Jim Bruene, Author at Finovate

Personal Financial Management for Couples

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 29, 2012
Categories: Mobile Banking, Personal Financial Management

Although, I’ve been married since Ghostbusters was in the theatres, I still (sort of) remember what it was like to have just one person’s finances to manage. If I recall correctly, it went something like this:

Money in. Money out. Then hopefully, a dollar or two leftover.

But then you get married, and even if you have separate accounts (we don’t), there is quite a bit more to it:

Money in. Discuss. Money out. Discuss. Oops, too much money out. ~~Point fingers~~. Discuss a lot. Compromise. Try to do better next month.

And then you have kids and it gets even more complicated.

So why are PFMs all about the data and do little to help you collaborate about your money? Because they were mostly designed by single, urban, 20-somethings (I know that’s not entirely true, but you get the point).

What we need is the “Facebook of PFMs” where you can share appropriate financial details with your spouse, family, parents and other financial stakeholders in your life (CPA, bank, advisor, etc). The same concept extends to businesses who have even more stakeholders to communicate with.

While I haven’t seen anything that does this in the PFM space yet. There are some interesting web apps being developed that help couples sync their lives together. The first one I heard about was Pair, which has gotten quite a bit of press.

But there’s a new entry, Toronto-based SimplyUs is more of an organizational tool that a photo sharing app (note 1). Right now it focuses on calendar and todo list sharing (screenshots inset & below). That’s a great start, but an obvious next step is financial collaboration.

Bottom line: There is a large unmet need for collaboration tools linked to transaction accounts (for more info, see note 2). The opportunity is both for families and also micro and small businesses who will pay monthly fees for the service.

No tool can make financial management as simple as it was for our 23-year-old single self. But by harnessing the power of the synced mobile banking app, it should be much more manageable.

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SimplyUs iPhone app (25 May 2012)

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Notes:
1. For more info on SimplyUs, see last week’s TechCrunch post.
2. For more info on the importance of banking the kids, see our Online Banking Report on Family Banking (July 2011). For more on financial collaboration, see Bank Transaction Alerts & Streaming (July 2010). And finally, our last PFM report is here (May 2010; subscription required for all).

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Ally Bank Advertising on SaveUp.com

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 25, 2012
Categories: Game-based

One of the more popular companies at FinovateSpring was SaveUp (note 1). The startup has modernized the tried-and-true sweepstakes approach and optimized it for the web. It’s a fun way to procrastinate for a few seconds, it’s cheaper than a lottery ticket, and I’m hooked after winning a $5 Banana Republic gift card. At Finovate, the company said it was seeing 30% of its users visit daily, and 60% play weekly.

The company is working with with 20 credit unions (with a total of 1.2 million accounts) and at least one bank (Bank of the West) to gamify savings and other financial activities. I haven’t seen any of the co-branded efforts yet, but anyone can register directly at the startup’s website and play the instant-win games or enter the sweeps. Users are limited to three plays per day, but can earn more by performing financial tasks, such as linking a credit card, or watching a video.

For the first time in my experience, today the site had an advertiser other than the brands providing sweepstakes prizes in the sweepstakes. Ally Bank had a small AdSense-like promotion running on the top of SaveUp’s newly designed site (see below, note I did not capture the actual ad). The Ally ad was a generic checking account pitch and did not include any premiums, sweeps, or any tie-in to SaveUp.

The San Francisco-based company was founded a year ago, has 7 employees, and VC backing of $2 million.

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Saveup’s main page after logging in (25 May 2012)
Note: Earlier the top box contained an ad for Ally Bank’s checking account. But that ad is no longer being served to my account, and I neglected to get a screenshot of it.

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Note:
1. We just published a recap of the biggest trends at FinovateStartup 2012 in our Online Banking Report publication (subscription).

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New Online Banking Report Published: The Best of FinovateSpring 2012

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 24, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012, Online Banking Report

Since we started the Finovate conference series we’ve spent considerable time before each show selecting the companies, walking through demos, and blogging/tweeting about each one. But we’ve never done a full wrap-up and analysis afterwards.

Until now. Introducing our latest report:

The Best New Products at
FinovateSpring 2012

This post-show wrap-up is designed to help those that weren’t there get a better understanding of the major themes. And for those that were in attendance, it’s a box score to compare with your own notes and impressions.

