Far more involved than the other ideas, statement consolidation involves strategic partnerships, systems integration with other companies, moderate-to-heavy programming, and extensive user education. But the payoffs are much higher as well, potentially offering a long-term source of service differentiation.

Barclays (London, UK; $325 billion USD) is the first bank we’ve seen use this approach. Six merchants in its BarclaySquare online shopping area participate in the SmartStatement program which combines purchases made at all participating merchants onto one convenient online record of past purchases, status of pending orders, and account informatioin.

Barclays is pioneering integrated online statements at its UK Web site www.barclaysquare.co.uk

Barclay’s effort is just the tip of the iceberg. Financial institutions could create a statement consolidation “engine” that integrates all types of non-financial statements with bank and credit card account info. For example, a user checking on a bank balance could also click on a utility statement or frequent flyer mileage statement. Below are some of the statements that could be integrated into a personalized statement area running on your server, e.g. <mystatements.yourbank.com>:

The logistics of a fully electronic integrated statement is beyond the scope of this Report, but you could start with something simple and local. Using the Quicken approach, users could do their own data entry on your Web site. ð

For example, frequent fliers would enter their account balances manually each month. You could make the task simpler by prompting users for input each month through Web-based and/or email-based reminders. Emails could have a hyperlink to the Web-based input form, or the email could serve as the input form allowing users to update their database by replying back to the email with new numbers.

Of course, any program requiring users to enter data month after month will have limited appeal. Many of the users wishing to track matters so closely are already doing so with Quicken or a spreadsheet.

The more exciting possibilities are hosting statements published on the Internet. For the large national merchants, you will probably need to wait for the solutions being rolled out late this year by MSFDC, Checkfree, Princeton Telecom and others. But statements from smaller billers in your market could be published on your Web.

For example, your business clients may have an account at a local printer. The printer might be interested in publishing billing statements on your Web provided it fit within the parameters of their existing billing procedures and it promised faster payments. For larger billers, you could work with an Internet billing solutions provider to develop a data feed directly from the biller’s accounting software or print stream to your Web.

Smaller merchants could simply input the billing data directly into a password-protected form running on your Web. The printer’s bookkeeper would log in and update customer records with the amount due, transaction detail, etc. Upon hitting “Send Bill,” the bill summary would automatically be loaded and archived on your Web, and an email or fax would be sent to the biller’s client inviting them to your Web to make payment. Billers could even send second notices by logging into your Web, accessing the unpaid bill, and clicking “Send Second Notice.”

We see real benefits to statement hosting, especially for community banks and credit unions:

•  Simplifies billing and collection for small companies.
•  Provides an opportunity for you to be the first in your market to offer “bill presentment.”
•  Adds value to your home banking services.