The recession has been a tough time for many Americans, but that doesn’t mean that they have to settle for less romance this Valentines Day.

MyBankTracker.com is gearing up to launch Bank Tracker, a new iPhone App that locates your bank, maps banks nearby and stays on top of the latest bank news and promotional offers.

The evolution of the internet has led to increased transparency of financial services and is empowering women to make banking decisions through research, comparison shopping and social interaction directly with banking sites, independent blogs and social networking groups. In the United Kingdom only 3% of adults in 1999 used the internet for banking, which has risen to 28% today and is estimated to reach 80% by 2020 based on the research by the “future foundation“, an Experian company. While research indicates women are becoming more dominant in personal and family household financial management, they are lagging behind the curve and have failed to adapt to using online financial products and investment advice. In particularly the “Consumer Focus Tech Savvy Study” found that females were less accepting in using the internet for financial products and investment advice with only 13% of respondents 18 to 24 years old and 17% of the 25 to 34 year-old group actively participating.

A research study “50 Years of Savings: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow” conducted by the “future foundation” in the United Kingdom has identified trends that suggest that “more women are making the big money decisions and that women will have the final say in big financial decisions than men by 2057.” The study concluded that “when it comes to couple’s financial matters, the future of finance is female and as a consequence banks will require increased personal relationships with social interaction”. Women are significantly more likely to bring broader ‘values-led’ agendas to bear on consumption choices than men.

A finding in the report interestingly notes that the gender sexism of the ‘50s could be reversed as women become more qualified in financial matters, out-earn men and take on the lion’s share of domestic administration, we could see the “father knows best” attitude replaced with “mum knows best” as men surrender control of finances to their partners.