Strategies for PFM Success
Report Summary
Strategies for PFM Success
To reap the benefits of PFM, institutions will have to change consumer sentiment and encourage consumer engagement.
Boston, September 19, 2012 – A new report from Aite Group examines how financial institutions can get more consumers to use personal financial management and explains why financial institutions should do so. Based on a Q2 2012 Aite Group survey of 1,115 U.S. consumers, the report discusses why more consumers don’t use PFM tools and distinguishes customers who use PFM from those who don’t.
A few years ago, personal financial management was a hot topic. Consumers were turning to PFM to better manage their financial lives, and financial institutions were rolling out PFM tools to repair their broken images, restore lost consumer trust, and find a platform by which they could effectively and efficiently cross-sell their products and services. Today, consumers are underutilizing PFM capabilities, and institutions have been unable to realize the tool’s full potential. Two factors inhibit consumers from using their bank’s or credit union’s online PFM offerings: Consumers are underinvolved in the management of their financial lives, and they don’t want their financial institution’s help in managing finances.
“As many banks and credit unions have learned the hard way, a ‘build it and they will come’ approach to deploying PFM produces little in the way of bottom-line results for financial institutions,” says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of the report. “To reap the benefits of their PFM investments, institutions will have to change consumer sentiment toward PFM and implement changes that will better encourage consumer engagement.”
This 17-page Impact Note contains 11 figures and one table. Clients of Aite Group’s Retail Banking service can download the report.