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TrustedID Acquires Unsubscribe.com

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 15, 2011
Categories: TrustedID

California-based TrustedID announced its acquisition of Unsubscribe.com, the creator of Social Monitor, an antivirus for social networks.

“Unsubscribe.com’s Social Monitor, the most advanced security tool for consumers using social networks, scans apps within Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts to determine their risk. Social Monitor has evaluated over 100,000 apps to date, covering more than 90% of all Facebook app installs.”

The tool allows users to assess the risk level of individual apps and, if necessary, remove them from their social-network account.

To learn more about TrustedID, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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Lendio Works With LegalZoom To Bring Legal Resources To Users

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 15, 2011
Categories: Lendio

Yesterday, Lendio announced that it will work with LegalZoom to allow users to access legal resources on its platform:

“LegalZoom offers prepaid legal plans for individuals and small businesses at a cost of as little as $15 a month. Customers can obtain legal advice over the telephone and other services from an attorney licensed in their state.”

Bringing LegalZoom to the Lendio platform will provide users access to financing and legal resources in one place.

To learn more about Lendio, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 15, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 15, 2011
Categories: Credit Karma, Dwolla, eWise, Stocktwits

FamilySearch now using eWise’s Secure Vault Payments Technology.

Business Insider recommends Credit Karma as a free way to learn your credit score.

Netbanker: WV United FCU offering both Square and Dwolla payments.

The Globe and Mail adds ticker content from StockTwits.

Brightscope holds off on adding yelp-like investor reviews in order to add a Q&A section to the site.

Wall Street Survivor launches affiliate program.

Williams-Sonoma works with CashStar to provide e-gift cards.

Lendio works with LegalZoom to bring legal resources to users.

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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The Globe and Mail Adds Ticker Content from StockTwits

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 14, 2011
Categories: Stocktwits

The Globe and Mail announced yesterday that it has launched the StockTwits ticker stream on its website. Readers will be able to follow the news in real time and will be able to message the stream to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Here are the three features that The Globe and Mail has included:

StockTwits tab to the ticker page
StockTwits widgets to the story page
Ticker widget on the ticker page

The Globe and Mail joins Yahoo! Finance, CNN Money, Reuters.com and Bing Finance as StockTwits content distributors.

To learn more about StockTwits, watch its FinovateEurope 2011 demo.

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FamilySearch Now Using eWise’s Secure Vault Payments Technology

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 14, 2011
Categories: eWise

eWise’s Secure Vault Payments technology was featured in Bank Technology News last Friday. The electronic payment network began working with genealogical site FamilySearch to provide a payment platform that will allow it to collect donation payments on its website:

“When processing donations via Secure Vault, financial institutions authenticate the payer and provide FamilySearch with fast authorization. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, which is the first top-ten bank to offer Secure Vault, is sponsoring FamilySearch International into the Secure Vault network, a role similar to that of a merchant acquiring bank.”

While there are no numbers on increased donations yet, there has been a reported increase in donor interest.

To learn more about eWise’s platforms, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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WV United FCU Offering Both Square and Dwolla Payments

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 14, 2011
Categories: Alt Payments, P2P Payments, Square

During an an onstage interview at The Wall Street Journal’s AsiaD conference, Jack Dorsey said he was working with banks to distribute Square readers/accounts directly to bank customers.

Since it was Honk Kong, I was thinking OCBC or HSBC. But it turns out the first financial institution (note 1) to take Jack up on his offer, is WV United FCU, a 5,000-member CU headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it was the first financial institution in the world to implement mobile remote check deposit in August 2009 (previous post). WV United is also featuring Dwolla P2P/alt-payments on its homepage.

