Taking cues from finance apps, M&T lets customers aggregate all accounts

M&T Bank is rolling out a new feature to help people aggregate all of their accounts within its mobile banking app, including those from other institutions. It's an open platform approach for an industry that's traditionally been averse to integrating competitors' offerings. M&T 's tool, called Money Smart, is emblematic of a more open approach that banks are taking to their mobile app platforms, letting customers add account information from as many sources as possible. It's an approach that resembles Mint and other startup-developed personal finance management tools. Other banks also are taking this approach: Citibank , for example, launched an account aggregation tool within its mobile app last year. Joe Lombardo, senior vice president of consumer strategy at M&T, said the bank identified a gap in its ability to help customers manage their finances, presumably because of the inability to put all of a customer's financial information in one place. He noted that the bank could easily help customers with personal finance challenges in a branch, but M&T wanted a way to provide these holistic services within its digital platform. Once the customer gives their permission, M&T's app automatically pulls in all their accounts (outside accounts are verified through the entry of usernames and passwords). The bank said it only relies on screen scraping (manually typing passwords) when it can't connect directly to a financial institution. The tool then categorizes where customers are spending their money and how much they are saving relative to their income, allowing customers to set budgets around categories like food, travel and home. Through Money Smart, customers can gain an end-to-end view of customers’ financial lives. The information is valuable intelligence M&T can use when pitching other products. “Personalization is an important part of this,” Lombardo said. “It will help us get smarter about what matters to customers in a more one-to-one way, allowing us to provide better financial solutions to them.” M&T, which is based in Buffalo and has more than $118 billion in assets, started exploring the rollout of an account aggregation tool about a year ago. The bank piloted the program with about 100 employees earlier this year before rolling it out to customers. M&T will keep a close eye on whether Money Smart results in an increase in app users and if customers who use the account aggregation tool spend more time with its mobile banking app. M&T currently is advertising Money Smart through emails and pop-up ads within the app. Lombardo said the bank will probably advertise through social media in the future. M&T also plans on launching a debt payoff feature that shows how much customers need to set aside to pay off debts within specific time frames. See also: Mobile adoption jumps at Citi M&T Bank is hardly alone when it comes to bank account aggregation and personal finance management tools. Unlike Money Smart, Citi’s tool is open to anyone, not just bank customers. In addition, platforms like Mint and Digit specialize in budgeting, so it’s unclear if M&T's tool will pull customers away from their favorite third-party apps. Brian Wolfe, professor of finance at the University of Buffalo School of Management, said the challenge for M&T will be to differentiate. "If they are using any similar apps, why go through the effort to link all of these up?" he asked.

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Taking cues from finance apps, M&T lets customers aggregate all accounts

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