FinovateEurope 2011 Demo Videos Now Available

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.

FinovateEurope 2011 Demo Videos Now Available

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.

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

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)

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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

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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.  

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

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

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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).

Customer Service Tips: Google Verifies Contact Info via Interstitial Page

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)

Alumni News, Weeks of February 21st and February 28th, 2011

To see our alumni news feed in real time, visit us on Twitter
Bank of Internet will use Intuit’s FinanceWorks. http://mwne.ws/finovate2241
Betterment reduces fees on retirement accounts. http://bit.ly/finovate224114
Service enhancements at Bill.com. Clone invoices ease automated payments. http://bit.ly/finovate224112
eToro completes $8.3 million funding round led by Spark Capital. eToro has 1.5 million users in 130 countries worldwide. http://bit.ly/f1G99d
eToro launches new user tools, and deposit bonuses. New eToro users can get a bonus of up to $500 to try Forex trading. http://bit.ly/finovate34112
eWise is moving to Denver. The company processes electronic payments and is moving to attract employees. http://bit.ly/finovate22311
Fiserv acquires M-Com to enhance mobile banking and payments capabilities. http://bit.ly/finovate34117
Kiboo got a makeover. The new interface focuses on usability and design. http://bit.ly/finovate34111
Lending Club exceeds $200 million in cumulative peer-to-peer  loans. The combined Lending Club and Prosper volume is now approaching the half-billion dollar mark. http://bit.ly/finovate34118
Lodo Software signs thirty more banks for its OurCashFlow PFM platform. http://bit.ly/finovate34113
MiiCard featured as Microsoft’s Startup of the Day. http://bit.ly/finovate224113
Striata adds Iconix Truemark sender recognition technology to electronic communications. The system adds branded visual identity to help identify genuine emails from financial institutions. http://bit.ly/finovate34116

Launching: Balance Financial Introduces Hybrid Billpay/PFM/Bookkeeper

image Internet-enabling every service and device on the planet creates fascinating new business opportunities. And we are seeing our share of them in the fintech space (note 1). Knowing how to deliver the proper blend of personal service and automation is an area of extreme importance to financial institutions: The optimal solution varies by customer, by product, and even by time of day.

One relatively neglected area involves premium services that offer state-of-the-art tech married to specialized human service, for a fee. Large banks have private banking departments that handle the bills and day-to-day finances of households with millions in assets. But those that fall outside the private banking threshold are generally offered free, self-service tools available to everyone.

Back when only 10% to 20% of households were online, that distinction was necessary. But now that 60% to 70% or even more of a bank’s households use the Internet, there are enough customers to slice and dice financial management services into a variety of offerings and price points. There’s a lot of revenue available for service offerings in the wide range between free and private banking.

Enter the newest player in high-end bill payment: Balance Financial, an angel-funded company based in Seattle that launched its new service this week. CEO Devin Miller was also involved in the launch of one of our favorites new services of 2010, Finsphere’s PinPoint mobile location-aware fraud-alert service (previous post).

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How it works
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image Balance is a unique mixture of automatic bill pay and human bookkeeper, with an online PFM thrown in to help keep track of it all. The company has built a rich PFM, added billpay powered by Online Resources, and given each customer their very own actual person who oversees the account.

Unlike previous generations of billpay and the scan-and-pay offerings from PayTrust and others, Balance Financial does everything for you. It receives the printed or electronic billing statement, it uploads the docs to its website, and then the most important piece, it pays the bills automatically based on your prior instructions, just like the private banking officer. The end user is only contacted if the bill falls outside the preexisting parameters.

Sound too good to be true? Maybe, if it were free, but it’s far from it. The company tested a variety of pricing options and settled on a price that’s borderline ridiculous for the retail banking mindset: $75 per month.

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Analysis
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Are they crazy? Maybe, but probably not. The company has been delivering personal bookkeeping services for seven years, and has paid more than 100,000 bills for its clients (note 3). It knows from experience there are affluent households and small businesses that are happy to offload this task for much more than $75 per month. When paying larger bills, the late fees alone can easily be in this range (note 2).

Balance admits the audience for $75/mo is tiny. But as its technology gets better, and its bookkeepers can take on bigger client loads, it believes it can push this price down, maybe even way down. So if you are interested in finding a new way to serve your mass affluents with something they can’t get anywhere else, take a look at Balance.

Balance Financial integrates the human side throughout the Web-based app (3 March 2011)

Balance Financial integrates the human side throughout the web-based app (3 March 2011)

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Notes:

1. From the look of the applications for the upcoming FinovateSpring, the number of startups is growing at an even faster pace.
2. Our record penalty for paying a bill late at our business is $1,100. We’d just made a huge charge and by being that one day late, our APR was bounced to 25%, and we went into revolving mode over two cycles. Even though we paid the balance off within 7 days of making the charge, it still cost $700 one month and $400 the next. Anyway, that one incident alone would pay for Balance for 1.25 years, not to mention avoiding the huge frustration of making a thousand-dollar blunder.
3. The original bookkeeping service was founded in 2004, by Devin’s wife, Rebecca Miller.
4. For more on online personal financial management (OFM/PFM), see our Online Banking Report.

