Online financial sites are popular. Do they threaten banks?

It depends on the goal of the site. Financial product comparison services like moneyaisle.com or filife.com are more an opportunity than a threat to the banks. If a bank has good products or conditions, the customers will choose it by browsing on an independent site. This means a minimal investment of listing from the bank and, of course, the presence can be boosted with more ads or other online marketing tools.

On the other hand, account aggregation and personal finance management sites like mint.com, wesabe.com or yodlee.com can be a replacement for online banking, and this possibility is dangerous for the banks. Today, customers can watch their aggregated account balances and analyse their spending at these providers. They might visit these sites more often than online banking, especially when paying bills and making other transactions becomes available. 

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BBVA and other banks have already recognized that the aggregation service and spending reports are customer needs, so they launched their own personal finance management tools within the online banking, and this way they do not loose the online customer contact.