offer transactional services quickly, or have deferred action until 1999.

Security First Technologies has 32 companies using its transactional services, and 49 others have signed but are not yet connected.

Although Internet banking and bill payment "are all immature," said Mr. Ogilvie, Security First's consumer volumes went up by 92% in the second quarter. It posted a net loss of $8.1 million.

"We will be profitable in 1999," Mr. Ogilvie said.

The company will focus solely on technology once Royal Bank of Canada closes its deal to buy Security First National Bank, expected within a month.

The technology company is anticipating four streams of revenue: software development, technology sales to banks for in-house use, a service bureau to process for banks that do not operate in-house, and system integration. The only activity that has yet to turn a corner toward profitability, he said, is the data center.

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