In the report, we looked at the three big trends that emerged at FinovateSpring:

Mobile 2.0: The feature set expands
Ad-supported banking gets real
Alt-banking: The rise of the “near bank” catering to the underserved

And we profiled each of the seven companies voted Best of Show by the attendees at the event (note 1):

__________________________________________________________________

About the report
__________________________________________________________________

The Best New Products at FinovateSpring (link)
Includes a look at all seven Best of Show winners

Author: Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder

Published: 22 May 2012

Length: 48 pages, 12,000 words

Cost: No extra charge to OBR subscribers, US$195 for others here

The printed version will be mailed to subscribers next week

_________________________________________________________________

Note:
1. See Best of Show methodology here.

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Two Card-Linked Offers/Rewards Startups Launch at TechCrunch Disrupt

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 24, 2012
Categories: Alt Payments, Credit/Debit Cards, Crowdfunding, Launches, Rewards Programs

While I’ve read TechCrunch since its beginning, I’ve only been able to make it to their semi-annual event, Disrupt, once before. It’s usually just too close to our own Finovate. But this year I made the trek to Pier 94 in Manhattan to see what was going on in tech in general and to meet with the fintech startups in the Startup Alley or Battlefield launch competition.

There were six fintech companies in total. Three offered variations on card-linked offers, one has developed an alternative payment system, one was a newer payments gateway, and surprisingly there was just a single crowdfunding platform.

Startup Battlefield competitors from fintech: TechCrunch selected thirty companies in advance. All have agreed to launch their companies on stage at the event.

Cardify: Card-linked loyalty/offers geared toward local merchants. Sean Rad is CEO and of the West Hollywood company which has raised $750,000.
Mirth: Same as above. Jeremy Philip Galen is Founder. The NYC-based company is bootstrapped.

Startup Alley participants from fintech: These are companies less than two years old that qualify for a table in the networking hall. Each day one of the Alley companies is voted to the stage to compete in the Battlefield.

LocalBonus: A card-linked offers platform focusing on the local market
Payintele: An alt-payments company using barcodes to pass info between merchant and payee (I’ll do a whole post on them shortly)
PayLeap: A payments gateway from two previous Authorize.net execs
The Crowd Funds: A crowdfunding startup from former E*Trade CTO, Joshua Levine

Observations: It was interesting to see three new card-linked rewards companies all going after the local market. But if you look at what Groupon’s done with local merchants and where Square is headed, you can see there are huge opportunities here.

And the payment APIs available from Cardspring (which both Mirth and Cardify use) are making it relatively easy for startups to tap into a merchant’s card transaction streams to make offers, tally rewards, identify frequent customers, and communicate with them.

As a side note, Cardify has a gorgeous UI. It’s very hip and high-end looking like something you’d see at more well-funded companies such as Square, Simple or Mint (screenshot below). Kudos to the design folk there.

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Cardify homepage (24 May 2012)

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Notes:
1. While not a fintech company, as an auction junkie, I was intrigued by Outbid’s social mobile/online auction platform. The company said it’s talking to four banks looking to host live auctions on their site to use for promotions and social gaming. I think it’s a promising idea, one I’ve explored a few times over the years. But with Facebook Connect you can actually get a critical mass of customers involved very quickly. The company had the cheesiest demo I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying something), but that shouldn’t impact your decision.

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Feature Friday: Universal Checkbook from Personal Capital

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 18, 2012
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Feature Friday, Personal Capital

One of my favorite features unveiled last week, was Universal Checkbook from Personal Capital. And apparently I wasn’t the only one. Attendees voted the startup Best of Show (again) and hit Twitter with positive comments such as the one below from Brad Leimer (@leimer) of Mechanics Bank,.

Universal Checkbook (see inset) allows users to move money directly between any linked bank/brokerage accounts, providing they have check-writing capabilities.

While many banks also support interbank transfers, they usually require funds to move in and out of the host bank account. To move money between two third-party accounts requires two separate transfers. And it would take 5 or 6 days (via U.S. ACH system) if you waited for the funds to arrive in the host account before sending them elsewhere.

