Dutch bank ING is to follow in the footsteps of Spain's BBVA and implement personal financial management technology from US-based social benchmarking company Strands.
In Spain, BBVA was the first to implement Strands' technology last November and to launch the Tú Cuentas (You Count) service. Customers use the system to manage their spending across multiple accounts and benchmark their budgeting and personal financial management against a community of their peers.
Additionally, Strands recommendation technologies power Actibva Predicciones, a community-based prediction network through which users can ask the crowd's view, express opinions through a market game, and win points and prizes based on accurate predictions.
At ING, the system is being introduced under the brand banner TIM, and will initially be rolled out in a private beta and only for a limited number of customers who have applied to participate in this pilot phase. Users will be able to use the tool to categorise their spending, juggle budgets and benchmark their outcomes anonymously against other community members.