New Online Banking Report Published: Merchant-Funded Rewards Programs

image While I like a deal as much as the next person (note 1), I’ve never been much of a coupon clipper. To me, coupons are a hassle to collect, impossible to organize, and mildly embarrassing to redeem. 

But I love frequent flyer miles. Once registered, they pile up automatically, are maintained at the airline or card site, and there is no stigma to redeeming them. However, miles are pretty worthless unless you spend a lot and have the flexibility to use them during the off season.

That’s why financial rewards programs have moved away from a sole reliance on airline miles and towards broader programs with cash and merchandise rewards. However, with falling fee revenues, especially interchange, these programs are becoming harder to justify cost-wise.

But customers have grown to expect them, especially the big-spending households that drive banking and card profits (note 3). And this is not a time when you want to irritate a lucrative segment of your customer base.

What to do?

imageEnter a new breed of loyalty program called “merchant-funded rewards.” Instead of financial institutions buying goods and services to give away, the system is turned around. Merchants pay direct cash rebates to your customers. And they may even pay you for the privilege of giving away money.

The catch? Because the cash-back offers are targeted to customers who shop at the competition, merchants need actual cardholder-level spending data to make the right offer, e.g., a $25 rebate offer to Home Depot customers who come to Lowes and spend at least $50 on your card (note 2). And to boost awareness, they need to plug directly into your online banking and statements. 

Making this work takes sophisticated integration between spending data and merchant offers. Enter an important new vendor in the banking world: the rewards service provider. In the report, we look at the five biggest, each with 100 or more financial institution clients:

  • Access Development
  • Affinity Solutions
  • Cardlytics
  • Cartera Commerce (recently merged with Vesdia)
  • RewardsNow

While these companies have the early lead, clever newcomers are creating their own hybrid programs connecting APIs with ad-serving and social networks. It’s a wide-open field with dozens of players, including Finovate alums Billeo, BillShrink, Micronotes, and Segmint as well as others such as Clovr Media, DBG Loyalty, EDO Interactive, and OffermaticMasterCard and Visa also have rewards programs that issuers can plug in to.

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About the report
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Merchant-Funded Rewards Programs (link)
Rewards 2.0: Turning a money pit into a profit center

Author: Daniel Thomas, principal consultant, Mindful Insights

Editor: Jim Bruene, editor & founder, Online Banking Report

Published: 28 Feb. 2011

Length: 32 pages

Cost: No extra charge for OBR subscribers, $495 for everyone else (here)

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Notes:
1. Probably more, as the son of a frugal Iowan (thanks Dad!)
2. Of course, private cardholder data is not revealed to merchants or service providers. It’s done through computer matching programs.
3. According to COLLOQUY, the average U.S. household is enrolled in 18 rewards programs, and nearly a quarter of those are financial.

Launching: Hearst’s Manilla Wants to be Your Online Hub for Bills, Statements, Rewards and Subscriptions

image Manilla, a new account aggregation service from Hearst Corporation, launched today at Demo. Here’s the official announcement and its demo video is embedded below.

Manilla currently aggregates accounts in four categories (more are on the way):

  • Household for keeping track of bills
  • Finance for keeping track of bank accounts and credit cards
  • Subscriptions for keeping track of magazine subscriptions
  • Travel for tracking mileage programs

In the first screenshot below, I’ve added an account in the finance category (American Express, which is shown as pending) and one in the travel section (American Airlines, which displayed the account balance immediately). I have yet to add a household bill or a magazine subscription.

In the second screenshot, you can see what it will look like after the account has been populated with many accounts (this is an example directly from the Manilla website).

The service will not show third-party advertising. Like Doxo, it will display marketing messages only from participating billers. And also like Doxo, billers will pay the freight, sending the company a small fee for each electronic bill it sends through Manilla (more on its business model here).

Analysis
As I’ve mentioned in several posts about Doxo, there is a huge need for a secure, easy-to-use hub to help households organize their bills and statements. While Doxo is currently focused on delivering bills only from participating billers, Manilla allows users to aggregate bills and statements from virtually anyone supported by its Yodlee-powered aggregation engine.

So, if you are willing to sit down and enter usernames and passwords, the service can begin delivering value immediately. Consumers have been reluctant to do that unless they trust the company. But with Hearst Corp. backing it and with the credibility of two major billing partners, Comcast and Citibank, Manilla may be able to get over the trust hurdle.   

