Citibank Launches a Blog at New.Citi.com

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Blogs, Citibank, Social Networks

image One of the things I enjoy about using Gmail are the one-line ads displayed across the top of the screen. It’s fascinating to see how Google’s algorithm attempts to figure out what’s on the top of my mind by reading my recent emails (goodbye privacy).

Last week, it correctly deduced that I’d be interested in a new initiative by Citibank; unfortunately, I didn’t capture the exact ad, but it pointed me to the URL <new.citi.com>, which itself was enough to get a click out of me.

To my surprise, new.citi.com is an online microsite aimed at sharing the things Citi is doing to bring itself back from the brink. And it’s being told in blog format. It started in February with seven posts on Feb. 1. There was no activity for two weeks, but since then the bank has posted 15 new entries, about 2.5 per week, a good pace.

The content is good. For example, yesterday they wrote about their no-overdraft philosophy on debit cards, a policy they’ve always adhered to. The bank even linked to Ron Lieber’s NY Times, Your Money column, “Overdraft Protection. Why Bother?“, just like a real blog.

The design is attractive and consistent with Citi’s brand identity (see screenshot below). But it’s a little over-indulgent for a blog. Above the fold, all you see are Citi executive testimonials and an undated post from CEO Vikram Pandit permanently anchored there. I recommend activating the upper-right mute button to obviate the annoying little jingle that plays each time you click a new page. 

The bank allows comments, moderated of course. Most posts have just one or two, but the anchor post has 60.

It’s good to see another major bank blogging, especially after Bank of America killed its innovations blog (note 1). And it’s a solid effort, good for the bank and its brand. A little restraint in the design department and this would earn an A grade. 

Citi’s corporate blog site (19 March 2010)
Note: You can get rid of the faces by clicking on minimize, and mute the jingle with the speaker sign, but few users are going to see those, or know what they mean.

image

Note: For an even better example, check out Truliant Federal Credit Union’s superb new blog. The CU has an internal team that’s been doing five relevant posts per week since Jan 27. 

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Mobile Firsts: PayPal Launches Bump to Pay

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments, PayPal

imageThis month we’ve explored several new features that promise to propel mobile banking into the mainstream market. Unlike developing nations, where mobile is the ONLY way to conveniently bank, in the U.S. and other online-centric countries, mobile has to compete with online for awareness and usage.

There doesn’t seem to be a single killer app for mobile. But a growing list of things that mobile does better than online will eventually tip the scales in favor of the new channel. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

  • Location-based ATM/branch finders (here)
  • Remote check depositing (here)
  • Simple login with 4-digit pin (here)
  • Insurance discounts after graduating from iPhone-based program (here)

The latest addition to the list:

  • PayPal’s Bump to Pay (see video below): Users of PayPal’s latest iPhone app can transfer funds to each other merely by entering the amount and moving their phones within close proximity of each other (see screenshots below).

As David Eads points out at Mobile Manifesto, bumping to pay has some drawbacks in the real world:  

…..most of the time I want to send money to someone, I’m not standing beside them. And if I am, most of the time I would feel awkward actually touching the person. Imaging bumping someone for admission to a high school football game. Imagine bumping a street vendor for a newspaper or flowers. Imagine bumping a scalper for tickets outside the game.

My take: I agree with David that physically placing iPhones next to each other seems awkward today. But then again, so was writing paper checks back in the day when everything was paid for in cash/coins.

If so-called bump pay is super-convenient, fairly priced, and the perceived security issues are overcome, there’s no reason why it couldn’t become the predominant method of person-to-person payments. While it’s way too early to make any kind of prediction, I’m just saying, don’t dismiss it yet.

David’s closing remark is spot on:

The key for P2P is getting people comfortable with the idea of transacting electronically between individuals. Bumping and Zooming makes it more fun.

Bumping is now an integral part of PayPal’s iPhone app

image   image   image

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Off-topic addendum: As much as we like new bells and whistles, bump pay pales in comparison to the really big news at PayPal this week: the announcement that it’s teaming with China UnionPay and Singapore’s DBS Bank to offer payment services. The 2-year DBS deal will put PayPal in the hands of the bank’s four million customers, 1.3 million of whom are currently banking online.

