Although we are not wild about the idea of banks trying to compete in the general-interest-portal arena, we are intrigued by what Combio (Carlsbad, CA) is doing with a half-dozen financial institution clients. The first to go live is myWebster from Webster Bank (Waterbury, CT; $11.1 billion). The bank-sponsored portal launched on Nov. 1.

It’s an attractive site that complements the bank brand. It’s reasonably well integrated with bank offerings and it offers useful non-stock-market-oriented functionality such as weather, directions/maps, and our favorite, a Google search button on the top of the page. It also offers local Connecticut content along with national news.
Contacts: Fred Duggan is SVP, E-Business at Webster, (203) 755-1422; Fred Covely is CEO at Combio,
(760) 602-5500.

myWebster, a news and information portal from Webster Bank, features a number of useful functions all accessible from the home page.