HelloWallet is a PFM with Deep Philanthropic Roots

We all know that sticking to a budget is important, but it’s not easy. HelloWallet’s online

HWLogo.jpg

personal financial management (PFM) is designed to help. Users can track long-term goals and spending through interactive graphs and personalized notifications. In addition, the startup’s philanthropic efforts make you feel even better about using the $8.95/mo advertising-free service. 
Washington, D.C.-based HelloWallet was founded in 2008 by former Brookings scholar Matt Fellows to provide financial guidance for Americans who lack access to professional advisors. The service originated with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation intended to help low-income Americans create a budget. 
Web Traffic
(Note: The traffic below does not reflect users who access the service through their employer. The footnote* at end of the post reflects those numbers.)

CompeteTraffic.jpg

(Retrieved June 22, 2011 from compete.com)
The company has expanded its horizons and now looks to help consumers at all income levels. In fact, HelloWallet is primarily distributed through Fortune 500 companies to their employees as a benefit.  
The User Experience 
No matter where you are in your financial journey, HelloWallet has features to help you stick to your budget. 
It has five main sections:
  1. Home features an overview of your accounts, a list of to-dos, and a feed of alerts.Thumbnail image for HomeScreen.jpg
  2. Plan focuses on the long-term view of wealth, goals, and budget through a cash-flow graph. It also provides personalized recommendations on how to increase savings.Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Plan Screen.jpg
  3. Budget displays account totals and income by day. It also shows budget totals by category.Budget Screen.jpg
  4. Transactions are listed and graphed. The graph shows money earned compared to money spent on a daily timeline.Transaction Screen 2.jpg
  5. Profile facilitates personalized advice by asking about other personal situations, such as number of children and if you anticipate caring for elderly parents in the future.Profile Screen.jpg
A mobile version is scheduled for later this year.
Philanthropy
Because HelloWallet believes in helping people at all income levels, it has pledged to give away one subscription to a low-income family for every five purchased. To help identify deserving families who qualify for a free subscription, it maintains community partnerships with the following non-profit organizations:
  • The Center for Economic Progress: Assists hard working, low-income families reach financial stability.
  • The Community Builders: Builds homes and communities for low-wage families and individuals.
  • Community Renewal International: Restores communities through personal relationships. 
  • EARN: Provides low-income working families with tools to help them achieve financial goals.
To see it in action, check out HelloWallet’s Finovate Spring 2011 demo
—————————————————————————————————————————————
*HelloWallet’s average employer partner workforce is 50k employees where the average take-up rate is about 20% after six months. It expects to serve 600,000 employees by the end of the year. Thus, since employees log in once a week on average, the actual web traffic varies substantially from the compete.com graph. 

Is Prepaid the Durbin Antidote?

image Prepaid cards have been a bit of an afterthought for most banks and card issuers. Sure, they make the occasional appearance on banking sites in December as holiday gifts. But mainstream they are not.

But that was before traditional debit cards suddenly became unprofitable (note 1) thanks to the upcoming U.S. debit interchange price controls (see Durbin rant, note 2) combined with with last year’s reining in of overdraft fees.

It’s pretty easy to predict what happens next. Banks will do what any business would do when offering a popular, yet unprofitable product. Raise prices with new monthly/annual/transaction fees. And for customers that are fee adverse, banks will offer two alternatives:

  • Credit cards for the credit worthy
  • Prepaid cards for everyone else

Bottom line: Prepaid bankcards are about to become much more popular. Here’s why:

  • More interchange revenue to the issuer
  • Easier to sell online with fewer risk management and compliance issues
  • Great entry product for teens and pre-teens
  • Porting the prepaid “card” into mobile phones and other contactless form factors
  • Valuable service for underbanked segments
  • More utility: can be gifted, used for traveling, used to deliver allowance, and so on

———————————————–

Notes

1. The price controls apply only to banks of $10 billion or more.
2. I am really disappointed in the Durbin interchange price controls. I was sure Congress would delay the matter, but unfortunately I was wrong. My feeling is that price controls are an absolute last resort when there is not enough competition to create a free market price. I don’t think that was the case with debit interchange.

