A Mint for Mint & PFM's Evolving Future

Analyst: Bill Bradway

October 7, 2009

On September 14th, Intuit announced it would pay an astounding $170 million in cash for Mint. Unless there are anti-trust concerns raised this deal is expected to close by the end of October. This deal comes eight months after Intuit openly questioned and protested Mint’s methodology for counting registered users. Mint.com is the clear leader in the direct to consumer market with an announced 1.6 million users.

The online personal financial management (PFM) space is overly crowded with at least 20 vendors and financial institution alternatives, many of which have emerged in the past two years. The established desktop PC-based PFM market is down to Intuit’s Quicken as Microsoft has shut down its MS Money software. A & O Brief 2009-05 (Online Personal Financial Management Solutions: Proliferation to Fallout, March 17, 2009) addressed a series of key questions. Revisiting the answers to these questions and adding a few new ones is appropriate in light of the Intuit – Mint deal and other new developments, such as the Citi – Microsoft venture and Yodlee’s MoneyCenter 10.0 release.

• How can so many online PFM alternatives find enough consumers to make their efforts worthwhile?
• Since consumers are able to use these PFM websites for free, are there any business models that can position these online PFM sponsors to generate any revenue?
• Are the online PFM alternatives a threat to or a boost for banks and credit unions?
• How will the online PFM proliferation shake out?
• Will Intuit’s Quicken desktop and online PFM solutions converge or continue to serve segregated markets?
• How should banks and credit unions proceed with PFM alternatives?
• How will established FinTech vendors (core banking and channel) address the PFM issue, if at all?

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