This really go me thinking about how do do this and do it right.  What are the guiding principles that ought to guide such a venture if the opportunity arose to do it from scratch and do it right ?

Some guiding principles that leapt out at me:

• Laser like focus on customers.  Listen to them, talk to them, and above all, do not lecture them.  This will always drive the right answer, and provide strong guidance to the other principles.  There can be no deviation from this one, because switching costs are much less in the direct environment, and are dropping.

• Costs: do not accept costs from the “mother ship” enterprise that could be sourced cheaper elsewhere.  This aspect is probably the downfall of most early ventures, such as Wingspan, and mbanx. 

• Don’t try to run before you walk.  Do not try to create the impression of automation, and believe this can be easily papered over with staff and manual systems in the background.  Look at the processes that you have already automated or can be easily automated, and focus on those first. 
• Take a multi channel view:  ensure the call centre and web site capabilities match, particularly in sales and service processes.  Make revenue a priority.  Otherwise the experience is inconsistent, and the business will lose credibility.

Relevance to Bankwatch:
This is just the start of this interesting journey to document the right principles for building a direct banking capability.  Where it gets really interesting lies in how to work within these principles which will at first seem contradictory – eg.  full multi channel, and cheap, or customer centric, and strong revenue.