1. Initial Manilla homepage prompts new users to add accounts in four categories (28 Feb. 2011)

Hearst's Manilla aggregates accounts in four categories (28 Feb 2011)

2. Manilla homepage after the user has set up accounts
Note: The icons are for bills, statements, notices and offers

Manilla homepage

3. Reminders area

Manilla reminder

Demo video (link)

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Note:
For more info, see our recent reports: Paperless Billing and Banking and Email Banking: Revitalizing the Channel.

FinovateSpring 2011 — Last Day to Save $200 on Your Ticket!

FinovateSpring_Logo_Date.jpg

FinovateSpring is right around the corner and with it a ton of new fintech innovation. Over the last few weeks we’ve been chatting with all the companies that applied to demo their latest and greatest at the event and the quality is incredibly high. And while that means tough choices for us, it means a great show for you!

If you’re interested in seeing the newest financial technology ideas in security, mobile, small business, personal finance, lending, credit, marketing, invoicing, billing, payments and much more, then please plan on joining us in San Francisco on May 10th & 11th to watch the future of fintech unfold on stage.

This year the event will have an expanded 2-day format and a new, larger location (since the show last year sold out after growing 50% over the previous year). A few of the organizations already registered are:

  • Ally Bank
  • Bain Capital Partners
  • Bank of Internet
  • Bank of Montreal
  • BankRate
  • BCU
  • comScore
  • Flybridge Capital
  • Foundation Capital
  • Frost Bank
  • GRP Partners
  • H&R Block
  • Highland Capital Partners
  • Intuit
  • Jack Henry
  • Javelin Research
  • Mint.com
  • Mountain America CU
  • Norwest Venture Partners
  • Ohio Valley Bank
  • QED Investors
  • SourceMedia
  • SunTrust
  • Time Inc.
  • Visa
  • Wells Fargo
  • Yahoo Inc.
  • Zions Bancorp

If you’d like to join your peers from these firms and lock in your spot at the spring conference, please register today. Plus, by registering today, you’ll get the very early-bird ticket price and save $200 on your ticket. We hope to see you in May!

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

FinovateSpring 2011 is partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on WindowsPYMNTS.com, and Mercator Advisory Group

FinovateSpring 2011 — Last Day to Save $200 on Your Ticket!

FinovateSpring_Logo_Date.jpg

FinovateSpring is right around the corner and with it a ton of new fintech innovation. Over the last few weeks we’ve been chatting with all the companies that applied to demo their latest and greatest at the event, and the quality is incredibly high. And while that means tough choices for us, it means a great show for you!

If you’re interested in seeing the newest financial technology ideas in security, mobile, small business, personal finance, lending, credit, marketing, invoicing, billing, payments and much more, then please plan on joining us in San Francisco on May 10th & 11th to watch the future of fintech unfold onstage.

This year the event will have an expanded 2-day format and a new, larger location (since the show last year sold out after growing 50% over the previous year). A few of the organizations already registered are:

  • Ally Bank
  • Bain Capital Partners
  • Bank of Internet
  • Bank of Montreal
  • BankRate
  • BCU
  • comScore
  • Flybridge Capital
  • Foundation Capital
  • Frost Bank
  • GRP Partners
  • H&R Block
  • Highland Capital Partners
  • Intuit
  • Jack Henry
  • Javelin Research
  • Mint.com
  • Mountain America CU
  • Norwest Venture Partners
  • Ohio Valley Bank
  • QED Investors
  • SourceMedia
  • SunTrust
  • Time Inc.
  • Visa
  • Wells Fargo
  • Yahoo Inc.
  • Zions Bancorp

If you’d like to join your peers from these firms and lock in your spot at the spring conference, please register today. Plus, by registering today, you’ll get the very early-bird ticket price and save $200 on your ticket. We hope to see you in May!

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

FinovateSpring 2011 is partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on WindowsPYMNTS.com, and Mercator Advisory Group

ING Direct Advertises on Mint.com Email Alerts

image ING Direct (USA) has been a prominent sponsor within Mint’s online PFM. However, this is the first time I’ve noticed the bank advertising via email alert. And specifically, the direct bank is pitching its fee-free Electric Orange Checking account on the bottom of an email alert about a fee on my U.S. checking account. Excellent timing! 

It’s unusual to see an ad on a Mint.com alert. I spot-checked a dozen or so during the past two months, and this is the only one with any direct marketing. But if it works, I’m sure we’ll see more of it. Context-sensitive advertising is what the Web has been built on.

Mint.com email “fee charged” alert (16 Feb. 2011)

Mint.com email alert that a fee was charged to my U.S. Bank business checking account

ING Direct landing page focusing on lower fees (link)

ING Direct landing page focusing on lower fees