Citi and Microsoft have joined forces to develop a personal finance management site that will take on Mint, the firm acquired by Intuit last month, according to Bloomberg.
Citing "people familiar with the matter", Bloomberg says the bank and tech firm have poured around $5 million into the project, provisionally called Bundle, since work began earlier this year. The venture is being steered by Jaidev Shergill, an EVP at Citigroup's growth ventures and innovation division.
The service will, like Mint, let users monitor accounts at multiple banks and brokerages and will be developed during the next "one or two years".
Mint - which Intuit agreed to pay $170 million for earlier this month - launched in public beta in September 2007 and by August was claiming over 1.4 million registered users, tracking $175 billion in transactions and $47 billion in assets.
Its success contributed to Microsoft deciding to scrap its Money personal finance management software - which competed with Intuit's Quicken - in June.
Although abandoning the software model, Microsoft thinks the online money management business has potential and, along with Citi, wants to stop Intuit getting too far ahead, says Bloomberg.
Citigroup, Microsoft Said to Take on Intuit, Mint.com - Bloomberg