Blog
 |
|
|
|
August 2010 Archives
Here are the news updates for the week of August 22, 2010. To view in real-time, follow us here.
Check out Geezeo's summer growth spurt--wow! More than a half million new credit union members now have access to Geezeo's unique engagement-banking tools. http://bit.ly/finovate8222
 Geezeo, a provider of online financial management tools (OFM), has experienced striking growth this summer. The three-year-old company provides financial tools along with social and mobile banking tools that can be white-labeled by banks and credit unions. Chief Marketing Officer Bryan Clagett calls their combination, "engagement banking."
Several large credit unions were already customers as a flurry of new clients signed on in recent weeks. Geezeo's product appeals especially to credit unions, as it enhances the social, community and trust aspects of customer interactions with their financial institution. (View the announcement of the partnership with Vantage Credit Union from Netbanker here).
Timeline: Geezeo's growth spurt
July 9, Picatinny Federal Credit Union, New Jersey, signs, adding 16,600 members and $275 million in assets.
July 13, Dominion Credit Union, Virginia: 21,000 members and assets of more than $220 million.
July 20, SCE Federal Credit Union, California 42,000 members and $425 million in assets.
July 30, 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union of Virginia, 60,000 members and assets of $500 million.
Aug 19, SunCoast Credit Union, a credit union for Florida teachers: 500,000 members and assets of $5.2 billion.
The list amounts to more than 600,000 credit union customers with access to Geezeo's OFM and mobile banking. Several credit unions are considering adding the service soon, according to Clagett. (See images below for examples of the platform once implemented.)
Geezeo is walking their talk, actively involved in promoting the future of social banking. They recently co-sponsored the book launch of Bank 2.0 by Brett King.
Geezeo's engagement-based marketing to credit unions is another example of financial innovation from a Finovate alum company. If you have an example of unique innovation in the finance/banking industry, email us at blog@finovate.com.
Here are the news updates for the week of August 16, 2010. To view in real-time, follow us here.
Acculynk partners with NetWorks to provide pin debit solutions. NetWorks is a nonprofit processing organization which serves credit unions in ten states, processing 13 million transactions a month. http://bit.ly/finovate8171
ClairMail unveils new tools for international currency conversion. The tools include multi-currency management, international bank/ATM locators, and multi-language capability. http://bit.ly/finovate8191
Prosper releases 12-month P2P lending statistics. Prosper considers itself the world's largest peer-to-peer lender with 34,000 loans totaling $202 million. http://bit.ly/finovate8181
 We're very excited to reveal the 56 cutting-edge companies that have been selected to demo their latest technology innovations on October 4 and 5 in New York City at FinovateFall. Over the show's two days, attendees will get to watch the future of fintech and banktech unfold on stage via fast-paced demos (28 each day) from these innovators. And then have a chance to interact with top executives from each of the demo companies during intimate networking sessions. Without further delay, here's the list of companies we're excited to showcase:
If you're interested in attending the conference, registering now will save you $100 on your ticket via the early-bird discount and reserve your spot (space is limited and we're expecting to sell out). We'll see you in New York!
 Eric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.
Here are our news updates for the week of August 9, 2010. To get our updates real-time, follow us here.
SafetyPay is entering the U.S. market. The retail pilot program will help to monetize and secure online payments. See their demo at FinovateSpring 2010 http://bit.ly/finovate8111
TransFS raises $510,000 for credit card processing comparison site. The TechCrunch story indicates that TransFS hopes to replicate for business what BillShrink has done for consumers. http://tcrn.ch/finovate893
For some people, August is a month of summer sunshine and family vacations.
For us, it's when we finalize the list of presenters for FinovateFall and start getting really excited about how awesome the fall show is going to be. We're only a few days away from announcing the 56 innovative fintech companies that will take the stage this fall to demo their latest and greatest and so that excitement is really starting to build. The handpicked demo companies are innovating across the fintech spectrum from online banking to mobile payments to small business invoicing to investing to youth marketing and much more. It's an incredible roster and they'll be showcasing their new products to an audience that is equally impressive.
Just a few of the organizations that are already attending include:
Citi, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, RBC Ventures, Tower Group,
USAA, Capitol One, Black Rock, Discover, Intuit, Wells
Fargo, AXA, IDC, CIBC, Ally, Standard Chartered, Alliant CU, Rabobank, Umpqua
Bank, Visa, Associated Press, Canaan Partners, Harris Bank, H&R
Block, TD Ameritrade, AARP, SunTrust, Microsoft, Polaris Ventures, Aite
Group, Korn Ferry, Thomson Reuters, and Gartner.
If you're interested in attending the conference, the deadline for Very Early-Bird Tickets is this Friday, August 13th (less than 72 hours away!). Registering now will save you $200 on your ticket and reserve your spot (space is limited and we're expecting to sell out). We'll see you in New York!
Eric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.
 ZashPay, Fiserv's person-to-person (P2P) payments service, officially launched July 21, 2010, but debuted with FinovateSpring 2010 (see video here).
ZashPay's P2P payments can be made from one individual to another with the recipient's name and either their email address, or mobile phone number.
