Prudential's online banking operation Egg has launched a new service
allowing its customers, and those of rival banks, to manage their current
and saving accounts online through a single site, but its competitors are
less enthusiastic.

The new service, dubbed Egg Money Manager, allows customers to access their
different online investments from a single place, using the same security
login, and will be promoted via a high-profile advertising campaign starting
next week.

The move has irked Egg's online rivals, however, who used the launch to
question the security of the service and arrangements concerning ownership
of customer data.

According to Egg, The Money Manager, the first service of its kind in the
UK, will be made available to users of other internet operations including
those of Abbey National, AMEX, Bank of Scotland, Barclaycard and Barclays
Bank, Cahoot, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Natwest, Nationwide,
Royal Bank of Scotland and Smile.

However, HBOS is thought to have withdrawn from the service after claiming
that it had not given permission for its customers' data to be used.

This morning, an Egg spokesperson brushed off the criticism, saying that
"one would have to question the motives" of the other banks in bringing out
statements on the day of the launch.

He also claimed that it would be "pretty much impossible" to hack into the
service to access sensitive data, and that Egg would offer an unconditional
guarantee covering lost monies of its own customers and those of other
participating banks.

The company claimed there is considerable demand for such account
aggregation services, saying that 36% of people surveyed by research group
MORI recently expressed a desire to see them become available.

In a statement, Egg UK's director of banking and insurance Andy Deller said:
"Account aggregation is a key development in financial services, allowing
consumers to manage their finances more effectively and ultimately putting
them in control.

"Egg Money Manager allows customers to organise their finances simply and
securely from one convenient place, with the added comfort of knowing that
they are covered by the Egg Guarantee in the event of any fraudulent
activity."

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