Long-term, the whole exercise is a zero-sum game for the businesses, merchants and banks, who will adjust their prices to cover costs and ensure a normal profit. The only likely loser is the consumer who will be deprived of innovations killed off by the dramatic shift in interchange.

Here’s my scorecard of the post-Durbin winners and losers: 

Short-term winners:

  • Merchants, obviously
  • Prepaid card issuers (which are not covered by Durbin price controls)
  • Consultants, lawyers, marketers and professional services firms involved in drafting and communicating new bank prices and policies 
  • Financial institutions exempted from Durbin (under $10 billion) could pick up share and/or be able to gain fee revenue by matching the large bank price increases

Short-term losers:

  • Large banks will see revenue declines until they can get new fees introduced and move transactions to credit/prepaid
  • Consumers who will see fee increases from banks faster than they’ll see price decreases from merchants
  • Payment startups and business consortiums whose business model was predicated on disrupting debit

Long-term unchanged:

  • Merchants who will eventually pass on the interchange savings due to price competition
  • Banks who will make up the revenue loss with new fees and/or by channeling transactions to higher-margin products
  • Consumers who will pay more in bank fees but less for goods and services, an overall wash

FinovateSpring 2011 Demo Videos Available Now

FinovateSpring_Logo_Date.jpg

The demo videos from FinovateSpring 2011 (last month in San Francisco) are now available for your viewing enjoyment — free of charge — in the Finovate Video Archives.

The spring conference was our largest conference ever, with 850 financial executives, venture capitalists and industry leaders watching 64 innovative fintech companies showcase their latest and greatest products. (FinovateFall in NYC in September promises to be even bigger, register now if you haven’t already!)

If you missed the spring event, then be sure check out these fast-paced 7-minute demo videos from all our presenting companies. These hot young startups and leading established companies are innovating on everything from tablet interfaces to P2P payments to financial education to mobile bill capture to PFM to merchant-funded rewards to biometric security and much more. It’s inspiring to see all the new ideas being launched!

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

FinovateSpring 2011 was partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on WindowsPYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group, Mobile-Financial.com and TheStartup.eu

FinovateSpring 2011 Demo Videos Available Now

FinovateSpring_Logo_Date.jpg

The demo videos from FinovateSpring 2011 (last month in San Francisco) are now available for your viewing enjoyment — free of charge — in the Finovate Video Archives.

The spring conference was our largest conference ever, with 850 financial executives, venture capitalists and industry leaders watching 64 innovative fintech companies showcase their latest and greatest products. (FinovateFall in NYC in September promises to be even bigger, register now if you haven’t already!)

If you missed the spring event, then be sure check out these fast-paced 7-minute demo videos from all our presenting companies. These hot young startups and leading established companies are innovating on everything from tablet interfaces to P2P payments to financial education to mobile bill capture to PFM to merchant-funded rewards to biometric security and much more. It’s inspiring to see all the new ideas being launched!

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

FinovateSpring 2011 was partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on WindowsPYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group, Mobile-Financial.com and TheStartup.eu

Alumni News — Week of June 13, 2011

Thumbnail image for AlumNewsIMG.jpg
AcceptEmail
AcceptEmail partnered with WorldPay to launch an e-billing and online payment service. Link
Balance
GeekWire interviewed Balance Financial CEO, Devin Miller. Link
BancVue
BancVue executives won Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Link
BankOns
Examiner.com referred to BankOns as the new GroupOn. Link
billshrinkLOGO.jpg
BillShrink
BillShrink was featured in The New York Times. Link
BrightScope
Forbes reported on BrightScope’s list of exchange-traded funds held in America’s 401k plans. Link

