Personal finance management website 22Seven.com caused a stir early this year when South Africans raised concerns about having to enter their online banking login details to use the service.

But the idea of using these online financial tools, which help users instantly track their spendings and earnings in an easy-to-understand visual way, is becoming more accepted in the country, especially after Nedbank unveiled a similar service this week to all banking customers in SA called ‘My Financial Life’.

This is the view of Christo Davel, who is the founder of 22Seven.

22Seven burst onto the scene in January when its founders controversially unveiled a trial offering of the service without speaking to banks in the country about what they were unveiling.

Subsequently, financial service firms such as ABSA lashed out at Davel’s startup, warning customers that it could not take responsibility for those clients that decided to submit their online banking login details to use 22Seven.

As the storm around 22Seven reached its height, the startup’s founders stressed how their product offering uses Yodlee, a renowned and tested US website that has safely been allowing banking customers to analyse their personal finances for years. Yodlee also aims to protect the details of users' internet banking login details, so that not even the likes of 22Seven can actual see this information.

Eventually, though, the controversy around Davel’s project died down.

But months later and Nedbank has come out with its My Financial Life offering, which is similar to that of 22Seven as it also uses Yodlee

And Davel says this move could be a sign that these kinds of tools are becoming more widely accepted in the country.

“Any early stage of a new shift in innovation you will always have a majority of people being skeptical or concerned. And it’s reached the stage of acceptance far quicker than I thought it would in South Africa,” Davel told ITWeb Africa.

He went on to tell ITWeb Africa that he wouldn’t be surprised to see more South African banks rolling out online personal financial management tools.

“It’s going to become prolific in the sense that I think more and more big players are going to do this, because it just makes sense.

“The question then is going to be who is going to be the best for the end-user. And I think that’s where I can’t wait for that to happen, because I think then whoever designs the best service will gather the most followers,” he said.

22Seven asks users to pay a subscription fee per month, while Nedbank is offering its service to banking customers for free.

“If there’s a big organisation behind it you can carry the cost of offering the service and subsidising it with other sources. And that has happened internationally too.

“Bigger players release for free because they get other benefits out of it,” said Davel.

Yet he isn’t concerned about 22Seven differing from Nedbank in terms of its business model, as he says it ensures independence while maintaining a degree of value for the customer.

When ITWeb Africa asked Davel about whether any SA bank has approached 22Seven to buy it out, he didn’t reveal much.

“We’re in discussions with people and I think we’ll only do that if it makes sense.

“We revere our independence; we love the fact that we can be 1000% objective. And most often when you’re bought by somebody you give that up.

“I think it’s still early days; let’s see what happens,” he said.

Nevertheless, in terms of what observers and users can look out for in coming months from 22Seven, its founders are focusing on developing a mobile version of the service, as the offering does not cater for this market yet.

“We’re spending a lot of our energy at the moment to make sure that we’re ready to roll out some mobile plays.

“Mobile is the future,” says Davel.