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Change Sciences Names PNC Virtual Wallet Best Bank PFM with Mint.com a Close Second

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 27, 2012
Categories: Mint, Personal Financial Management, PNC Bank

Researcher Change Sciences has been doing outstanding work in financial user experience for more than a decade. In the last year alone, they’ve published deep dives in online, mobile, social media, mortgage, small business, investing, and account opening. The company counts most of the major players as customers; typical reports cost $5,000.

Its latest, published this week, contains a much-needed look at the UI of personal financial manager (PFM) services offered through major banks.

The winner? PNC Bank, which not only took top honors for its Virtual Wallet, but also claimed the number-three spot for Wealth Insight, a service geared to high-net-worth clients, launched last September. Both PNC PFMs were designed in conjunction with IDEO.

Mint.com came in a close second followed by the biggest surprise of the survey Bank Simple, which tied with USAA as the second-highest scoring bank.

For more info, download the research fact sheet.

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Overall PFM Ranking
points on Change Sciences scorecard

Source: Change Sciences, March 2012

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Notes:
1. Image from Italian band PFM <pfmpfm.it>
2. For our take on PFMs, see our May 2010 Online Banking Report.

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ThreatMetrix Lands $18 Million in Series D Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 27, 2012
Categories: ThreatMetrix

Cybercrime prevention company, ThreatMetrix, announced it recently closed an $18 million investment round, led by August Capital.

Existing investors Tenaya Capital, US Venture Partners and CM Capital also contributed to the of Series D round.

Reed Taussig, CEO of ThreatMetrix, states that the funding will go toward expanding globally into e-commerce, financial services and remote access solutions for enterprise employees.

The company also announced that Vivek Mehra, August Capital general partner, will join the ThreatMextrix board of directors.

To learn more about ThreatMetrix, watch its FinovateStartup 2009 demo.

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Swipely Launches Main Street Marketing Manager

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 27, 2012
Categories: Swipely

Small business loyalty rewards platform,Swipely, released a tool called Main Street Marketing Manager today.

The tool uses customer spending data to design direct email marketing campaigns that aim to bring repeat customers and win back lost customers.

Because merchants are not required to use additional hardware or software and consumers can pay as they normally would, its easy for small businesses to implement. Swipely is available in Boston, New York, Providence, and San Francisco.

To learn more about Swipely, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo and come to FinovateSpring in San Francisco May 8-9 to see its latest innovation.

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Super Sprowtz to Implement Virtual Piggy’s Child-Safe E-commerce Tool

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 27, 2012
Categories: Virtual Piggy

E-commerce tool, Virtual Piggy, announced today that Super Sprowtz will use its child-safe online checkout service.

The Paypers reports:

“As part of the deal, Super Sprowtz’s range of educational multi-media products including plush toys, books, video games and applications will be available to purchase on their website using Virtual Piggy as a payment option which is compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).”

To learn more about Virtual Piggy, come see it demo live at FinovateSpring 2012 in San Francisco on May 8-9.

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Finovate Alumni News– March 27, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 27, 2012
Categories: Kony Solutions, Meniga, Seeking Alpha, Simple Tuition, Swipely, ThreatMetrix

SimpleTuition’s PayBackSmarter.com now used by over 40 colleges & universities.

Meniga’s PFM goes live within Skandibanken’s online bank in Norway.

Mobile Enterprise Strategies interviews Kony’s VP of Mobile Strategies, Sam Lakkundi.

Super Sprowtz to implement Virtual Piggy’s child-safe e-commerce tool.

Swipely launches Main Street Marketing Manager.

Seeking Alpha passes 1 million members, doubles its size in less than 2 years.

ThreatMetrix lands $18 million in Series D funding.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Wells Fargo Shutters its Fee-Based Document Storage Service vSafe

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 26, 2012
Categories: Electronic Statements, Fee Income, Safe Deposit, Wells Fargo

Another innovation bites the dust.

I was a fan of Wells Fargo’s virtual safe-deposit service vSafe. Or at least the idea of it. The service launched in late 2008, before “the cloud” became an everyday term and companies such as Dropbox, Evernote, and Box.net made file storage a competitive business.

The bank was gutsy enough not only to launch a unique service, but also charge for it. I applauded the $4.95 (1 GB) to $14.95 (6 GB) monthly fee at the time, although I personally didn’t use it enough and let the service lapse after the free trial period.

But alas, the bank has apparently given up on vSafe. It’s still listed on the main online banking toolbar (see below), but the tab now leads to a terse statement saying that the bank is no longer enrolling customers (see above). And the product has been purged from the public website.

According to storage startup AboutOne, which is marketing a replacement service for vSafe users, all stored files in vSafe will be deleted on March 28.
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Analysis
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Although Wells Fargo stuck with it for more than three years, even marketing it from the homepage, vSafe must have had little traction. That’s not a huge surprise. Even before Dropbox, fee-based secure file storage was a niche offering. And with the onslaught of better known, cheaper (note 1), and more comprehensive cloud-storage services, it was an uphill battle.

