Online bank Egg is offering customers the chance to organise all their finances through a single webpage.

Egg Money Manager is the first financial aggregation service of its kind to be launched in the UK.

It allows users to check details of all their financial accounts regardless of whether they are Egg customers.

If the individual is driving it, they would have to be very confident about security

Anne Hinde, Assistant Information Commissioner

Using ActiveX technology, the system stores a customers' personal security details encrypted on their own PC.

Users are not required to disclose security details to Egg although, for extra security against a hack attack, Egg stores one of the encryption keys.

Guarantee against fraud

Security has been a big barrier to such aggregation services in the past. To encourage customers, Egg is guaranteeing all accounts against fraud.

Recent research from Egg and Mori identified an overwhelming appetite for aggregation services with some three quarters of the 6.6 million people who bank online wanting a simple way to keep an eye on their accounts.

Analyst firm Datamonitor estimates that 35 million consumers will be using account aggregation services by 2005.

It believes the scheme will be a success.

"Egg is already the largest online bank in Europe. This account aggregation offering should help it both increase its customer base and increase its revenue per customer," read a statement from Datamonitor.

Data protection

The office of the Information Commissioner believes there could be problems with some aggregation services.

"Some services require you to give information to a third party and that raises serious data protection issues," said Assistant Information Commissioner Anne Hinde.

For services like Egg's Money Manager, which rely on individuals, the biggest issue will be security.

"If the individual is driving it they would have to be very confident about security," she said.