More people are looking to do their banking on the go, and banks are looking for services to help them connect with their users via email or mobile phone.

Last year FNBO was high on our radar with their extremely high APY for their online savings account. Over time their rate has decreased slightly to 1.40%, but is still in good standing in MyBankTracker.com's top savings rates for deposits of $5,000 or less.

Still no good news for savers. CD rates took another bashing this week as banks continued to cut their rate offerings despite some tentative signs of economic recovery.

A recently-concluded Pay Yourself First (PYF) Challenge initiated and sponsored by FNBO, tracked the lives of 5 different people based in different cities. Each had unique savings goals, and adapted different means of saving and reaching their goals. At the end of the 6-month challenge, FNBO matched dollar-for-dollar what each of the participants was able to save up to a maximum of $5,000. In addition, the winner of the challenge is slated to receive a vacation package worth $7,500.

Despite the big banks' surprisingly solid first quarter performances that were reported over the past week or two, many banks are still struggling to overcome the effects of the economic downturn. In fact, just last Friday April 17th 2009, two more banks went into the receivership of the FDIC. This brings the number of failed banks for the year to a total of 25 – the total number for last year (2008). While the public's growing optimism and hopes of the economy bottoming are all good news, so far it hasn't quite translated yet to an ease in the bank failures that continue to threaten the smaller banks.