Those who went through the Xero prospectus with a fine tooth comb will have seen the thinly veiled references to value adding services that were, at that stage, still to come.

We’d seem to have the start of these value adds appearing….

News the other day that Xero has rolled out a new bank reconciliation process available for customers of Kiwibank, ANZ, National Bank or ASB. It looks beautiful, efficient and cutting edge. One problem……. I don’t bank with the aforementioned banks.

I’m sure Xero is deep in talks with the other trading banks about opening access so they can provide this service to their customers. I guess the banks are watching closely to gauge the uptake before they decide whether it is a worthwhile play for them, but yet again we come to a situation where an incumbent service provider creates an impediment to progressing a new paradigm.

In an ideal world there would be a standard interface for banking services (banking API anyone?) that would avoid;

  • Interfacers having to develop individually for each bank
  • Users having to contemplate switching banks in order to utilise a third part service

It’s an interesting area and one which, given the serious resources available to bank’s IT departments, I would be incredulous if they are not looking at seriously and thinking in a banking 2.0 framework.

But then again given Sandy’s experiences recently maybe I should just be incredulous…. (and yes I know she’s talking about service but it’s banking service specifically)

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

1 Comment
  • If you’re not with one of the supported banks, then you can still import your statements via QIF or OFX and use the new bank rec screens. I use Westpac and it works beautifully.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.