Home banking gets another shot in the arm: banks, software firms team up to advance concept.

The move to home banking gained momentum this summer, with announcements of major new partnerships between two of the nation's premier software makers and 20 top U.S. financial institutions.

The two software giants are Menlo Park, Calif.-based Intuit Inc., maker of "Quicken" personal finance software, and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software company and maker of "Microsoft Money," a personal finance software package similar to Quicken.

On the bank side, Microsoft is teaming up with 17 major U.S. banks and thrifts, including L.A.-based First Interstate Bank, Irwindale-based Home Savings of America, L.A.-based Sanwa Bank of California, and Union Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, both of San Francisco. Intuit, meanwhile, is teaming up separately with the same 17 banks, as well as American Express Co. and Smith Barney.

Intuit and Microsoft made headlines earlier this year when the U.S. Justice Department blocked a proposed merger between the two, ruling that the proposed marriage would violate antitrust laws.

Since the ruling, both Microsoft and Intuit have pursued separate arrangements with banks to allow customers to access their bank accounts online via a personal computer, a modem and a running copy of Quicken or Microsoft Money.

The new alliances will enable customers from participating banks to download checking and savings account information directly from their banks into the Quicken or Microsoft Money worksheets on their personal computer screens. In the past, users of Quicken and Microsoft Money had to enter account information into their computers manually.

Most banks contacted said they plan to launch their new online service in mid-October, following introduction of new versions of Quicken and Microsoft Money specifically designed for online banking.

Fees for service

Officials at most California banks in the Quicken/Money alliance project said they have been working overtime to prepare their systems for the mid-October launch.

But while most banks have already decided on the range of new online services they will offer, they are still discussing the amount of fees they will charge customers to use those services.

The list of standard banking services that will soon be available online include: bill paying, accessing statements and balances, and transferring funds between accounts. In addition, customers who bank online with Quicken or Microsoft Money will be able to perform some online brokerage functions, such as receiving stock quotes.

Representatives from Sanwa, First Interstate, Home Savings and Wells Fargo all said they are still determining what fees - if any - they will charge for the new service.

Sanwa Executive Vice President Gene Galloway said Sanwa will initially give all its online banking customers three months of free service. At First Interstate, Senior Vice President Janet Murry said the bank is planning "a reasonable charge commensurate to the value the service provides." Anne-Drue Anderson, executive vice president at Home Savings, said that thrift is still studying billing options, including one that would provide the service free to customers maintaining a certain minimum balance.

All the representatives said their institutions have no plans to promote either of the software packages more strongly than the other.

"We would really like to have our customers able to make a choice. We want their needs to dictate which software is best for them," said Murry of First Interstate, echoing the sentiments of her counterparts at other participating banks.

Consumer focus

Both Quicken and Microsoft Money were designed as personal finance software geared to individuals. Accordingly, most California banks taking part in the Microsoft/Intuit project said their new service will be primarily targeted at a home-banking audience.

"We're primarily focused on the consumer for this product," said Murry of First Interstate, adding that First Interstate already has its own separate online banking program for small businesses called "Business Express Plus."

Galloway of Sanwa noted that small businesses will be able to bank online at Sanwa using Quicken or Microsoft Money. However, many small businesses may want to wait until 1996, when Intuit plans to make "Quick-Books" - its bookkeeping software package for businesses - available for use with online banking, Galloway said.

Most banking officials interviewed agreed that the new alliances between financial institutions and software manufacturers represent the latest step in the industrywide trend toward "brick-and-mortarless banking," or banking outside of traditional branches.

As home banking takes off, "branches in a traditional sense will become more expensive, as less and less people are using them," said Galloway of Sanwa. He pointed out that the move to home banking should help "level the playing field" between California's big banks - those with many branches - and smaller banks with fewer branches.

Anderson, meanwhile, said Home Savings will use its new home banking service as a way to complement but not replace its services at brick-and-mortar branches.

"In our research over the past year, people have told us they want both good service and good technology. Too many people have told us they wouldn't want to use (the new service) exclusively," she said.