However, we still believe the virtual file cabinet is a good idea for financial institutions, especially as a way to speed estatement adoption.

Instead of charging a fee for basic online storage, make it a free place where bank customers can store their electronic bank statements (from you) for the life of their account. Then, consider upselling additional storage features for a monthly fee. Or bundle file storage with other value-adds into a premium online banking account.

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Notes:
1. Dropbox provides 2 GB free of charge, with 50 GB costing $9.99/mo.
2. In our Online Banking Report publication, we wrote about fee-based online services in May 2011; paperless banking and online storage in late 2010; and lifetime statement archives in 2005.

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Monitise Buys Competitor Clairmail for $173 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 26, 2012
Categories: ClairMail, Monitise

United States-based mobile banking and payment solutions provider, Clairmail announced this morning that it will be acquired by Monitise, its European-based competitor.

Monitise will acquire Clairmail for $173 million to expand its international presence by leveraging Clairmail’s grasp on the North American market.

Together, Monitise and Clairmail will:

Have 13 million registered consumers
Operate across four continents
Process billions of transactions per year
Have 600 employees
Process $10 billion in payments and transfers per year

The deal is expected to close on June 30, the end of Monitise’s fiscal year.

To learn more about Monitise and Clairmail, watch Monitise’s Finovate 2007 demo and Clairmail’s FinovateFall 2010 demo.

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FeeFighters Acquired by Groupon for Undisclosed Amount

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 26, 2012
Categories: FeeFighters

On Friday, FeeFighters, the creator of the Samurai payment gateway,announced on its blog that it has recently been acquired by daily deals giant, Groupon.

The post did not reveal the terms of the deal but did mention that there are no plans for major changes to its product line, including the FeeFighters Marketplace, Samurai gateway, and the brands themselves.

TechCrunch reports Groupon’s motive behind the purchase:

“With the FeeFighters acquisition, the focus is clearly on gaining technology aimed to help Groupon’s merchant partners, an area which the company has been diving into more deeply lately, with this month’s launch of the Groupon Scheduler booking service, another product that came out of an acquisition (OpenCal), as an example.”

Sean Harper, co-founder and CEO of FeeFighters, states that the acquisition will help the 3-year-old startup pursue its goal of helping small businesses run more efficiently.

To learn more about FeeFighters, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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Finovate Alumni News– March 26, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 26, 2012
Categories: ClairMail, ETRONIKA, FeeFighters, FreeMonee, Monitise, Personal Capital, Xero

Xero acquires software developer Max Solutions.

The Myndset interviews Joe Salesky, founder of FreeMonee.

Win beta features ETRONIKA.

Business Insider walks through Personal Capital’s iPad app.

Smart Biz touts the benefits of Xero’s accounting software.

FeeFighters acquired by Groupon for undisclosed amount.

Monitise buys competitor Clairmail for $173 million.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Lighter Capital Makes Borrowing Even Easier By Launching Design-A-Loan

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 23, 2012
Categories: Lighter Capital

Revenue-based loan startup Lighter Capital announced the launch of a new feature this week called Design-A-Loan.

Design-A-Loan makes it easy for borrowers to draft a tailored loan based on their personal situation.

Here’s how it works:

1. Enter your business’ revenue from the previous three months

2. Decide the amount you want to borrow and the term of the loan

The tool generates the rate of the loan

3. Apply for the loan

This tool provides a non-intimidating platform where potential borrowers can experiment with different loan types before applying for one.

To learn more about Lighter Capital, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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Meniga Takes its PFM to Australia

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 23, 2012
Categories: Meniga

Personal finance software provider Meniga announced yesterday that it partnered with Rubik, a company that builds software for banks, to bring its PFM to Australia:

“Both of them are offering a hosted option as well as a classic, enterprise play with on premise, white-label PFM, Rubik and Meniga will account for the needs of all sizes of Financial Institutions…”

The partnership is built on Meniga’s PFM solution and leverages Rubik’s relationships with Australian-area financial institutions.

To learn more about Meniga, watch its FinovateEurope 2012 demo.

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Finovate Alumni News– March 23, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 23, 2012
Categories: AcceptEmail, CashStar, ChargeSmart, Credit Karma, Dynamics, Lighter Capital, Meniga, Monitise, PayPal, SaveUp, Zecco

eMudhra partners with Monitise to help launch mobile payments service.

Credit Karma profiles SaveUp. Come see SaveUp at FinovateSpring in May.

David Stone, CashStar CEO, named business leader of the year.

VentureBeat explores PayPal Here’s packaging.

ChargeSmart blog looks at what’s behind Dynamics smart cards.

Zecco releases Android app.

AcceptEmail and PostNL enter into a strategic partnership.

Meniga takes its PFM to Australia.

Lighter Capital makes borrowing even easier by launching Design-A-Loan.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You

can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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