How big are these deals? A good indicator is PayPal’s plan to double its staff in the region to 2,000 employees. Wow, has any financial company anywhere in the world added 1,000 to its staff in the past two years?

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Note: For more coverage of mobile banking and payments, see the most recent issue from Online Banking Report.

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FinovateSpring 2010 Demo Companies Revealed

By Eric Mattson Posted on
Categories: Finovate

FinovateSpring-date-web.png

We’re very pleased to announce the lineup for the upcoming FinovateSpring 2010 conference. Taking place on Tuesday May 11 in San Francisco, the conference will showcase dozens of handpicked companies debuting and demoing their latest and greatest fintech innovations. The quality of the ideas that will be demoed on stage is very high this year and we’re incredibly excited to showcase them to you.

The demoing companies selected (that we can reveal so far) are:

These companies will be showcased to an audience of senior financial/banking/credit union executives, influential press, industry analysts, venture capitalists, bloggers, tech companies and entrepreneurs.

A sampling of the great organizations already registered to attend includes: AARP, Aite, Alliant Credit Union, BNP Paribas, Capital One, Celent, Discover, Experian, Fidelity, Filene, Forrester Research, Google, Highland Capital, Intuit, Javelin Strategy, Jack Henry, Mechanics Bank, Motley Fool, NY Times, PayPal, Tower Group, USAA, US Bank, Venrock, Wells Fargo, and Wired Magazine.

We’d love to have you join us at the spring event and watch the future of finance/banking unfold onstage. If you register today you’ll save $100 via the early-bird ticket discount. Please note that the early-bird prices expire at the end of this month and space is limited so lock in your spot now!

ericphoto.jpgEric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.

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FinovateSpring 2010 Demo Companies Revealed

By Eric Mattson Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Bill.com, Billeo, Bobber Interactive, Check Point, ConsumerDirect, Continuity Control, Controlabill, Cortera, Cross Commerce Media, DebtGoal, DeviceFidelity, eRollover, Expensify, FinovateSpring 2010, Fiserv, FTRANS, Garland Group, Ideon FS, Jemstep, Kabbage, Liqpay.com, MoneyAisle, Monitise, oFlows, Pageonce, Point of Wealth Systems, SafetyPay, Segmint, Silver Tail Systems, TransUnion Interactive, TSYS, UBank, VISA, Wikinvest, Worklight

FinovateSpring-date-web.png

We’re very pleased to announce the lineup for the upcoming FinovateSpring 2010 conference. Taking place on Tuesday May 11 in San Francisco, the conference will showcase dozens of handpicked companies debuting and demoing their latest and greatest fintech innovations. The quality of the new ideas that will be demoed on stage is very high this year and we’re incredibly excited to showcase them to you.

The demoing companies selected (that we can reveal so far) are:

These companies will be showcased to an audience of senior financial/banking/credit union executives, influential press, industry analysts, venture capitalists, bloggers, tech companies and entrepreneurs.

A sampling of the great organizations already registered to attend includes: AARP, Aite, Alliant Credit Union, BNP Paribas, Capital One, Celent, Discover, Experian, Fidelity, Filene, Forrester Research, Google, Highland Capital, Intuit, Javelin Strategy, Jack Henry, Mechanics Bank, Motley Fool, NY Times, PayPal, Tower Group, USAA, US Bank, Venrock, Wells Fargo, and Wired Magazine.

We’d love to have you join us at the spring event and watch the future of finance/banking unfold onstage. If you register today you’ll save $100 via the early-bird ticket discount. Please note that the early-bird prices expire at the end of this month and space is limited so lock in your spot now!

ericphoto.jpgEric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.

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Credit Karma Provides Free Credit Scores to Sears Cardholders with Private-Label Version

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Credit Karma, Credit Reports & ID Theft Protection, Credit/Debit Cards

image Finovate alum Credit Karma recently started providing a private-label version of its credit reporting service to Sears cardholders (see note 1). The service includes free credit scores and other data to help put those scores in an understandable context (see FinovateStartup 2009 video here).

image The new service, launched Sep. 2009, is delivered through a dedicated site, searscreditscore.com. Since Sears cardholders must make a purchase each year to use the site, it provides an ongoing usage incentive.