ZashPay integrates with Fiserv's online bill payment system already in use by 3,100 financial institutions representing 16 million customers. Of those companies, 250 have already added the service. A user need not belong to a bank carrying the ZashPay service. Users can also send or receive money from the ZashPay.com website, but if either party's bank uses the ZashPay service, a prompt directs them to complete the transaction at their bank's website instead.
San Diego County Credit Union, America First Credit Unions and The Golden 1 Credit Union were among the first to take the service live.
"The average transaction dollar amount ranges from $100-$300, but we've seen transactions as small as a few dollars and as large as several thousand," says Ann Cave, senior PR manager in electronic banking at Fiserv. While not providing any specific transaction-volume numbers, Cave reports that transactions continue to grow each week.
There is never a fee to receive money using ZashPay online or through a financial institution, but senders are charged a ZashPay fee of seventy-five cents per payment, and their financial institution may charge an additional ACH charge to those sending money, which is typically under fifty cents, according to Fiserv. The service is available only in the United States at this time. Residents of all states can receive money, but sending money is not yet available in all states.
For mobile users, a ZashPay mobile app is in the works, but a release date has not been provided yet.
Do you know of an interesting innovation from a Finovate presenter that we should consider profiling here? If so, please email us at blog@finovate.com.
Here are our news updates for the week of August 1, 2010. To get our updates real-time, follow us here.
Home ATM announces the addition of OB Rawls IV to its board of directors. Mr. Rawls most recently served as vice president at the Hypercom Corporation. http://bit.ly/finovate834
British PM David Cameron visits Infosys HQ. The Prime Minister visited to discuss opportunities between Britain and India in technology. http://bit.ly/finovate833
See how Kabbage borrowers really use their loans to start online (eBay and Etsy stores). This post on the Kabbage blog was written by Kabbage borrowers to break down how Kabbage is helping to build their business. http://bit.ly/finovate812
Card Services for Credit Unions (CSCU) partners with MShift. The partnership will provide CSECU's 3,000 member credit unions with the latest in mobile-banking technology http://bit.ly/finovate835
Hard-core Wesabe users can download some of the open source code. For other users, Wesabe offers a list of alternatives at their blog. Sorry to see them go. http://bit.ly/finovate815
 In September 2009 ( article 1, article 2) we witnessed some groundbreaking technology out of Starbucks and mFoundry: an iPhone app that allowed Starbucks users to track rewards and make payments directly from their mobile phones.
According to Jon Squire, mFoundry's SVP of payments, "We have a foundation in mobile financial services, but we've also been first to market with a national P2P application through our partnership with PayPal." He added that they're also working on projects involving travel, mobile ticketing and coupons. Their experience with mobile payments seems to have made their partnership with Starbucks shine.
Last year when the Starbucks app rolled out, it could be used only at 16 Starbucks stores (8 in Seattle, 8 in Silicon Valley). Then in April, Starbucks broadened the roll-out, first adding Starbucks stores within 1,000 Target stores. Target was implementing a similar mobile payments app, so system allowances could be made to allow their Starbucks registers to accept the Starbucks payments app more readily than outfitting a standalone Starbucks store (though Starbucks registers cannot accept Target payment apps).
Since the Target trials, the Starbucks application has expanded to all U.S. Target stores with Starbucks stores inside. A list of available locations and a link to download "Starbucks Card Mobile" is available here.
The application's rapid deployment and adoption is being attributed to the use of a bar code rather than an NFC chip, which would need to be added or affixed to the phone (see barcode example below).
mFoundry does not have usage statistics to share, but Jon Squire tells us, "I can say that Starbucks has been excited enough by the results to increase coverage as rapidly as possible."
 CashEdge debuted Popmoney at FinovateFall 2009 ( see video here) with expectations of four banks signing by year-end.
The service allows users to send money with no more information than the recipient's mobile phone number or email address. We spotted the first active Popmoney service at First Hawaiian Bank in December 2009 ( Netbanker, December 2009).
The next month, several more financial institutions followed ( Finovate, January 2010), including PNC and First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO). Now Popmoney is available at about 170 financial institutions, including Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU), Patelco Credit Union, and Bank of the West.  (Image credit: BECU)
According to Catherine Palmeri, global head of product and marketing at CashEdge, "We expect that more than 200 financial institutions will have launched Popmoney by the end of Q3, 2010." She adds that U.S. Bank and two other top-ten banks will be adding Popmoney soon. Those three institutions account for more than 10% of all current online banking customers.
Financial instutions view Popmoney as a value-added service for online and mobile banking customers. Many financial institutions also see Popmoney as an additional revenue stream, with fees ranging from $0 to $3 per transfer and "rush" transfer fees up to $10.
CashEdge's 2009 survey revealed that 81% of consumers would use a person-to-person payment service if their bank offered it. Palmieri said users have been eager to adopt, and have sent $50 million (USD) via Popmoney so far this year. CashEdge's Popmoney service is an example of another great innovation from a Finovate alumni company.
Do you know of an interesting innovation from a Finovate presenter that we should consider profiling here? If so, please email us at blog@finovate.com.
|
|
|
 |
Watch Demos
Click above for video archives of all demos.
Twitter
See all Finovate tweets |
Watch Demos
Subscribe RSS
Subscribe Email
Follow Us
Contact Us
Topics
