If PNC Bank’s Virtual Wallet, launched in July 2008 (previous post), worked with any bank account instead of just PNC’s, it would have hundreds of thousands of users instead of the 60,000 or so estimated by Compete.

From the outside it’s hard to know whether the strategy has paid off for PNC. It depends on the profitability of these customers, how many were new to the bank, and how much was invested in the effort. 

The Virtual Wallet contains several superb products wrapped in an inviting user interface.  No wonder it’s won so many awards, including an OBR Best of the Web from us. The eight awards are shown in a scrollbar at the bottom of the homepage (see inset).

One thing the wallet does better than most is try to make savings less painful or even fun (see last week’s post about making banking fun). There are three ways users can boost their savings rate (see inset from PNC’s demo):

• Establish automated savings transfers at various times of the month
• Set up a savings amount to be transferred every time a bill is paid (same concept as Bank of America’s Keep the Change)
• And my favorite, Punch the Pig. Every time you hit the animated pig, a certain amount of cash is transferred to the Growth (savings) account.

Note: For more information on the PFM space, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features (new report available in April). For more on deposits, see Online Banking Report: Growing Your Deposits in the Digital Age (Dec. 2008).