CheckFree
CheckFree expanded its functionality to support account-to-account and peer-to-peer transfers. Link
Clairmail

ClairMail.jpg
Clairmail joined the RSA Secured Partner Program to provide secure access to mobile banking. Link
doxo
  • doxo CEO explained paperless billing in a video interview, highlighting the mobile app. Link
  • doxo was featured on the Top Productivity Apps website. Link
  • Northwest Innovation reviewed doxo’s mobile app. Link
Dwolla
TechCrunch reported that Dwolla hit a milestone of $1M in transactions per week. Link
Enloop
  • Business News Daily interviewed Enloop CEO, Cynthia McCahon, about creating a “living business plan”. Link
  • Huffington Post spotlighted Enloop. Link
eRollover
eRollover launched an online solution for financial advisors to grow practices. Link

eWiseThumbnail image for eWise.jpg

eWise announced its partnership with Affirmative Technologies to speed the adoption of
alternative payment methods. Link
Kiboo
Kiboo launched a public site called “Know Your Money”.  Link
Lending Club
  • Lending Club posted a video of their five-word acceptance speech at the Webby Awards. Link
  • The Wall Street Journal noted Lending Club as leading the way in P2P lending. Link
mFoundry
  • mFoundry helped Starbucks build an app for Android. Link
  • mFoundry passed the 400 customer milestone. Link
Mitek
Mitek’s mobile check deposit was cited as the number one feature that would cause you to switch banks. Link
Monitise
  • ComputerWeekly discussed the survey Monitise conducted on mobile banking. Link
  • Forbes discussed Monitises’ deal with Visa. Link
peerTransfer
  • peerTransfer is hosting a free webinar on international student payment processing this Wednesday, June 22. Link
  • peerTransfer won the Innovation Award from Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange. Link
ProsperThumbnail image for Prosper.jpg
  • Prosper announced that it is giving away an iPad2 to new investors. Link
  • The Wall Street Journal noted Prosper as leading the way in P2P lending. Link
SafetyPay
SafetyPay was selected by BorderJump as its preferred payment solution for cross border transactions. Link
SmartyPig
Fox Business News suggested using SmartyPig.com as a tool to help “pump up” savings. Link
Tagit 
Tagit helped Commonwealth Bank launch its first mobile app. Link
ThreatMetrix
  • ThreatMetrix announced its cloud-based fraud prevention platform. Link
  • ThreatMetrix launched “ThreatMetrix Fraud Facts,” a free downloadable report. Link
Tyfone
  • Tyfone was awarded an NFC over-the-air and over-the-wire seminal patent. Link
  • American Banker reviewed Tyfone’s mobile payment patent. Link
  • NFC Rumors looked at how Tyfone uses SD cards to enable NFC transactions. Link

Is ING Direct to Capital One what PayPal was to eBay?

image Given that ING Direct had to be divested (by agreement with the Dutch government), it couldn’t have gone to a more interesting buyer. Capital One was my favorite banking company in the pre-Internet days as it was an absolute direct marketing machine (and still is).

But Capital One has not leveraged the Internet to the extent I’d expected and as recently as last November, didn’t even have a mobile app for the iPhone.  

ING Direct is the opposite. Much of its 7.6  million customer base and $82 billion in deposits can be attributed to an innovative brand optimized for remote delivery.

Will ING Direct’s online chops boost growth at Capital One like PayPal did for eBay when it introduced epayments into the online marketplace? Wall Street gave it a modest thumbs up, sending Capital One shares up more than 2% on a day when financials were flat. That’s a $0.5 billion positive swing in market cap. Not a bad start to the relationship.

The combined entity will be the fifth largest U.S. bank by deposits (at more than $200 billion) trailing only BofA, Chase, Wells and Citi (table here). However, Capital One would need to acquire six more ING Directs to catch Chase, another one to reach the Wells level, and two more after that to best BofA. 

My take: I’m not going to pretend to be able to predict the future performance of a $22 billion company paying $9 billion for another. There are so many variables, it makes my head spin.

But from a remote delivery perspective, they look very complementary. ING offers primarily savings and mortgages acquired online. Capital One is huge in credit cards, auto loans and traditional branch-based banking services.

So there is one prediction I’ll make: The combined entity will be an online marketing powerhouse, and I look forward to seeing how that unfolds.

Prosper is Back in the Game, Lands First Private Equity Lender

imageA few weeks ago, I caught up with Chris Larsen, CEO & founder of Prosper. I’ve been a huge fan of his work for more than a decade. His ventures,
E-Loan and Prosper, have been pioneers in the lending space, both earning OBR Best of Web awards and Prosper also taking Best of Show in our first Finovate in Oct. 2007 (note 1).

But it’s been a rocky few years for Prosper (see Netbanker archives), as it’s been for most consumer lenders. The company even lost its lead in the U.S. P2P loan space to Lending Club, which is currently originating about three times as many loans.

But Prosper survived and appears to be back on a path to live up to its name. Some recent milestones:

  • Its first private equity lender (updated 16 June, 2011, per comment below) is coming on board, pledging $150 million to fund loans on the Prosper platform. This is an important development and fulfills a goal that the company sought since its 2006 launch. It will also help Prosper keep up with Lending Club which has had major institutional investors for a while. Prosper hopes to keep a healthy mix of retail and institutional investment (“50/50 would be fine”).
  • $17.2 million in new venture funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Crosslink Capital (announced 7 June, link)
  • Achieving double-digit returns for investors, a far cry from the negative returns some lenders experienced in the “trial & error” era before (note 4
  • Achieving large year-over-year loan growth, although the company is still running less than half the pace of the pre-SEC days (note 3)

Prosper loan growth

image

Source: Eric’s Credit Community, 15 June 2011

Prosper’s homepage is a model of Web 2.0 simplicity
Note: New lenders are offered an iPad for investing $20,000 or more (15 June 2011)

Prosper's homepage is a model of Web 2.0 simplicity

Both Prosper and Lending Club are averaging about 200,000 monthly unique visitors

image

Source: Compete, 19 May 2011

——————————————–

Notes:
1. E-Loan was named OBR Best of the Web in July 1997 for launching the first online mortgage brokerage.    
2. Prosper was named OBR Best of the Web in March 2006 for launching the first P2P loan service in the United States, and the first anywhere to use competitive bidding to set rates, a model they recently abandoned.  
3. Before the SEC forced the company to restructure its business as a securities issuer in Oct 2008.
4. The average total return for the 2006 to 2008 loans (most of which are now off the books) was a negative 5.4%

Alumni News — Week of June 6, 2011

Thumbnail image for AlumNewsIMG.jpg
Andera
  • Andera launched FortiFI, a new fraud prevention system. Link 
  • Andera CEO Charlie Kroll discussed the release of FortiFI. Link 
ChargeSmart
  • ChargeSmart launched ChargeSmart Direct to provide customers with additional access to support staff. Link 
  • Fox Business News highlighted ChargeSmart and PlasticJungle’s gift card trading service as a way to make savings fun. Link   
Check Point Software Technologies 
Check Point announced the 2012 version of ZoneAlarm. Link 
Currensee 

Currensee.jpg

  • Forex Crunch outlined the benefits of Currensee, describing its profitability as “significantly high”. Link 
  • The Street highlighted Curensee as a startup that “rocks” the financial house. Link 
doxo
  • Chicago Tribune discussed doxo’s step toward a paperless society. Link 
  • TechCrunch & VentureBeat featured the launch of doxo’s mobile app, a mobile digital filing cabinet. Link  and Link 
  • Macworld took a closer look at doxo’s new app. Link   
Dwolla

Dwolla.jpg

  • Dwolla released Grid, a feature that protects personal user information. Link 
  • The Street highlighted Dwolla as a startup that “rocks” the financial house. Link 
  • The Next Web interviewed Dwolla about its API. Link 
Enloop 
StartUp Beat profiled Enloop. Link
eWise 
eWise raised $14 million in funding. Link
Expensify 

Expensify.jpg

CNNMoney named Expensify as one of five best apps for businesses. Link
FreeMonee 
CardTrak.com examined FreeMonee’s gift network. Link
Ftrans 
Ftrans raised $650,000 in equity financing. Link
GoalMine 
GoalMine won The Core Underbanked Innovators Challenge at the 6th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum hosted by Core Innovation Capital. Link
Jemstep 

Jemstep.jpg

Jemstep launched a new version of its service that features many improvements. Link
mFoundry 
The Washington Post reported that mFoundry’s mobile deposit service is its most requested feature. Link
Mitek
  • Mitek Systems was granted 4 more patents for its mobile deposit feature. Link 
  • Bank Technology News discussed Mitek’s new patents. Link 
Monitise
  • Monitise launched its services in India. Link 
  • The Wall Street Journal covered Monitise’s 5-year agreement with Visa. Link 
  • TechCrunch examined Monitise’s recent deal with Visa. Link  
Prosper 
Prosper raised $17.5 million in funding from investors. Link
RobotDough
The Street highlighted RobotDough as a startup that “rocks” the financial house. Link

SecondMarket 
CNBC interviewed Barry Silbert, CEO of SecondMarket, regarding its role in IPOs. Link
Silver Tail Systems 
Silver Tail Systems raised $20M in a Series B funding round. Link

Striata 
Striata partnered with POCiT to enable bill payments. Link
Sybase 
Sybase was named the most successful database software vendor in China. Link
ThreatMetrix  

Thumbnail image for ThreatMetrix.jpg

ThreatMetrix collaborated with USA ePay to provide fraud prevention to online retailers. Link
TradeKing 
TradeKing partnered with CoolTrade for automatic stock trades. Link
UBank 
UBank voiced that it will change the banking industry by using the web and mobile technology. Link
Zopa 

Thumbnail image for zopa.jpg

BBC’s Radio 2 interviewed Zopa CEO Giles Andrews about P2P lending. Link 

What’s Inside eWise’s Secure Vault Payments?

Have you ever cringed when entering credit card information into an online checkout form? 

Thumbnail image for eWise.jpg

Maybe you were wondering, “Who is on the other side of this transaction? Where is my information going? How do I know this is secure?” It can also be tedious keying in all of the information, especially on a mobile: credit card number, password, user name, and CVV code. Fortunately, there are solutions such as Secure Vault Payments (SVP) by eWise to help solve these problems.

Thumbnail image for SVP Logo.jpgSVP launched in late 2009 as a new player in alternative payment solutions. It allows you to pay for goods and services directly through your online bank account. There are close to 50 banks (and counting) participating in SVP’s service and with US Bank as a new partner in this service, the availability has increased dramatically.

How It Works
  1. When checking out at a participating retailer, select the Secure Vault Payment option (see image) and choose your bank from the drop down list. SVP1.jpg
  2. SVP will redirect you to your bank where you log in using your existing username and password. 
  3. Select the account (i.e., savings, checking) from which you would like the money to be drawn and confirm the payment. You will then be redirected to your receipt on the retailer’s page. 
What’s In It for Consumers? 
  • No need to maintain an account with a third party:
    Since SVP works with your existing bank (current clients are US Bank, First Citizens Bank, and many more*) there is no need to set up an account somewhere else. This also removes the headache of remembering an additional username and password. 
  • Security you can trust:
    Since the transaction takes place at your bank’s website and not a third party, it removes the middleman and improves perceived security. 
  • Familiar user interface:
    You already know how to navigate your bank’s website, so there’s no need to learn a different interface.

What’s In It for Banks? 
  • Be a trusted advisor: 
    Being in the center of a transaction allows you to build rapport with clients. 
  • Earn additional revenue: 
    Both the consumer’s and the merchant’s banks receive a fee for authenticating the user.
Another PayPal? 
While there are many similarities between the two, such as security, the ability to pay directly

Thumbnail image for SVP2.jpg

from your bank account, and no merchant storage of account information, there are two major differences. 
  1. During a purchase, SVP directs you to your bank’s website (see image on right). 
  2. The bank controls the payment, stores the payment information, and handles dispute resolution. 
SVP is innovating on a number of fronts including a mobile app that incorporates the use of quick response (QR) codes in a payment system. To see a demo of the QR code payment system in action, visit Finovate.com. It also has other capabilities, such as providing an on-demand donation platform for non-profits. For a more in-depth look at this and other features, check out its website
———————————————————————————————————————-
* Other Participating banks include: AFB&T, Bank of Coweta, Bank of North Georgia, Cambridge Trust Company (Cambridge, MA), CB and T Bank of East Alabama, CB and T Bank of Middle GA, Citizens First Bank (Rome, GA), Coastal Bank and Trust of Florida, Cohutta Banking Company, Columbus Bank and Trust, Commercial Bank (Thomasville, GA), Commercial Bank and, Trust Company (LaGrange, GA), Community Bank and Trust (Enterprise, AL), First Coast, Community Bank, First Commercial Bank (Birmingham, AL), First Commercial Bank of Huntsville, First Community Bank (Tifton, GA), First Bank of Jasper, First State Bank and Trust Company (Valdosta, GA), Georgia Bank and Trust, Savings Bank of Maine, SB&T Bank, Sea Island Bank, Sterling Bank (Montgomery, AL), Synovus Bank (St. Petersburg, FL), Synovus Bank of Jacksonville,, The Bank of Nashville, The Bank of Tuscaloosa, Coastal Bank and Trust (Mobile, AL), The Coastal, Bank of Georgia, NBSC, Tallahassee State Bank, Trust One Bank (Memphis, TN), United Western Bank (Denver, CO)

Op Ed: Thoughts on Google Wallet

This guest post was written by Daniel Thomas, a 25-year strategy and product development veteran of the financial services industry. He is a principal consultant with Mindful Insights LLC.

image Google’s announcement two weeks ago certainly raised a few eyebrows in the mobile payments arena and took a giant leap toward putting to rest the debate about the use of NFC.

However, there’s an interesting twist that hasn’t been explored in the many articles written in the aftermath of the announcement. How will Google’s effort impact revenues from the merchant-funded rewards programs (see note 1) banks hope will increase loyalty while softening the blow of the now-certain Durbin Amendment losses?

Citibank inside google wallet

But has Google just killed banks’ dreams of grabbing a share of the online advertising pie ?

Merchants today are offering higher discounts and rebates to bankcard users because the banks, via various rewards vendors, are letting merchants in on their customers’ spending history.  That data obviously has a lot of value and the merchants compensate the banks for it in the form of commissions on purchases made by the bank’s customers after targeted offers have been presented.  On the surface, one might think that regardless of the mobile wallet used, Google’s or otherwise, so long as the payment is made from a bank-issued product, the bank will still own the spending history data and be able to trade it for a commission.

However, Google, or whoever owns the mobile wallet (but especially Google), will be able to “see” the purchases as they take place and can begin recording its own spending history data.  That, coupled with other non-mobile spend-history gleaned from browsing on the web across multiple cards per individual or household, potentially gives Google a leg up on the richness of its data (assuming Google can tie the two together, is there any doubt?).  Combine that with general browsing history and Google has a pretty good profile of each person to offer up to merchants. 

Privacy issues aside, this seems to trump bank spending history data placing Google in a much better position to bargain with merchants and ad networks. But privacy issues may well loom large over all of this once consumers and Congress put 2 and 2 together and figure out what Big Broth… er, that is, Google is up to.

Meanwhile, not everyone will have an Android phone nor a Google Wallet. Plenty of other mobile wallets will soon hit the scene, but even so it will take a long time for mobile wallets to replace plastic (amusing thought– which will go away first: plastic or the perpetual paper check?) so merchants will still want to keep banks in the equation by compensating them for allowing them to use their spending history to develop targeted offers.

So, merchants are going to need to decide: should they allow Google to make the reward offer or the banks?  Surely, they won’t compensate both for bringing in the same purchase. That leaves the decision in the hands of the consumers. Do they want to receive points and cash back from Google or from their bank? 

Undoubtedly, consumers will decide based on which one offers the greatest value for the least amount of work. Online usability has been a trademark of Google, banks not so much.

———————————————–

Citibank and MasterCard are key banking partners
On its website, Google asks prospective visitors if they have a Citibank MasterCard

Citibank and MasterCard are key banking partner

————————————————-

Note: For more information, see Online Banking Report: Merchant-Funded Rewards (published  Feb. 2011)

Chase Bank’s Jot App Shows the Future of Mobile Transaction Processing

image image I’ve been waiting for something like Chase Bank’s Jot (see note 1). It’s part of the "second wave" of mobile apps that demonstrate why mobile banking will soon be better than online banking.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Mobile banking phase 1: 2008 through 2011
________________________________________________________________________________

Mobile’s first wave was all about porting the most-used online functions, balance inquiry and statement viewing, to a smaller screen. That was convenient for smartphone owners on the go, but it didn’t add much to the overall user experience. 

The test of whether you’ve nailed the mobile UX is if that even if you are within arm’s reach of your laptop, you still pick up the mobile to perform a function. Most mobile banking systems fail that test, i.e. you only use mobile banking when online access is inconvenient or insecure.
________________________________________________________________________________

Mobile banking phase 2: 2011+
________________________________________________________________________________

The second wave is much more interesting. Your mobile phone can do financial chores that simply cannot be accomplished online, for example:

  • Deposit a paper check via mobile camera (USAA, Chase, PayPal and many more)
  • Transfer money to your friend by "bumping" phones (PayPal, ING Direct)
  • Alert you to special merchant offers in your exact location that are redeemable simply by using your bankcard (BankOns)
  • Pay your bill automatically by scanning the billing statement (Mitek)
  • Upload paper receipts and append them to expense reports (Expensify)

And the latest addition to that list:

  • Receive feed of transactions and tag them with categories for future reference and reporting (Chase Jot)

________________________________________________________________________________

How Jot works
________________________________________________________________________________

Chase’s new app (announced 1 June 2011) may not be as cool as remotely depositing a check, but it’s much more useful for most cardholders. The iPhone and Android app, which is currently available only for the bank’s Ink business credit card, sends push notifications of each transaction (see inset) and enables users to (relatively) quickly append transactions with category information, i.e. "tag" transactions. 

image One key Jot feature, missing in most mobile banking services, is a running list of the transactions waiting to be tagged (see right).

That way, when the business owner has a few spare moments, they can quickly get caught up with their categorizing work. This ongoing attention will reduce the quarterly game of "what’s that transaction" played when finalizing the company books.

So not only does Jot save time, it potentially improves the quality of the accounting data, always a good thing for business management. 

The app also includes other business credit card management functions such as basic reports by tag, the ability to change employee credit limits, and info on outstanding balances and payment due dates.

While the functionality is still pretty basic (e.g., there is no way to add more than one tag to a transaction), there are only 60 days of transactions available, and login needs to be simplified, overall Jot is a winner. We are tagging it with an A-.

—————————————————-

Notes:
1. The Jot landing page is well done and includes a series of four short demo videos.
2. For OBR subscribers, see our previous Online Banking Reports on mobile banking and payments.