Yodlee Is Powering Your Financial Apps, and Banks Love It

You may not know about Yodlee, but the odds are high you use one or more of their platform services. Their personal asset management tools are used by the biggest banks all the way down to micro firms to help aggregate financial information.

The Problem: For many, checking accounts, saving accounts, 401Ks, 528s, IRAs, mortgage loans and other investments are in different places. When asked their net worth, Yodlee found few people knew enough about their finances to answer.

"What we found, while online banking is great for masses, there's an underserved part of the market for personal asset management. The self-directed masses don't necessary have wealth management relationships and they have accounts spread all around at different institutions," says John Bird, marketing director and Yodlee's internal wealth expert in a phone interview.

The Solution: Bird explains big banks found customers were starting to use and request wealth aggregation applications to get a better picture of their finances. Recognizing the potential, many have been using Yodlee to build robust aggregation platforms within their own online banking site.

The results have been astounding.

Institutions were finally getting a holistic picture of the financial well-being of their customers. Engagement on site increased. Better yet, the firms are able to monitor their customers' holdings and behavior and directly market tools and services that fit their needs.

"Data provided across the holdings surfaces in their in-house wealth management or brokerage departments and they're able to cross market directly."

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In one example, using Yodlee WealthCenter, one investment firm identified $2.5 billion in held-away assets and generated $1.25 million in fees in just four months in a pilot initiative. "For that firm, and many others, the tool paid for itself in a matter of months," said Bird.

He adds that as the population ages and becomes more tech savvy people are going to expect these types of tools, especially on mobile platforms.

Industry Facts:

According to a recent survey by Yodlee:

• 73% of investors make their own investment decisions.
• 9 out of 10 advisors don't have a holistic view of their client's entire portfolio, which could hamper their ability to provide tailored advice

Names You Know

Yodlee is incubating over 300 firms, many of which you probably know or have used: There are the big big banks (including 7 of the top 10 US financial institutions), and smaller financial management firms like Personal Capital, LearnVest, Balance Financial, Credit Karma… In total, more than 600 companies globally use Yodlee's personal finance apps.

While this may seem a one stop shop for security breaches, Bird says they are audited every year and always pass. "Our security is world class and proven. But what's interesting is that for the businesses we are incubating, especially the smaller firms, they're able to put all their time into building their product, which is hosted on our platform, and they can also say their product's security is trusted and proven." Becca Lipman is Senior Editor for Wall Street & Technology. She writes in-depth news articles with a focus on big data and compliance in the capital markets. She regularly meets with information technology leaders and innovators and writes about cloud computing, datacenters, ... View Full Bio