The Credit Karma-powered service is clearly branded as a Sears and Kmart offering (note 2, screenshot #1). Interestingly, Sears also takes the opportunity to offer targeted advertising space to financial companies (screenshot #3). It also markets the credit-analysis service on its own credit card site (screenshot #2).

While Credit Karma traditionally derived revenue from advertising on its site, this move into the private-label channel provides additional growth opportunities. The Sears private-label site had nearly 140,000 unique visitors in February, about one-third the total at Credit Karma (see table below). It’s a good deal for Sears, too: Offering credit-score analysis differentiates it from other retail card providers and conveys concern about its customers’ financial well-being.

Website traffic at searscreditscore.com vs. creditkarma.com  image 
Source: Compete.com, March 2010 (link)

1. The Sears credit score site, powered by Credit Karma

clip_image002

2. Sears promotes the credit score service on its website

clip_image004[4]

3. Sample page from Searscreditscore.com
Note ads for Citi and ING Direct

clip_image006

Notes:
1. Sears cards are issued by Citibank, one of the advertisers in the private-label site.
2. Kmart acquired Sears in 2004.

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New Online Banking Report Available: The Case for Mobile Banking

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Mobile Banking, Online Banking Report, Strategic Planning

image The latest Online Banking Report: The Case for Mobile Banking is now available. It will mail next week to OBR subscribers. It’s also available online here. There’s no charge for current subscribers; others may download it immediately for US$395.

There is little doubt that mobile is the next online, not just in banking, but with many information-rich, time-sensitive services. Even in the online-centric United States, we expect mobile banking to eclipse online by the end of the decade. 

Another way to look at it: Starting from essentially zero just three years ago, more than half of the U.S. online banking population will be using mobile banking, by 2015. That’s zero-to-40 million households in just eight years.

Most financial institutions should be making their mobile bets during 2010/2011. The report outlines ten ways that mobile banking supports overall strategic goals at financial institutions. It also includes our ten-year forecast for U.S. mobile adoption (note 1).

This report is number four in a series we’ve published on the mobile area during the past three years:

Num Date Title
177 Mar. 2010 The Case for Mobile Banking: Ten strategic reasons for investing in the channel
163/164 Mar. 2009 Mobile Banking 2.0 the iPhone Edition: How to build a smartphone app even your CFO will love
140/141 Apr. 2007 Mobile Money & Payments: Why credit & debit card issuers should embrace mobile delivery now
138/139 Feb. 2007 Mobile Banking: Leveraging the third screen

Note:
1. The mobile forecast was originally published last month in our year-end recap.

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Thanks to our March 2010 NetBanker Sponsors

By Eric Mattson Posted on
Categories: About Netbanker

As usual, we’d like to pause in our usual blogging for the month to say “thanks!” to the generous sponsors of NetBanker.

Please consider supporting our current sponsors (listed below in alphabetical order):

Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t say one last thank-you to the departing sponsor Wesabe who’s been with us the last several months promoting their new Springboard product. We’ll miss you.

Fortunately, we are excited to have several new sponsors waiting to step into Wesabe’s shoes supporting the high-quality and free content on this blog. Speaking of which … back to the blogging.

P.S. If you’d like to join these companies in supporting NetBanker, please drop me an email at eric@netbanker.com.

ericphoto.jpgEric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.

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Are You Still Frustrating Your Banking Customers to Save a Few Pennies?

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Alerts & Messaging, Credit Reports & ID Theft Protection

image Have you ever had a flat tire because you forget to look at your tire pressure? I have, more than once, but not since I installed these handy little valve caps with the “green is good to go” visual signal. And they only cost about $6 per set.

Not only do they save you from the hassle and cost of a flat tire, they could save hundreds of dollars over the car’s life with better fuel economy running on properly inflated tires. And flat tires on the freeway are a serious safety issue. 

This begs the question: Why don’t car companies install these on all cars (note 1)? Is it really worth the potential thousand-dollar cost to your customers to save a buck or two in the manufacturing process? 

Relevance for Netbankers: What things does your financial institution do to save a few pennies that could end up costing your customers similar financial pain?  Here are my three pet peeves:

Rant over. Have a great weekend.

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Note: Yes, I know that higher-end cars have tire-pressure idiot lights. And I’m sure there engineering-related costs and liability issues makes the price tag bigger than an outsider would imagine.

