>>>How do the brokers and others (non-banks) deal with the INTEGRION
pseudo-monopoly?
I think most non-bank FI's don't feel a threat from Integion, in addition there is so much competition in the brokerage business, that the non-bank FI's are trying to steal customers from traditional banks in order to find new revenue (by offering the same services banks do).
>>>Does the adoption of OFX Gold really allow the touted transparency between various e-bill and e-pay platforms?
OFX and Gold have merged into IFX (can't remember what it stands for). In any case CheckFree supports all standards. Even with the new standard, IFX, CheckFree must add on additional information that the standard doesn't yet support. or in otherwords, CheckFree's ahead of the standard (with products like Boss, etc..). This is both good and bad. Good in that CF needs to create new products and services, bad in that it costs them more since they are the leading the way...
back to your question...will OFX/GOLD/IFX, etc. allow transparency between platforms? Not really, standards only help a little. So many Banks, Biller, etc. are on different platforms with different needs etc., that all a standard does is provide some guidance.
Benny |
