The press release title is a bit of a stretch to suggest ‘revolutionised’ but the feature sounds like it has potential.
Lloyds TSB has revolutionised its online banking facilities by adding a new bill manager feature, allowing customers to view, pay and store their household bills online.
Source: Lloyds TSB online banking ‘revolutionised’ – Money News
But what a let down when I visited lloydstsb.com to check this out. No mention on their site, and I gave up with the demo when it tried to install the Microsoft Virtual Java machine. So I will have to speculate – this is a brilliant example of how simple co-ordination could have made this a big win for Lloyds, but the result is quite the opposite.
Relevance to Bankwatch:
One of the next evolutions for online banking is what I would characterise as budget management. Lloyds example of bill management (I give them the benefit of the doubt) and Wells Fargo’s spending report (they provide analysis reports of your debit and credit spending) are pro-active free tools that take online banking beyond simple transactions. These kinds of tools are sticky, and if done well, will offer ways to develop customer loyalty.
UPDATE:
Finextra provide a bit more information on the Lloyds thing. They have hooked up with Voca and CheckFree. This is the first time I have been aware of CheckFree outside the US. This is clear introduction of the model we are more used to in North America, and is a big deal. Key is the sign up of billers to the CheckFree system.
The new service enables Web banking customers to pay, view and store paperless bills online and is designed to remove the need for customers to deal separately with individual companies or log on to providers’ Web sites.
Lloyds TSB says fourteen companies, including utility and telecoms firms, have so far agreed to allow their customers to view and pay bills through the new site
Question; the CheckFree model is to sell the service to multiple Banks – will Barclays be close behind?
Bankwatch 
CIBC recently launched CreditSmart (http://www.cibc.com/ca/features/creditsmart.html?wt.mc_id=cs06-0019) which allows detailed view of your credit card spending and create customized monthly budgets online.
The Voca/CheckFree joint venture in the UK goes back to 2004, if memory serves.
Since I’m the CEO of OneVu, I hope to be able to answer some (any?) of the great interest and questions raised here. Firstly, Dave is correct – OneVu started in May 04. Other postings are also correct – a true consolidated EBPP offering in the UK (any market, in fact) is entirely dependent on billers providing content through the consolidator (in the case of the UK, OneVu). Many billers are ‘internally focussed’ on thier own sites, and it takes time and effort to raise their sights (no pun intended) to what could be possible via the millions of authenticated online bank customers who they can connect up with more effectively. For that reason, we – with Lloyds TSB – have adopted a ‘softly, softly’ start to the service. I have no doubts that our service WILL revolutionise bill presentment and payment over time, but we recognise we are on an evolving journey, and will be increasingly successful as we build up content. I’m disappointed to hear about the demo on Lloyds not working correctly – it’s a fairly straightforward ‘flash’ demo. If the contributor would like to contact me directly, I will ensure that the demo is delivered personally and perfectly! Please do keep watching and discussing what we’re doing – and do contact me with questions!
Mr Kearsley … that you for the prompt follow up and current information. That is highly responsive and very web 2.0