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Mobile Firsts: State Farm Offers Auto Insurance Discounts to Graduates of its Steer Clear iPhone App

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Insurance, iPhone, Mobile Banking

imageLast week I talked about how USAA is making the mobile experience better than online thanks to the magic of mobile remote deposit and PIN-based login. For the sake of discussion, I’m defining magic as anything you could not have imagined doing on your mobile phone two years ago (note 1).

The latest novel financial app: State Farm’s Steer Clear program that provides auto insurance discounts “up to 15%” for new drivers (under age 25) that pass its safe driving program. Users can undergo the self-assessment program online or off, but the app makes it easier and with a built-in stopwatch (screenshot below) to track the required 20 practice drives. See how it works in the company’s video below (press release here; iTunes link here). 

image As much as I like it, the State Farm app doesn’t quite make it into the magical category. Had it used GPS to automatically track the 20 practice drives, it might have passed the bar. I’m sure that’s in a future version.

Regardless, it’s clever, unique and positions the company well with the youth market and their parents that often foot the insurance bills. That’s a good return on the small investment needed to port the program over to a mobile app (note 2).

Notes:
1. I am using two years, since that predates the opening of the iPhone App Store in July 2008.
2. Read more about the strategic advantages mobile banking can give your financial institution in our latest Online Banking Report published today.

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Launching: HelloWallet is First New PFM of 2010

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Launches, Personal Financial Management

image During 2008, we tracked more than a dozen new PFM launches. But it’s been quiet since then. The last major launch was Thrive (now part of Lending Tree) at Finovate 2008. However, with Mint exiting with a $100+ million gain late last year, the space is bound to heat up again. 

It’s not like there isn’t room for quite a few entrants. The United States supports 15,000 banks and credit unions; there’s no reason why there won’t be dozens of successful PFMs.

imageThe latest entrant, HelloWallet officially launched today (press release). While its features are similar to others, it has one claim to fame that’s tough to beat, an endorsement from a former U.S. president. According to a Sep. 2009 BusinessWeek article, Bill Clinton, singled out HelloWallet in his address to the $20,000-per person Global Initiative event in September.

The for-profit site founded by former Brookings Institute fellow, Matt Fellowes (Brookings archive; inset with Bill Clinton), has attracted the attention of both politicians and foundations with its mission to:

…democratize access to honest, high-quality financial guidance for everyone.

HelloWallet appears to be an advertising-free business model with moderate $5/mo (or $48 annually) fees covering its costs. It’s also being distributed free-of-charge through institutional partners such as The Rockefeller Foundation.

The startup has pledged to give away one subscription to a lower-income family for every five paid ones. That’s a smart strategy, especially when what is being given has essentially zero marginal cost to deliver. HelloWallet’s features include:

  • full account aggregation so you can track all your financial accounts from one dashboard
  • financial tools for investing, saving, reducing bank fees, and so on
  • banking price comparisons
  • budgeting tools
  • bank-fee and credit-card-APR monitoring services
  • goal-based savings

My take: I kicked the tires a bit, successfully setting up automated access to my checking account, and manually adding a few more assets. But the site was a little buggy today, hitting me with error messages and delivering dead links, so I’ll hold off judgement until they get things stabilized. But it looks like a well-funded and promising effort so far.

HelloWallet homepage on launch day (8 Mar. 2010)

image

Note: For more information on the PFM space, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features.

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USAA Makes Mobile Banking Better than Online Banking

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Mobile Banking, Remote Deposit Capture, Security & Privacy, USAA

image Here’s a test that tells you when you’ve built a successful mobile app:

  1. Place your laptop next to your iPhone/Android
  2. Choose a task
  3. Reach for the device that’s easiest to use for that task 

If you don’t reach for the mobile phone first, you still have work to do on the user experience. 

I’ve always chosen the laptop for banking, even though I’ve ported more than a dozen other routine tasks to the iPhone (note 1). The hassle of logging in with those tiny iPhone keys pushes me to the laptop. But as of Tuesday, USAA’s latest iPhone app, version 2.2, has changed the equation, and there’s no looking back. 

