The Future of PFM?

A lot has been made about what the future of banks is. Many predict that banks will become more of a financial advisor and offer a wide range of personal financial management services to their customer.

In fact, when I was interviewing Javelin Strategy & Research analyst Mark Schwanhausser a few months ago about bank strategies for serving digital customers, he mentioned that offering greater PFM services will be one way banks can serve their customers in the future.

"Imagine a world where your bank can tell you how each of your expenditures affect your stated financial goals, in real time," Schwanhausser said at the time.

Well, at least one bank looks to be following that model. This week, ING Direct in Canada announced it is releasing a mobile banking app that tells users how much they could save by skipping occasional indulgences.

"Called Small Sacrifices, the new tool graphically shows users the financial gains that could be made over the long and short-term by foregoing their daily, weekly and monthly spending on non-essential items by redirecting that money through incremental deposits into an assigned savings account," reports Finextra.

It looks like the future is now here, and this level of PFM will become more commonplace at banks.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio