FinovateSpring 2011 Demo Roster Revealed — Get your early-bird ticket before they’re gone!

By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2011

FinovateSpring_Logo_Date.jpg

In less than seven weeks, over 60 handpicked companies will take the stage at FinovateSpring in San Francisco to demo their latest financial and banking technology innovations.

The selected companies will showcase their latest ideas to an influential audience that’s shaping up to be Finovate’s largest ever (well above last spring’s headcount of 550). It should be a packed house on May 10th & 11th at the Concourse Exhibition Center and we hope you’ll join us to watch the future of finance unfold live on stage.

Without further ado, here are the companies who will be demoing at FinovateSpring 2011:

  • Afiniate
  • Aptys Solutions
  • Arroweye Solutions
  • Backbase
  • BancVue
  • Balance Financial
  • Bill.com
  • Billeo
  • BillFloat
  • Bills.com
  • BillShrink
  • Blaze Mobile
  • Braintree
  • Bundle
  • ChargeSmart
  • Clovr Media
  • Code Green
  • Crossroads
  • Currensee
  • doxo
  • Dwolla
  • edo Interactive
  • Enloop
  • eWise
  • Expensify
  • Experian
  • Figlo
  • Fiserv
  • Gold Bullion Int’l
  • Gratio Capital
  • HelloWallet
  • HOYOS
  • ID Analytics
  • Ideon
  • Intellaegis
  • Kabbage
  • Kiboo
  • Kony Solutions
  • Lend Street
  • Lendio
  • Liqpay.com
  • MyBankTracker
  • Mint.com
  • oFlows
  • Pageonce
  • PayDivvy
  • PayNearMe
  • PayPal/Discover
  • peerTransfer
  • ProfitStars
  • ReadyReceipts
  • Silver Tail Systems
  • TILE Financial
  • TrustedID
  • Wikinvest
  • Wipro Technologies
  • Xero

In late April, we will also be announcing several additional presenting companies that wish to remain confidential for now.

If you’d like to lock in your spot at the spring event, please register today. Plus, by registering today, you’ll get the early-bird ticket price and save $100 on your ticket. We hope to see you in May!

FinovateSpring 2011 is sponsored by: The Bancorp, Tier One Partners, and the law firm of CB&S.

FinovateSpring 2011 is partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on Windows, PYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group and Mobile-Financial.com.

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Out of the Inbox: ING Direct Raises Price on Overdraft Credit Line by 55%, Still Undercuts Competition by 99%

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Email Samples, Fee Income, ING Direct, Loans & Credit, Pricing

image This has to be the best notification of a price increase I’ve ever seen (see first screenshot).

ING Direct  (USA) famously does not charge OD/NSF fees on its checking account, Electric Orange. But that’s a bit of a moot point since the bank doesn’t offer paper checks, making it difficult to inadvertently go negative.

However, the bank does allow overdrawing by few hundred dollars if you so choose. And it charges interest on those "overdrafts" at a variable rate equal to 4% above prime, currently 7.25%. The bank reinforces the no-fee pricing in its standard low-balance alert (see second screenshot below).

But that low APR is heading upwards. Last night I received an email notification that effective May 15, the variable rate will be increasing to 8% above prime, or 11.25% today, a 55% increase. That’s still relatively reasonable for unsecured credit.

But the bank’s email doesn’t focus on APR. After clearly disclosing the price increase, it lays out a comparison of what a $100 overdraft would cost the average U.S. consumer for one week, $31, vs. the $0.31 you’d owe ING Direct after 7 days. There are no other fees, transaction or annual, for the ING credit line (complete terms here).

Well played.

ING Direct email disclosing OD credit line APR increase (21 March 2011)

 

ING Direct email disclosing OD credit line APR increase (21 March 2011)

Overdraft notice (22 March 2011)
The bank reinforces its no-fee policy in its email OD alert.

ING Direct (USA) Overdraft notice (22 March 2011)

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Announcing FinovateFall 2011 (September 20 & 21 in NYC) — Apply to Demo Your Latest Fintech Innovation

By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2011

Finovate2011_low.png

I’m pleased to announce that FinovateFall 2011 will take place on September 20 & 21 in New York City. The show will be our fifth annual Finovate in Manhattan and we’re incredibly excited to be back.

Last year, the conference featured a new two-day duration with 56 demos and the audience loved it so we’re keeping it this year. Sadly, because the 2010 show’s attendance grew more than 50%, we sold out our old space several weeks ahead of time. So, this year, I’m thrilled to announce that we’re moving to a new space. In fact, we’re renting a pier. Yes, an entire pier (Pier 92 to be specific) worth of space so you can come see the best new innovations in financial and banking technology in comfort along with hundreds of other leading senior executives, venture capitalists, industry analysts, major press and technology entrepreneurs.

There is a tremendous amount of innovation happening in fintech right now (including dozens of new ideas that will debut at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in just a few weeks), and the fall show is already shaping up to feature an array of exciting, fast-paced 7-minute demos (no slides allowed!) on stage.

If you’re a startup, established company, or financial institution innovating in financial or banking technology, we’d love to have you apply to demo your latest and greatest at the conference. To get more details, please email us at demo@finovate.com.

If you’re interested in watching the future of financial and banking technology unfold live on stage at this must-attend event then get your pre-sale ticket today for FinovateFall 2011 and save $400 off the list price. Tickets have already started to sell before this formal announcement and we don’t want you to miss out! We’ll see you in September!

FinovateFall 2011 is sponsored by: The Bancorp, Tier One Partners, and the law firm of CB&S.

FinovateFall 2011 is partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on Windows, PYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group and Mobile-Financial.com.

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Announcing FinovateFall 2011 (September 20 & 21 in NYC) — Apply to Demo Your Latest Fintech Innovation

By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall2011

Finovate2011_low.png

I’m pleased to announce that FinovateFall 2011 will take place on September 20 & 21 in New York City. The show will be our fifth annual Finovate in Manhattan and we’re incredibly excited to be back.

Last year, the conference featured a new two-day duration with 56 demos and the audience loved it so we’re keeping it this year. Sadly, because the 2010 show’s attendance grew more than 50%, we sold out our old space several weeks ahead of time. So, this year, I’m thrilled to announce that we’re moving to a new space. In fact, we’re renting a pier. Yes, an entire pier (Pier 92 to be specific) worth of space so you can come see the best new innovations in financial and banking technology in comfort along with hundreds of other leading senior executives, venture capitalists, industry analysts, major press and technology entrepreneurs.

There is a tremendous amount of innovation happening in fintech right now (including dozens of new ideas that will debut at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in just a few weeks), and the fall show is already shaping up to feature an array of exciting, fast-paced 7-minute demos (no slides allowed!) on stage.

If you’re a startup, established company, or financial institution innovating in financial or banking technology, we’d love to have you apply to demo your latest and greatest at the conference. To get more details, please email us at demo@finovate.com.

If you’re interested in watching the future of financial and banking technology unfold live on stage at this must-attend event then get your pre-sale ticket today for FinovateFall 2011 and save $400 off the list price. Tickets have already started to sell before this formal announcement, and we don’t want you to miss out! We’ll see you in September!

FinovateFall 2011 is sponsored by: The Bancorp, Tier One Partners, and the law firm of CB&S.

FinovateFall 2011 is partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on Windows, PYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group and Mobile-Financial.com.

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ING Direct Running Large Ad on Amazon.com Homepage

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Amazon.com, ING Direct

ING Direct (USA) is a large online advertiser. And because I frequently click on financial ads, I’m sure they are served to me far more than the average Jo(e). Still, the placement of ING Direct’s ad today at Amazon.com surprised me.

First, I’m not sure I realized that Amazon had turned over that much homepage real estate to third-party advertisers. It must be lucrative. Second, how does it pencil out for ING Direct? That has to be an expensive ad. How many 1% deposits do you have to get to cover those acquisition costs?

Amazon homepage (17 March 2011, 5 PM PDT, Seattle IP)

image

Landing page (link)
Note: While I like online video for sales support, the length of this 2.5 minute video on how to open a savings account seems a little excessive.

image

Off topic: ING’s St. Patrick’s Day graphic
ING Direct’s homepage today placed its orange ball in a pot ‘o gold — a nice touch — but I was slightly disappointed they didn’t animate the ball jumping into the pot. Clicking the pot took users to the bank’s We The Savers blog, with the greeting,”Top o’ the mornin’ to you, Saver.”

image

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Encouraging Customers to Post Bank Reviews on Yelp and Google

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Social Media, Social Networks

image Third-party review sites have come and gone over the years, but only recently have mainstream consumers been exposed to them through prominent placement in Google organic search results.

As you can see on our search for “Wainwright Bank,” a link to its Yelp review is on the first page of Google organic results. It’s the third-highest result, not including those that link directly to the bank’s own URL (see first screenshot).

Luckily for Wainwright , it’s the top-rated bank in Boston according to Yelp. In fact, because reviews are aggregated by branch, the bank dominates Yelp, hogging the top four slots (see second screenshot).

________________________________________________________________________

Analysis
_______________________________________________________________

Posting bank reviews doesn’t appear to be a compelling activity. Yelpers spend most of their time reviewing eating and drinking establishments. The most-reviewed bank in Boston is the Alewife Brook Parkway branch of Wainwright with a whopping 14 reviews (average: 3.5 stars). And it takes only six reviews to crack the top-10-most-reviewed in Boston. In contrast, the tenth-most-reviewed Boston restaurant has 554.

