America Online Launches Electronic Banking Center
May 17, 2011
America Online Inc. launched a banking center with a group of 18 banks offering on-line financial services. In addition, the on-line service said it had moved to block mass mailings of commercial e-mail to its subscribers. ``Receiving unsolicited `junk' e-mail is the No. 1 complaint we hear from our members,'' said Stevie Gould, America Online's chairman. America Online said has been asking sites that do mass mailings to halt the practice. It said that it has moved to block those that refused. In addition, later this month the company will release a new feature that will assist individual members to customize their e-mail and refuse mass mailings. Meanwhile, America Online said 18 financial institutions, including American Express, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, would offer banking and bill-paying services on-line. Financial institutions that offer services through the center can choose from the transaction solutions of four different on-line providers or they can create their own solutions. CheckFree Corp., Intuit Inc., Online Resources and Visa Interactive will offer a variety of back-end processing and interface options. An America Online spokeswoman said 14 of the banks in the launch group will use Intuit's BankNOW software. In Nasdaq Stock Market trading, America Online's shares added 6.25 cents to $30.