In the demo, Personal Capital showed how easy it is to enroll a new bank accounts using deposit capture to grab a check image from that account. However, this enrollment option is not yet available in the production iPhone app (note 2, 3).

Pricing: There is no word on pricing, but it looks like there may be a fee eventually. On the bottom of the pay screen it says, "Try Universal Checkbook FREE for three months!" Because Personal Capital offers basic PFM services ad- and fee-free, it will likely need fees for money movement, at least for users not committing any assets to the startup.

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Tweet from Bradley Leimer (@leimer) during Personal Capital demo at FinovateSpring (8 May 2012)

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Notes:
1. We took an in-depth look at truly virtual banks (Personal Capital, Bank Simple, and PerkStreet) in our Oct 2011 Online Banking Report.
2. The app doesn’t yet explain how to enroll new payment accounts, evidently the image capture capability is still in process.
3. Universal Checkbook has not yet been incorporated into Personal Capital’s iPad or desktop versions.

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Citibank Helps Users Better Understand Prior Payment Activity When Paying Credit Card Bill Online

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 16, 2012
Categories: Bill payment, Citibank

As I was paying my Citibank business credit card bill last night, apparently one day late (oops again), I noticed three new data fields to the payment summary box (note 1):

Dollar amount of payments in process as of today from any channel(note 2)
Number of payments made online this statement period
Dollar amount of payments made online this statement period

Consumers often forget whether they’ve paid the bill or not, so it’s important to provide help so they needn’t click around the site, or worse, call customer service.

While I love the functionality, the bank could have been a bit clearer in language used. For example, I don’t think real people call their credit card payment a "payment request." While that term satisfies the legal folk, who I’m sure argued that it’s only a "request" until the money actually arrives, it’s not consumer-friendly language and the bank does not provide an explanation.

Lastly, there’s an unfortunate lag in the updating of the "payment in progress" field. Immediately after paying my $30.80 statement balance, it shows up in the "online payment requests" field, but not in the "payment in progress" (see first screenshot). A day later, everything was in sync (second screenshot).

Despite these drawbacks, it’s a good improvement in transparency, and every issuer should offer similar info.

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Citibank online credit card system (16 May 2012)
Note: This screenshot was taken after I’d paid the statement balance, so the "requests" fields shows 1 payment for $30.80. Unfortunately, "The Total Payments in Progress" did not reflect that yet, a confusing misalignment of posting times.

Payment info box a day later (17 May 2012)
Note: Now the dollar amount in both fields match up.

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Note:
1. To be honest, I’m not sure how long this data has been available. It’s possible the bank has been showing it for a long time and I just hadn’t noticed. Perhaps someone from Citi will comment and I’ll update the post.
2. The exact explanation of this field from the Citi help popup:

This is the total amount of payments that you have recently submitted that have not yet posted to your account. This amount includes payments made through: Online Bill Pay, AutoPay or Pay by Phone. Please Note: Any payment made on a weekend or holiday will be applied as of the day you make it. However, it will not be posted until the next business day. Any payment scheduled to be applied for a future date is not included.

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Simple Releases First Mobile Banking App, Hits #13 in Finance Category of iPhone App Store

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 15, 2012
Categories: Mobile Banking, Simple

The much-anticipated launch of the first truly virtual consumer bank is fast approaching. How do we know? From its tweets, of course (see inset).

Customers who joined the wait list in 2010 are being told publically that they will receive invites “before spring is over.” Others are being told “early summer,” “mid-to-late summer,” “early fall” and “fall.” Based on those responses, it looks the company plans to work through its entire 100,000 wait list within the next 6 months.

A critical piece of the grand opening is pushing the Simple mobile app past the gatekeepers at Apple. That happened last week (9 May). Within 48 hours, the app had already jumped to 13th-most-popular in the finance section, despite the fact that no one but a few early testers could actually use it. Today, it’s fallen back to 53rd in the rankings.

In terms of how it works, all we can do now is drool over the half-dozen screenshots published in the store and on the Simple website. We especially like how they’ve anchored the forward-looking “Safe-to-Spend” balance in the top-center of every page (see below). The app also includes remote check deposit, something the startup has talked about before.

We’ll look at it in much more detail once we get our Simple account, presumably in the next three to four weeks.