Square: The CU is promoting Square on its home page (see screenshot #1 below). Square is the first of five promotions that rotate across the top (see also Dwolla below). The promotion features the 2.75% merchant rate and uses the @square Twitter feed to make it more interesting. The landing page invites members to signup for Square and redirects them to the startup’s webpage. It doesn’t appear there are any official affiliate arrangements. But Square allows payments to be transferred to any bank account, so WV United members can have the proceeds automatically deposited to the CU account.
Dwolla: The Dwolla connection is more integrated, with a co-branded online account opening page (screenshot #4). There is also more info loaded onto the CU’s page including a short video, the @dwolla Twitter feed, and a features/benefits section.

Bottom line: No one is going to accuse 11-employee WV United FCU of not keeping up, innovation-wise, with the big banks. In fact, it’s setting the pace in some areas, albeit in a more "bolted on" fashion (note 2). Granted there’s little, if any, direct revenue from these efforts. But they also require no infrastructure investment. So, if they keep members satisfied and employees excited, then it’s a win.

—————————————-

1. WV United FCU homepage (14 Nov 2011)
Note: The credit union leveraged Bank Transfer Day for another 10 days (lower right). Smart.

2. Landing page for Square promo (14 Nov 2011, link)
Note: Square Twitter feed on right

3. Landing page for Dwolla promo (link)

4. Co-branded online account opening (link)

Notes:
1. They are the first that I’ve heard of. There could be others linking to Square in a similar fashion.
2. When I say "bolted on" I mean that the experience isn’t integrated with other WV United online offerings. Integrated is best, but bolted on is a good way to test the market and keep costs down.
3. For more info on P2P payments and other topics, see our subscription service, Online Banking Report.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 14, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 14, 2011
Categories: Andera, BillShrink, Cardlytics, Clovr Media, Credit Karma, FMN Technologies, Segmint

Credit Karma correlates consumers’ credit scores with their email domain name.

Fierce Finance IT looks to Cardlytics, BillShrink, Clovr Media, FMN Technologies & Segmint for transaction-driven marketing.

Credit Union Times shares Andera’s stats from bank-transfer day.

GCS Federal Credit Union to offer Geezeo’s online PFM tools.

Hub Pages, The Fiscal Times, CIO Magazine, and Forbes on Dwolla’s payment platform.

CIBC selects Kony Solutions to develop and deploy CIBC’s mobile brokerage app.

Mommy Head blog spotlights DoughMain.

City AM lists eToro as a way to sell your trading homework.

Citywire money discusses P2P platforms Zopa, Prosper, and Lending Club.

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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Planwise Launches Financial Planning Tool Beta

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 11, 2011
Categories: planwise

Planwise released the beta version of its financial planning platform today. According to planwise:

“We think the beta represents the tip of what is possible, and we look forward to bringing you a stack of additional capability over the coming weeks and months and hearing all about your thoughts for the tool.”

The beta should last about two to four weeks while the team gathers feedback and fixes bugs. To get the inside scoop, I took a quick tour of the platform. Here are some screenshots that detail my experience:

Profile-building page:

Set-up page:

Plan for a major purchase (note the reference tool integration):

Secure sharing feature:

You can try this beta for yourself here by using the code betanov.

To see planwise’s tool in action, watch its demo from FinovateSpring 2011.

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Personal Capital Launches Daily News Service

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 11, 2011
Categories: Personal Capital

Wealth management startup, Personal Capital, launched a financial news and advice site called Daily Capital:

“By combining human editorial judgment with Semantic Web curation, Daily Capital captures the long tail of high-quality financial and investing content and brings you the relevant few, all in one destination. The site also offers original insights and advice from Personal Capital advisors and other expert contributors, including former CBS MoneyWatch writers Carla Fried and Allan Roth.”

The new site is powered by Eqentia and includes over 18,000 articles, videos, and other pieces of content.

To learn more about how Personal Capital and other “bank-less” companies are influencing the industry, check out this month’s Online Banking Report.

