Consumers are very interested in personal financial management software that enables them to track their spending and create budgets, but actual usage of the software remains quite low, according to new research unveiled recently by Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial services technology company.

The research also showed that consumers who use such software typically access it through their financial institutions' online banking sites, where they can conduct secure transactions at the same time, Fiserv says.

"Financial institutions are in a unique position to provide the combination of online personal financial management tools with the financial institution's transaction, product, and security capabilities to deliver a compelling combination unmatched in the industry," it says.

The findings highlight an opportunity for financial institutions to provide categorization and budgeting tools to consumers within the online banking service itself, the company says. In addition to enabling the functionalities consumers ranked as beneficial, including the abilities to budget, categorize and chart spending, and categorize transactions, many financial institutions' online tools provide the ability to schedule or make payments and analyze future spending.

Nearly 40 percent of the consumers surveyed indicated that such tools would be beneficial to managing their finances, yet only 15 percent of consumers had used them in the past 90 days. Of those who had used such tools in the past 90 days, 68 percent said they did so from online banking sites, more than double the percentage that reported using the top named traditional personal financial management software.

Overall, only 5 percent of the consumers surveyed had used such online software to track multiple accounts through a process known as account aggregation. Account aggregation often is used to consolidate information from multiple financial accounts at one site, and generally requires additional account creation and sign-on with information housed by a third-party other than the consumer's financial institution. The study says lower adoption of these services may be due to security concerns.

"Banks and credit unions have a unique and immediate opportunity to grow the market and increase utilization of their sites by delivering on consumer demand for personal financial management tools," says Geoff Knapp, vice president for online banking and consumer insights at Fiserv.