Rolling out the carpet for Bill and Scott.(Bill Gates, Scott Cook; home banking)

Many banks have signed agreements to provide home banking services through Intuit's or Microsoft's personal financial software programs. Bankers feel that it is important to learn the fundamentals of home banking now, since home banking may reshape retail banking just as automated teller machines did. Some critics feel that banks may lose control of their customers, since the customer interacts with the software, and that banking services may become commodities.

When Bill Gates' Microsoft Corp. was getting ready to pay $2 billion or so for Scott Cook's Intuit Inc., a chorus of Cass