Notes from the Mobile Commerce Summit (Day 1)

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Conferences, Mobile Banking, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Payments, USAA

image About 100+ folks gathered in the brand new M Resort near Las Vegas for the third annual Mobile Commerce Summit by SourceMedia. Jeff Dennes from USAA and Jim Simpson from City Bank of Texas, both provided an extraordinary amount of metrics on their mobile rollouts (details below).

The biggest innovation of the day was iPhone-enabled remote check-deposit capture soon to be available from USAA (official launch June 25; see picture below). 

imageSession highlights
Jeff Dennes, executive director, mobile money & movement, USAA:

  • 7.9 million logins so far this year vs. about 7 million in all of 2008
  • Highest week to date, 476,000
  • 4.8 million USAA members own mobile; 1.5 mil use it to access Internet
  • 20% say mobile is primary channel
  • 11.4% of members using USAA mobile
  • Why so much usage: no branches, members trust USAA, extremely mobile military-oriented customer base, more technically capable than average
  • Have SMS, Firethorn downloadable app, WAP <mobile.usaa.com>, native iPhone app
  • Native iPhone app released 2 weeks ago: Went to number 1 in first week with 55,000 downloads; 45,000 logins in first week, 93,000 in second week
  • iPhone app built in-house and has patents filed
  • Will be launching first iPhone remote deposit-capture app on June 25 (see photo above); tune in to the bank’s webcast at 7 PM Central time at <budurl.com/usaaannouncement>
  • Current iPhone app has insurance functions: filing a claim, roadside assistance
  • Personal financial management functions coming soon
  • With mobile rollout, are seeing call volumes going down
  • 35% of access to mobile site comes from iPhone, 35% from Blackberry
  • Will be building app for Blackberry; others as demand warrants (e.g., Pre)

Jim Simpson, VP IT, City Bank of Texas

  • Mobile banking is powered by ClairMail (use Jack Henry for core processing and online banking)
  • Launched 17 Oct 2008 with balance, history, funds transfers, “call me,” near-real-time alerts (not batch) including reward-checking status/summary (sent out 7 days before end of checking cycle telling users how they stand on meeting necessary activity levels
  • Have microsite: www.citybankmobile.com
  • Made a major cross-channel marketing effort at launch: TV, print, radio, in-branch, and so on; used it to differentiate themselves in competitive Lubbock market
  • 10.2% online banking penetration
  • 64% use weekly
  • Average age is 32
  • Average account balance on primary account is over $5,000
  • More than 3,000 active users
  • Limited use of mobile browser site, bnkngo.mobi; text-message banking is much more popular (also have gocitybank.mobi); get 5,000 balance requests via text messaging each week vs. 25 or 30 mobile Web logins
  • Real-time alerts (vs. batch) is one of the key benefits that users like; they often can text message a confirmation of the transaction while still standing at the checkout counter; not always that fast, sometimes can be a few minutes later
  • Coming: End-of-day, text-based account summary, “payit” loan payment via text (in response to text alert), iPhone/Blackberry apps
  • How to make money? Adding ad-supported links within text messages; e.g., link back to the restaurant where the transaction originated

Ginger Schmeltzer, SVP, SunTrust

  • Currently at 2.5% penetration of online banking users powered by Firethorn
  • 33% access via iPhone; 33% via Blackberry
  • Have an RFP out now to find vendor(s) to increase functionality
  • See real benefits from using mobile channel to decrease fraud

Patrick Reetz, VP & director, online banking, M&I Bank

  • Rolled out mobile in Oct 2008 powered by MShift
  • Within 11 days, achieved one-year goal of 2% penetration of online banking users (longer term, their initial goal was 10% by YE 2010)
  • Currently have 7% penetration

Ellen Johnson, SVP retail online services, Huntington Bank

  • Have just under 25,000 users of mobile Web banking, launched in June 2008
  • Number of users of text banking surpassed mobile Web in April, launched 6 months ago
  • Mobile banking customers are 38% more profitable; text banking, 13% more profitable
  • Call center contacts per active user dropped 3.4% in first 6 months
  • Have a mobile microsite for marketing

Juli Anne Callis, president & CEO, National Institutes of Health Federal Credit Union (previously at Keypoint Credit Union)

  • At Keypoint Credit Union, even usage between iPhone and Blackberry access
  • Keypoint powered by mShift and will be using mShift at her new CU
  • Launched on Facebook Nov 2007 (OBR Best of Web winner)

Amy Johnson, channel manager — CEO Mobile, Wells Fargo

  • Launched 2 years ago (April 2007), and Wells Fargo remains the only major U.S. bank offering full corporate mobile banking
  • Mobile Web-based system
  • No charge except certain text messages (and those fees may go away)
  • No set-up process
    — just log in at mobile site with existing online credentials
  • Will not disclose usage, but are targeting top-tier customers: top 10%-15%
  • Access: 30% iPhone, 50%+ BlackBerry
    — no Android so far
  • $2.5 billion in wire approvals via CEO Mobile in 2008

Kevin Morrisson, AVP card products, H&R Block

  • Using text messages to defer calls to call center (currently receive 80 million annually), especially people checking to see if their refund has arrived.
  • Program was piloted this year and is expected to roll out nationwide later this year. Found dramatic decline in voice calls from test group.
  • Mobile program powered by Metavante/Monitise joint program. 