Mobile vs. online banking
The key to making mobile a profitable channel is to make the user experience BETTER than online. And USAA is the only U.S. financial institution doing that today.

USAA’s biggest mobile “wow” is mobile check deposits (see Deposit@Mobile screenshot below) introduced six months ago for the iPhone. While it may not seem novel to those in the industry familiar with scanner-based remote deposits, the average consumer considers an iPhone check deposit to be almost magical. Other than a few small credit unions, no other major banking competitor offers it, so USAA continues to own mobile magic.  

imageBut with Bank of America rumored to be readying a launch mobile deposits, which will no doubt be featured in Apple TV ads, (see latest one here), USAA needs to keep innovating. 

And this week, USAA delivered with a single-PIN login with authentication powered by VeriSign VIP service. The optional 4-digit sign-on process is available now on the iPhone and will be available in April for Android and “shortly thereafter” for Blackberry (note 2).

In a time when it’s more tedious and less secure to log in online, USAA takes us back in time to a simpler day, when you could log in with just a few digits.

And by using techniques that authenticate the mobile phone during login, the bank says that mobile access is more secure than online.

Think about that for a moment. Mobile is MORE SECURE than online. With tens of millions of customers deathly afraid of logging in via their virus-laden PCs, imagine what that could do for mobile adoption.

It will take time to educate the market. Currently, most consumers believe the mobile channel is far less secure. But if they can be convinced the opposite is true, many will kiss online banking goodbye forever.

Notes:
1. According to yesterday’s release, USAA has 1.3 million mobile users, 17% of its 7.4 million customer base.
2. Previously, USAA users were required to sign on with username, password and PIN. The simple sign-on process is optional for those not trusting the simpler process.
3. For more info on financial services opportunities on the iPhone, see our March 2009 Online Banking Report.

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What the Real-Time Web Means for Banking

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Alerts & Messaging, Blippy, Personal Financial Management, Real-time Web

imageOne of the most important trends in the online/mobile world is the so-called real-time Web. Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

…technologies and practices which enable users to receive information as soon as it’s published, rather than requiring that they check a source periodically for updates.

Online banking should have gone
real-time long ago, but privacy concerns and a legacy of batch
processing — not to mention the 100-year credit crisis — have kept
info delivery in very non-real-time at most financial institutions (note
1).

As balance/transaction email alerts appeared on the scene in 1996/1997, the perfect solution to keep consumers informed on a timely basis seemed assured. But for most users, financial alerts have not lived up to their promise. Why?

1. Users must remember to establish alerts while they are banking online

2. Users must establish proper parameters so they are not overwhelmed with alerts, or receive too little info

3. Those parameters must be tweaked as necessary

4. Users must select the proper email inbox(es) for the alerts

5. Users must read the alerts in a timely fashion

6. And of course, act on them if necessary

Frankly, that’s just too much work for most online bankers. Sending alerts to a mobile device may help since it is typically more immediate than email. But that depends on the user and whether they really want banking messages in their text-message stream.

But we think many users, now accustomed to viewing a stream of info all day from Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, RSS, and so on, will want similar delivery of financial info. Some will want their financial info to stream into their overall news feed (e.g., via Facebook, Twitter, etc.), others will prefer a separate dedicated channel (e.g., Blippy note 2, Strings). And the old-school folk will still prefer email or text-message feeds.

Once the feed is established, users will want to interact with the data, for example:

  • Tagging entries for budgeting/tax purposes
  • Sharing specific transactions with friends, spouses, accountants
  • Forwarding transactions to bookkeeping or managers for reimbursement
  • Replying to the bank/merchant regarding incorrect transactions  
  • Flagging transactions for later review

The real-time Web turns online banking on its head. Creating a daily dialogue with customers, rather than one-time sessions where users log in every few days, then hope nothing goes wrong before their next login.

There are advantages in both models, but it’s not really your choice which one to offer. The world has gone real-time: You can either join in or have your customers migrate to Mint/Blippy/Wesabe to tap their financial feed.

Notes:
1. This is characterization of the U.S. situation; many other countries are much further ahead, and have been operating under real-time info-flow for years. 
2. We believe there are a number of practical applications for Blippy’s technology; see our previous post.
3. For more info on financial messaging and alerts, Online Banking Report subscribers should review our 2003 report on the subject.

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