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Simple mobile banking app, v1.3.1 (14 May 2011)
Itemized transaction with Extra authentication code
Safe-to-Spend balance on top for higher-value transfers

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Simple Releases First Mobile Banking App, Hits #13 in Finance Category of iPhone App Store

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 15, 2012
Categories: Mobile Banking, Simple

The much-anticipated launch of the first truly virtual consumer bank is fast approaching. How do we know? From its tweets, of course (see inset).

We’ll look at it in much more detail once we get our Simple account, presumably in the next three to four weeks.

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Simple mobile banking app, v1.3.1 (14 May 2011)
Itemized transaction with Extra authentication code
Safe-to-Spend balance on top for higher-value transfers

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Feature Friday: Wow! More City Bank Texas Mobile Controls for Debit Cards

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 10, 2012
Categories: Credit/Debit Cards, Feature Friday, Mobile Banking, Security

Luckily, I ran into Jim Simpson, SVP IT at City Bank Texas, at Finovate Tuesday, or I might have missed his bank’s significant new app update this week.

I am so impressed with what they are doing down there in Lubbock. First, it was the debit card on/off switch a few months ago. And now they just added three new control switches (see inset):

Increase daily withdrawal limit at the ATM
Increase daily debit card purchasing limit
Allow foreign transactions

All three controls temporarily increase limits so customers can easily approve their own authorization exceptions (within limits).

Bottom line: Putting more control into the customers’ hands is what mobile banking is all about. And City Bank has taken the lead.

But they are just getting started. From what Jim told me this week, they have plenty of other ideas in the hopper. Keep an eye on these guys.

Update 17 May: I neglected to mention that the software is from Austin, TX-based Malauzai Software.

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FinovateSpring Best of Show Winners Named

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 10, 2012
Categories: BehavioSec, Best of Show, Bill Guard, Dwolla, FinovateSpring 2012, iQuantifi, MoneyDesktop, Personal Capital, SoMoLend

Our fifth annual FinovateSpring in San Francisco concluded a few hours ago. After seeing 63 demos over two packed days, the audience voted for their three favorites each day. The top seven overall were named Best of Show (see notes).

The winners (in alphabetic order):

BehavioSec for its new security layer based on user typing/swiping patterns
BillGuard for its card charge dispute platform, BillGuard FI
Dwolla for its FISync service to enable banks to originate real-time payments
iQuantifi for its new financial planning & advice tools
MoneyDesktop for its PFM platform and integrated “deals”
Personal Capital for its iPhone app and interbank funds transfer
SoMoLend for its P2P lending platform

We’ll have videos of all 63 demos posted at Finovate.com as fast as possible (probably 2 weeks out).

Thanks to everyone who presented, attended, tweeted, swapped biz cards, schmoozed and helped push fintech forward. You are the greatest!

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on and choose three favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted.”
4. The seven companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners.

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FinovateSpring 2012 Best of Show Winners Named

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 10, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012

The winners (in alphabetic order):

BehavioSec for its new security layer based on user typing/swiping patterns
BillGuard for its card charge dispute platform, BillGuard FI
Dwolla for its FISync service to enable banks to originate real-time payments
iQuantifi for its new financial planning & advice tools
MoneyDesktop for its PFM platform and integrated "deals"
Personal Capital for its iPhone app and interbank funds transfer
SoMoLend for its P2P lending platform

We’ll have videos of all 63 demos posted at Finovate.com as fast as possible (probably 2 weeks out).

Thanks to everyone who presented, attended, tweeted, swapped biz cards, schmoozed and helped push fintech forward. You are the greatest!

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on and choose three favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: "Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted."
4. The seven companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners.

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FinovateSpring 2012 Kicks Off Tomorrow

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 7, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012

It turns out that setting up for 1,200 attendees takes a bit more time than we had anticipated. But everything is set, the demos are all working, and we are ready to kick things off Tuesday morning at 9 AM sharp.

You can read all about the 64 product launches during the next two days at our Finovate blog. And we’ll be tweeting away from @finovate while hundreds of others do the same with the #finovate hashtag.

To everyone joining us in San Francisco, and for all that are following from afar, we truly appreciate it!

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