And because each branch is ranked separately, just a handful or positive, or negative, reviews can have a huge impact on rank.

So, it might be tempting to encourage reviews by your employees, or employees of your vendors. Don’t do it. Not only is it the wrong thing to do, you stand a very good chance of getting caught. And the ensuing blog post exposing the subterfuge will not only be embarrassing, but also is likely to be ranked higher on the Google results page than the Yelp reviews.

However, you can play the game ethically by subtly encouraging customers to post reviews on Yelp, Google and other local review sites. For example, Amplify Credit Union has links on its Contact Us page that make it easy for users to post reviews at Yelp and Google (see third screenshot). Note that the CU does not try to sway users to post only “good” reviews.

Google search for “Wainwright Bank” (16 March 2011 from Seattle IP address)

image

Top-rated banks and credit unions in Boston according to Yelp reviewers
Note: There are only 31 total reviews across the top-5 banks

image

Amplify Credit Union Contact Us page with links to Yelp and Google (link)

Amplify Credit Union Contact Us page with links to Yelp and Google

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U.S. Bank Launches Both PC and Mobile Remote Deposit

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Mobile Banking, Remote Deposit Capture, US Bank

I was surprised to see the news release that U.S. Bank had upgraded its Firethorn-powered mobile banking app to include mobile remote deposit. I’ve been following the development of the bank’s PC-scanner-based remote deposit option which also launched yesterday, and I’d never seen the mobile option mentioned (previous post). 

True to form, when I logged in to my account online and clicked on the “Make a Deposit (New)” link, there was still no mention of the mobile option. However, I was greeted with the news that I was now eligible to use the bank’s new PC scanner-based program at a cost of $0.50 per deposit.

I went through the simple online enrollment process (see below), but didn’t test an actual deposit because I don’t have a scanner attached to my laptop.

Bottom line: Congratulations to US Bank for being the second major bank to support both mobile and PC-based consumer remote deposit, trailing just USAA which launched PC-remote deposit in Dec. 2006 and the mobile version in Aug. 2009. Chase also offers mobile consumer remote deposit (launched in July 2010)  but does not offer a consumer PC-based service.

________________________________________________________________________

How it works
________________________________________________________________________

1. Select “Make a Deposit” link on left

US Bank online deposit landing page (15 March 2011)

2. Enrollment
Users must enter their email address, agree to the terms, and answer the following three usage questions:

Enrollment questioinaire US Bank

3. Select “Get Started” on main deposit page

Main deposit page US Bank

4. Choose account to deposit to

Step 1: Choose account to deposit to at US Bank 

5. Enter check details

image

6. Error message requesting Java be downloaded

image

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FinovateEurope 2011 Demo Videos Now Available

By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2011
FinovateEurope-date-web.gif

Six weeks ago, on February 1, thirty-five companies took the stage in London to demo their latest fintech innovations at our first FinovateEurope conference to an audience of 450 executives from companies like Santander, AXA, RBS, RBC,
Lloyds, Deutsche Bank, PayPal, Forrester, CIBC, TSYS, Microsoft, Accel
Partners, Rabobank, ING, Barclays, BBVA, Standard Chartered,
PostFinance, Raiffeisenbank, Yahoo!Finance, WSJ Europe and Celent.

Each company was given just 7 minutes to demonstrate their latest innovation (no slides allowed). The videos on their new innovations are now available free for anyone to check out in the Finovate Video Archives.

The companies (HQ locations in parentheses) were:

If you’re interested in seeing more of the latest innovations in fintech, please join us at our upcoming FinovateSpring 2011 in San Francisco, CA on May 10th & 11th. Register now to lock in your spot for the spring event and save $100 with an early-bird ticket before April 1st!

FinovateEurope 2011 was sponsored by: BlueRock Consulting, Microsoft, Sapient, Santander, The Bancorp & Walker Morris

FinovateEurope 2011 was supported by these partners: 154 Consulting, BankerStuff, BankInnovation.net, CardWeb, Banking Automation Bulletin, Finance on Windows, The Financial Services Innovation Centre, Mercator Advisory Group, PYMNTS.com & theStartup.eu.

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FinovateEurope 2011 Demo Videos Now Available

By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2011
FinovateEurope-date-web.gif

Six weeks ago, on February 1, thirty-five companies took the stage in London to demo their latest fintech innovations at our first FinovateEurope conference to an audience of 450 executives from companies like Santander, AXA, RBS, RBC,
Lloyds, Deutsche Bank, PayPal, Forrester, CIBC, TSYS, Microsoft, Accel
Partners, Rabobank, ING, Barclays, BBVA, Standard Chartered,
PostFinance, Raiffeisenbank, Yahoo!Finance, WSJ Europe and Celent.