To see Personal Capital’s wealth management platform in action, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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Weemba Plays Matchmaker For Borrowers

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 11, 2011
Categories: Weemba

After yesterday’s CNNMoney article portrayed Lendio as a matchmaker, Bank Technology News published an article entitled, “Matchmaker Matchmaker, Make Me a … Loan?” that shows Weemba in the same light.

This article, however, highlights Weemba’s role as a friend to borrowers by treating them more as a partner than a product. Here are Weemba’s borrower-friendly features:

Potential lenders are screened for predators
The borrower decides when to open up communication
The borrower controls which personal pieces of information the lenders see
Borrowers do not pay fees, lenders do

It also gave some stats on the startup:

Loan requests are between $1,000 and $5 million
2,000 members
32 lenders
Competitors includes Kiva, Prosper, and Lending Club

City National Bank of Miami has been working with Weemba since launch.

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

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11/11/11 Promotion at Notre Dame Federal Credit Union

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 11, 2011
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Credit/Debit Cards

Today is a big day for number nerds (note 1), as 11/11/11 makes its once-per-century appearance. So last night, I started looking for banks or credit unions using the date for a price promotion (note 2). With U.S. interest rates hovering around the 1% mark, I figured it would be pretty easy to find financial institutions offering CD specials at 1.11% APY, hopefully the 11-month variety.

But after googling for at least an hour, I came up empty. I found a few 1.11% APYs for longer-term CDs, but no one that was promoting it as a Nov 11 special. I was about to give up, but tried “1.11% discount” and up popped Notre Dame Federal Credit Union going all in on the 11/11/11 theme.

The home page (below) features a huge ad for its 1.11% APR holiday loan of exactly $1,111. And can you guess the term of the loan? Yep, 111 days! Thank you NDFCU marketing dept, you rock.

Fine print: There is one small catch. To get the loan, members must apply for and be approved for the credit union’s Visa Platinum card (presumably you can still get the holiday loan if you already have the CU’s card). So it’s really a credit card promotion in disguise, but that seems fair. It’s a good price, and allows for a little expansion of the holiday budget, but with the discipline of a loan that must be repaid before April tax time (note 3).

The offer is good through the end of November. And the loan application can be made online.

————————————–

Notre Dame FCU hits all 1’s on its homepage (11 Nov 2011)

1.11% loan landing page (link)

Notes:
1. I’ve been one for a long time. When I got my first calculator, I pressed “+1” on it 111,111 times just to fill the screen with 1s, the hard way.
2. Most U.S. financial institutions are closed today for Veterans Day, making it less likely to have a special one-day promotion.
3. Members also have the options of rolling the balance onto their NDFCU credit card at the end of the term.
4. Digital clock image from UK’s Daily Telegraph which had a 9-hour head start on the day.
5. Other 11/11/11 news:
– NY Times looks at 11/11/11 promotions
– DealerTrack marked the day with a press release about hitting the 1,111 lender milestone.
– The only promotional email I received using the day was from Starwood hotels (see inset)

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Finovate Alumni News– November 11, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on November 11, 2011
Categories: BillGuard, Dwolla, InComm, Lighter Capital, Prosper, ReadyForZero, SecondMarket

Social Times hosts BillGuard as it shares its elevator pitch. Asks: Is it the next big thing?

Business Insider interviews Ben Milne from Dwolla & shares how its frustrating credit card companies.

InComm announces Utah expansion.

PC Mag profiles ReadyForZero.

Lighter Capital reacts to fraud, implements fraud prevention.

Bloomberg reports SecondMarket gets lobbying win in gridlocked congress.

Prosper gives military families their second loan payment free when they get a loan via Prosper.

Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures, places BillGuard on his “Cool Dozen” list.

Weemba plays matchmaker For borrowers.

Personal Capital launches daily news service.

Planwise launches financial planning tool beta.

Tech Cocktail interviews HelloWallet CEO Matt Fellowes.

NYS-Licensing advocates enloop.

Pilot of the new Zecco Trading Center has begun.

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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