Ready for bank peer comparison sites?

We've talked a bit about social networking and the Web 2.0 technologies that banks are starting to experiment with. Here's one that is a bit unusual: Peer comparison sites. Bank Investment Consultant notes a new web portal from ING at  www.ING.CompareMe.com, which allows people to view the personal finance habits of groups of anonymous peers. The idea is for people to generate financial services ideas by noting what your peers are doing, i.e., investing more in a retirement plan or spending less on entertainment.

ING's free service uses detailed information from customers, about everything from finances to lifestyles. ING appears to be the only major bank offering a peer comparison site. But there are some standalone services offered by Mint and Geezeo that offer online peer comparison for investment and financial services as well as alerts and other services. We'll see how ING fares. The goal of course is to upsell and cross sell customers on new services.  

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