Citibank is reporting it has signed over 10,000 UK customers to its online account aggregation service, with 60% using the service on a daily basis, since its launch eight weeks ago. Over half of the customers are new to Citibank.
The My Accounts service, the first of its kind in the UK, hit a setback at launch as many of the popular choice UK banks refused to comply with requirements for consumers to store passwords and PINs over the Citi site. Citibank claims over 20% of those customers signed up are calling for their banking providers to be added to the service.
Jonathan Mindell, sales and marketing director, comments: "It is disappointing to see many UK banks hesitant to adopt what is the next stage in the evolution of online banking services. Their withdrawal from the service has simply confused consumers who are eager to access their finances via My Accounts. We know several UK institutions are preparing to launch their own aggregation services and we look on with interest to see who will be next."
The Citibank 'My Accounts' service enables customers to pull together, view and access on one page, bank and credit card balances, e-mail services, news headlines, reward and mileage programmes, utility bills and other personal information.
Customers are aggregating a mixture of sites from the full complement of those available, says Mindell, ranging from news sites to credit cards, with the average customer aggregating a total of four accounts. My Accounts users are spending around 30 minutes each time they review all their accounts aggregated on the service.