Facebook of little value to banks?

Banks have shown a willingness to experiment with Web 2.0 technologies. We're seeing a handful starting to play around with Twitter as another customer service channel. Many banks already set up a presence on Facebook, aiming to keep up with a younger demographic.

But the early word is that there will be little ROI from their Facebook-like networking presence. So says Bank Technology News: "Banks haven't helped their cause by putting up static Facebook pages without transactional capability. The pages often redirect people to a bank's website for even the most basic product information, which analysts say is antithetical to the social networking premise."

Some think the banks need to offer real services via such as networks, but that's a tricky proposition from a security and marketing standpoint. Fiserve seems to be the farthest along. It offers a product that allows credit unions to offer real services. It will rollout a similar service for banks soon. Facebook users can download the application, which helps them find credit unions and do basic banking. And when members add the service to their profiles, it automatically contacts Friends. This could be annoying. You may end up losing friends. 

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