In a study released by market researcher Compete, Inc. <compete.com>, online users surveyed overwhelmingly said they wanted more information from their financial service providers, and they were willing to download a special application or plug-in to facilitate the information exchange (click on inset to see closeup of Southwest Airlines DING service).

Key findings:

• 73% would like to be made more aware of new offerings and services
• 69% would download a desktop application so that they could receive useful information from their financial services provider on a regular basis
• 78% would do so if the program protected them from fraud
• 5% would be unwilling to go online to receive information from financial services

Analysis
The success of Southwest Airline's DING service (NetBanker Dec 5), which puts Southwest right on the computer desktop, along with toolbars from eBay, Google, and most recently Bank of America (NetBanker Dec 12), have not gone unnoticed in the financial services community. Until email trust issues are solved, which may take three or four years, a direct connection to the user's desktop makes good business sense. As Compete's data shows, more than three-quarters of consumers said they would download a desktop application, as long as they felt it would be a security improvement to do so.

Financial institutions should try to add a "safe and secure" theme to all account management tools, from email alerts to electronic statements and more.

--JB