Each company was given just 7 minutes to demonstrate their latest innovation (no slides allowed). The videos on their new innovations are now available free for anyone to check out in the Finovate Video Archives.

The companies (HQ locations in parentheses) were:

If you’re interested in seeing more of the latest innovations in fintech, please join us at our upcoming FinovateSpring 2011 in San Francisco, CA on May 10th & 11th. Register now to lock in your spot for the spring event and save $100 with an early-bird ticket before April 1st!

FinovateEurope 2011 was sponsored by: BlueRock Consulting, Microsoft, Sapient, Santander, The Bancorp & Walker Morris

FinovateEurope 2011 was supported by these partners: 154 Consulting, BankerStuff, BankInnovation.net, CardWeb, Banking Automation Bulletin, Finance on Windows, The Financial Services Innovation Centre, Mercator Advisory Group, PYMNTS.com & theStartup.eu.

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South Carolina Federal Credit Union Launches In-Statement Merchant-Funded Rewards

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Cardlytics, Digital Insight, Intuit, Rewards Programs

image

imageIf you are looking for an example of how to promote your rewards program, take a lesson from 140,000-member South Carolina FCU. The company just launched an in-statement merchant-funded rewards program called Simple Perks (press release) for its 58,000 online banking customers.

The CU posted a great 2-minute video showing how the program works (see second screenshot). It also posted a quality supporting blog entry, "Are you a ‘clipper’ or ‘clicker’ (note 1).

The new rewards program is delivered through the CU’s PFM dashboard powered by Intuit’s Personal FinanceWorks (see third screenshot). The rewards program is powered by Cardlytics, an Atlanta-based startup we’ve written about several times (previous posts).

Bottom line: Regardless of whether you personally think rewards programs pollute the online banking experience, this is a genie that’s not going back in the bottle. Targeted advertising based on spending behavior is too lucrative to ignore.

It reminds me of the advent of keyword advertising on search engines. At the time, there was concern that the technique, based on actual user queries, was an invasion of privacy. It may have been, but it’s worked pretty well for Google, and most users benefit from the well-targeted ads as well.

We are pretty confident the same scenario will play out with debit and credit card statements (note 1). As long as offers are relevant, unobtrusive, and probably opt-in, the majority of customers will like them and the rest will tolerate them.

South Carolina FCU homepage with six mentions of rewards (10 March 2011)

image

Simple Perks landing page with great demo video (link)

South Caroline FCU Simple Perks landing page with great demo video

Simple Perks rewards module is highly visible within online banking

Simple Perks rewards module is highly visible within Intuit Personal FinanceWorks online banking

——-

Note:
1. Side note: This is how to blog about something new. Author Troy Hall doesn’t just repeat the press release, he tells a story to make it interesting and relevant. (I would lose the salesy…"life simplified" line at the end, but that’s just being picky).  
2. For more info, see latest Online Banking Report on merchant-funded rewards.  

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Piggymojo Hooks up with Brooklyn FCU to Power "Impulse Savings"

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, SMS

imageLast June, we wrote about Piggymojo’s unique “impulse saving” tool designed to help couples motivate each other to save (previous post). Basically, you text your spouse when you save cash during the day, e.g., drinking the company’s free swill instead of trekking to Starbucks.

The concept is great, but it needs direct integration to financial accounts so those “virtual saves” are translated into actual dollars sitting in a savings account.

imageToday, the Brooklyn-based startup announced the first financial institution integration with Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union. The program is being funded in part with a $300,000 CFSI grant to gauge whether the program helps lower-income members to increase their savings (press release). Four other projects shared in the $1.5 million total grant (details). 

Weekly summary of savings activity via Piggymojo (7 March 2011)

Weekly summary of savings activity via Piggymojo (7 March 2011)

Longer-term tracking

Longer-term tracking at piggymojo

————————————————

Note: For more info, see our Online Banking Report, where we wrote in late 2008 about various ways to leverage your online/mobile channel to boost deposits (here).

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Customer Service Tips: Google Verifies Contact Info via Interstitial Page

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Google, Service

From time to time (2x per year?), Google drops an interstitial after login to verify that it has the correct email address and mobile phone number on file.

While financial institutions are far more likely to have current contact info on their online banking customers, it’s still advisable to check in annually to verify contact info, especially with the growing importance of mobile.

And while you are at it, ask customers for alternate email address(es) and phone number(s).

Google interstitial page displayed after logging in to Gmail (7 March 2011)

Google interstitial page displayed after logging in to Gmail (7 March 2011)

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