Nedbank launches planning tool

Nedbank has announced MyFinancialLife, an online personal financial management tool that helps consumers “to achieve their aspirations and financial goals.””

MyFinancialLife easily provides a consolidated view of the users’ entire financial position online and in one place, available to new and existing clients by the end of August.

The tool appears to compete directly against the 22Seven service launched in South Africa earlier this year.

‚””We are delighted to bring you MyFinancialLife as part of our ongoing commitment to empower all in South Africa to build financial fitness. Whether just starting out or seeing greater financial security within reach, it is important to consistently manage ones finances, yet increasingly challenging to make the time available. We are always looking at ways in which we can make our hard earned money work better for us. It is for this reason that Nedbank developed MyFinancialLife as the online hub for anything relating to the financial aspects of one’s life,‚”” says Ingrid Johnson, Group Managing Executive Retail and Business Banking at Nedbank.

‚””MyFinancialLife allows clients to link accounts from various banks and non-banking financial service providers in a highly secure environment, which is enabled through an innovative digital security mechanism, called Approve-it. This is recognised as a world class technology solution that allows clients added piece of mind when using internet banking. Nedbank clients can access MyFinancialLife‚Ñ¢ directly from within their electronic banking, providing an additional security layer‚””, comments Anton de Wet, Nedbank Managing Executive Client Engagement.

At launch, MyFinancialLife provides six core functions enabling clients to customise their dashboard in line with their individual financial interests & requirements:

¬∑ ‚’net worth calculation’ consolidated view of your financial position, based on financial accounts linked or non-financial assets added manually: Nedbank clients will have some accounts pre-populated.

¬∑ ‚’spend analysis’ – shows your spend graphically based on the categorized card and electronic transactions. Initially a manual intervention, the system will then automatically recognize all your transactions repeated with the same supplier.

¬∑ ‚’budgeting’ allows you to track your actual spend against your planned spend

¬∑ ‚’saving for a goal’ a goal-save tool that allows you to set goals, categorise them, choose an amount you would like to save during a specific timeframe – and then calculates how much should be put aside to meet your goal such as saving for a holiday, education or buying a new car.

¬∑ ‚’alerts’ – can be set on budgeting or goal-save functions and can be sent via e-mail or SMS. You can, for instance, set up alerts when 50% of your allowed credit card limit has been reached or when you have exceeded a budgeted amount.

¬∑ ‚’calendar view’ allows you to track debit orders against payments that need to be made, making it easy to view weekly, monthly or yearly transactions, ensuring that you have always planned to have sufficient funds available.

This core functionality will be available to new and existing clients at no cost. Future additional value added functionality may be priced separately, as these become available.

‚””This is just the beginning! We will be consistently adding functionality based on clients’ needs and asking our clients to innovate with us. Wouldn’t it be great to be reminded regularly of what you need for your retirement, how your investments are performing, how much you still need to save based on different retirement ages and a quick right click for some investment options – online? That would certainly make a great difference towards ensuring financial fitness,‚”” adds Johnson.

MyFinancialLife caters for individuals and the entire household as family members’ accounts can also be linked onto the same dashboard, assisting families to budget and plan for their future. Micro-enterprises may also find this tool useful in managing their business financial affairs.

‚””Just like being physically fit is an important step in managing our health and wellbeing – we believe financial fitness is just as important. The ‚””Nedbank4me – My Future My Bank‚”” offering, sets the foundation of financial education for kids and teens, the Nedbank ‚’Ke Yona’ proposition includes embedded funeral cover and tips on how to manage your money wisely and our Banking&Beyond philosophy in Retail Relationship Banking encourages rigorous financial planning for professionals and entrepreneurs. MyFinancialLife‚Ñ¢ is a further step in our commitment to empowering all in South Africa to build financial fitness and achieve their aspirations,‚”” concludes Johnson.

* “