NCR'spurchase of Digital Insight could bring credit unions a furtherability to integrate financial transactions, according to ananalyst for the Aite Group.

NCRpurchased the online banking provider to roughly 1,000 financialinstitutions, 330 of which are credit unions, for $1.65 billionearlier this week.

David Albertazzi, senior analyst for Boston-based Aite, stressedthat the purchase only provided NCR with an opportunity forintegration and no guarantee of success, but he added that thearrangement could allow credit unions partnered with NCR to take onsome abiding problems facing U.S. financial institutions.

For example, a credit union using NCR software to run its mobilebanking, online banking and ATMs could enable members toeffectively use the ATM to send funds to other people who aren'tcredit union members.

“A member might be able to go onto their online banking site oruse a mobile application on their phone to prearrange for money tobe disbursed from an ATM to a person who has a given token orcode,” Albertazzi said. “They might even be able to prearrange forthe denominations to be disbursed, depending on the limits of theATM.”

Such an arrangement could allow credit unions to offer aneffective solution to the issue of real-time person to person fundtransfers across different financial institutions, Albertazzisaid.

NCR's purchase of DI could also allow credit unions, if they sochose, to move to having one provider for a number of differenttransaction platforms and types instead of using multiple providerswhich carry a heavier regulatory burden, Albertazzi pointedout.

But he added that this might be a two-edged sword forNCR.

Larger credit unions or banks might want to have online bankingor mobile banking solutions which are more customized, and suchcustomization has not been seen as a DI strength. This could leadthem away from having one firm provide ATM, online banking andmobile banking software while smaller financial institutions mightopt for having NCR provide multiple solutions, he said, and NCRcould find it challenging to serve such a diverse customerbase.