Last December U.S. Bancorp (Portland, OR; $33 billion; 1.7 million ATM cards; 30,000 OLB users) became the third financial institution, after Wells Fargo and Bank of America, to offer PC banking in the three most popular flavors among North American users (for the next few years anyway):

• dial-up via PFM software
• America Online
• Web

As the sun sets on the U.S. Bancorp franchise (they are scheduled be acquired by First Bank Systems later this month, though the U.S. Bank name lives on), we take a final look at its pioneering offerings. Though the bank never achieved the kind of volume recorded by BayBanks, Wells, Nations, or the penetration levels of its competitor on the Microsoft campus, First Tech FCU, that probably had more to do with conservative pricing ($15/mo as recently as Feb. ’96) than with the product offerings themselves.

Microsoft Money integrates the name/logos of participating banks throughout. In the software equivalent of an “on-hold” message, the bank’s logo is displayed during the 60-second upload/download.

U.S. Bank began its foray into online banking in Jan. 1994 as one of the three original participants (along with First Chicago and Michigan National) in Microsoft’s Home Banking Network which offered bill payment, e-mail to/from the bank, and balance/ transaction downloading via Microsoft Money. The bank added similar dial-up access via Quicken as soon as Intuit made the feature available in November 1995.

U.S. Bank on America Online.

U.S. Bank invested little in its AOL offering. The bank used the plain vanilla BankNow template from Intuit and has had no advertising on AOL’s Banking Channel. The bank is not offering BankNow Internet Edition.

Web access began in December 1996, exactly one year to the date that Linda Parker of U.S. Bank appeared on stage with Bill Gates at BAI’s 1995 Retail Delivery Conference and demonstrated a Microsoft mock-up of a U.S. Bank “virtual branch.”

U.S. Bank on the Web.
 

The latest iteration of U.S. Bank’s Web leads with an Online Banking bar at the top of the page. Users know to log in via the left hand portion of the bar.

Web banking overview.

The online banking overview (above) lays out the options, prominently mentioning “FREE” which became a key part of the bank’s marketing message in late 1996. (Even today, I heard a U.S. Bank radio spot touting free banking via Quicken.)

Page 1: Web banking menu.

Web banking: mini statement.

UBANK ON-Line Express scores two thumbs-up overall. While not as full-featured as some Web offerings (no bill payment or download options), it’s easy to use and well laid-out. Our main complaints are the convoluted sign-up process, a general lack of explanation for some of the banking jargon (e.g., “debit amount”), and the glaring omission of a log-out button.

Clicking on an account from the first page (screenshot below left) brings up a mini-statement with current balance and last 10 transactions (screenshot above). A button at the bottom offers check-number searching. Users can also choose to transfer funds, check out today’s activity (not yet posted), see the last 10 transactions by type (ATM, deposit, paper check, POS debit, other electronic debit) or simply see all transactions within the last eight weeks. Functionality and terminology mirrors the bank’s voice and ATM systems making it easier for users to migrate online or switch back-and-forth.
Contacts: Linda Parker is SVP Alternative Delivery; Vera Wildauer is Product Manager, 206.587.5222.

Today’s activity followed by check-number search.