FleetBoston Financial (Boston, MA; $191 billion) is keeping its product lineup state-of-the-art with its NetFriday service expected to launch in second quarter (screenshot right). The service is being developed in partnership with Viant.

The bank is also teaming with person-to-person payment provider TradeSafe.com to offer co-branded email payment and escrow services.

The Fleet name is prominently displayed on TradeSafe’s home page.

Fleet’s statement aggregation service includes such un-banklike functions as a To Do List, email manager and weather forecast.

BayBank
www.baybank.com

BayBank, Bank of Boston and Fleet have been advertising on the front page of the Boston Globe. Banner ads rotate across the bottom of the first page. Based on our short test, BayBank appears to have the biggest ad buy.

Contact: Robert Shay is SVP, 617.899.2222.

Bank of America
www.bankamerica.com

Bank of America’s Build Your Own Bank, was the industry’s first personalized Web site back in late 1995. After logging-in, users are greeted with “Welcome to the Bank of username.” I had not logged in for over a year and was greeted with 16 pages of messages and news.

Fleet Financial
www.fleet.com

Fleet’s Personal Navigator has been around for more than a year now. Fleet is still using the same five profiling questions which cover age, family status, home ownership, financial wherewithal, and preferences in cars. No word as to what, if anything, they are doing with this data. I haven’t ever been contacted by the bank, despite having been in the database for over a year. Of course, I have an out-of-area zip code.

Deposit Guaranty
www.dgb.com

We really like Deposit Guaranty’s Express Menu. Rather than employing pesky cookies, or requiring users to memorize users IDs and passwords, the bank creates personalized menus on the fly. It only takes a few seconds to check the boxes. One improvement, in our view, would be the ability to bookmark the personalized menu for future reference. The ill-fated First Interstate site used this technique.

PNC Bank
www.pncbank.com

PNC Bank is the latest with a customized Web page called, what else, Customized Banking. It includes both a Personal Profile and an Entrepreneur’s Profile.

See also: Summit Bank www.summitbank.com profiled last month.

Fleet Financial (Providence, RI; $85 billion; 1.9 million ATM cards) launched its PC banking program in upstate NY and New England on March 11. Initial sign-up volume has been averaging 1,000 customers per day with “fewer marketing dollars” than spent by some of the earlier banks (with new online banking programs).

Fleet is using a customized version of Managing Your Money from MECA Software. Besides the usual account information and bill payment, important differentiating features of the Fleet program include:

• real-time data
• access to most account types (checking, savings, credit cards, mortgages, loans/lines, CDs and even its proprietary mutual funds)
• 90 days of transaction history for first-time users
• funds transfers to other financial institutions (PNC was first to offer this feature)
• integration with telephone banking so users can pay bills by phone when their PC is unavailable

Account access and funds transfers are free-of-charge, optional bill payment is $4.50/mo for unlimited payments after a three-month free trial (fee is waived for Fleet One Account holders and Private Banking customers). There is a $4.95 shipping and handling fee to receive the “free” software. Fleet’s Web site features a concise overview of the software but refers users to an 800 number to sign up. This is a product that needs an online sign-up form for credibility. Fleet is working on a PC banking program for small business due out in second quarter. Internet banking is scheduled for launch by year-end. Fleet is part-owner of MECA along with five other financial institutions (. The company is also one of 17 owners of Integrion.

Note: Fleet needs to spruce up its search engine algorithms, as do many other on-site search engines. Entering “PC banking,” “PC,” or “Managing Your Money” in Fleet’s search engine returns zero hits. “Online banking” takes you to a year-old press release about the Web site. However, both “home banking” and “computer banking” offer links to the PC banking area.