Rebecca Mann, director of strategic alliances, Western Union

  • Using mobile to replace either the sending or receiving part of a money transfer
  • Partnering with US Bank for international remittances

Lisa Stanton, CEO, Monitise America

  • Can do more secure services within an app compared to mobile Web or SMS

Matt Krogstad, VP business development, M-Com

  • Critical for banks to be point of registration and source of funds
  • Should be able to register outside online banking
    — via call center, ATM along with mobile phone
  • In Australia, mobile money transfers was slower to take off, approx. 18 months after adoption of mobile banking

Clint Heyworth, attorney, consumer finance group, Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel

  • One-to-one relationship with phone (e.g., you have it with you) makes it better for security compared to PC where others have access
  • Not a lot of legal differences between delivering banking services via mobile vs. online
  • Don’t expect to see specific regulation regarding the mobile channel; will likely be the same regulations as for online banking

Tom Wills, senior analyst, Javelin Strategy & Research

  • Security is single biggest factor inhibiting mass consumer uptake
  • Only 500 pieces of malware have been identified so far in mobile vs. thousands of new ones every day online
  • 47% of respondents are uncomfortable with mobile security (Mar 2008 data)
  • Main concern is hackers, mentioned by 73% of those above
  • Expects anti-virus software makers to build mobile versions

Rebecca Sausner, editor, Bank Technology News

  • Total revenues for mobile banking vendors this year will be $26 million (source: Aite)

Sean Moshir, CEO, CellTrust (also mobile banking sub-committee co-chair of Mobile Marketing Association)

  • 66% of consumers still not yet comfortable using mobile device for financial transactions (source: 2009 KPMG Global Consumer Survey)
  • 7% said they would pay a nominal fee to access online banking services via mobile phones (source: 2009 KPMG Global Consumer Survey)

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LowerMyAssessment.com offers timely personal finance tool to save on property taxes

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Fee Income, Launches, Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity, Personal Financial Management, Real Estate, Tax Prep

image Usually, it’s the big ideas that get all the press. Last week alone, Microsoft launched a new search engine (Bing), Google announced a new way to communicate (Google Wave), and Facebook began rolling out an alt-payment service to its 200 million users. 

Those have intriguing long-term ramifications, but can they save you money today? 

Here’s something a little more pragmatic: A tool that promises to make it easy to challenge your tax assessment, potentially saving hundreds or thousands of dollars annually. Enter LowerMyAssessment.com (LMA).

I saw a few screenshots of the service during the company’s application to debut at FinovateStartup 2009 last month (demo video here). But I couldn’t use the service until a few weeks ago.

How it works
image Consumers visiting LMA can use the website’s free tool to check their home’s value against current market estimates. LMA taps public databases to determine tax-assessed values and calculates market value from various third-party sources such as Zillow.

The company then makes the simple math calculation and informs users if the value of their home is under the tax-assessed value. If it is, LMA provides forms and instructions to challenge tax assessments with the local assessor’s office.

In our test case, using an address in Seattle, one of 10 states currently served by LMA, we were told that its assessed value was $300,000 more than the market value (note 2). LMA encouraged me to register and let them help me challenge that assessment.

Registered users complete an online form with info needed to challenge their assessment (see screenshot 3 below). After completing that form, users must pay $125 to complete the challenge process and receive their FairValue Report (shown above).  

Analysis
While the cost-saving potential is significant, the challenge for LMA is getting consumers to shell out $125 for something they can conceivably do themselves (note 3). It took us just a few minutes using Google to uncover the challenge forms and procedures at the King County website. And market value estimates can be pulled from Zillow and its competitors.   

To reduce sticker shock, the company recently removed the big $125 price tag from its homepage (see screenshot 1) and is now emphasizing the free lookup feature (screenshot 2). I can understand downplaying a three-figure fee, especially online. But now they’ve gone too far the other way. I cannot find the price of the service anywhere on the website. It wasn’t disclosed until I completed my registration and filled out the challenge form (see screenshot 4 below).

There’s also the small matter of getting the word out. The major market opportunity will largely be gone once home prices get back to their pre-recession levels, even though there will always be cases where consumers feel their assessment is unfair. But LMA needs to team with major financial or real estate firms as soon as possible to reach large groups of potential customers. 

Bank and credit union opportunities
As discussed in previous posts, direct fee income is scarce in online banking, at least in the United States. Aside from credit bureau monitoring, there are few up-front fees that consumers are willing to pay. Certainly, banks earn billions from the underlying checking, debit, and credit card accounts, but nothing from the value added online.

It’s possible the service could be replicated by a bank or mortgage provider using available APIs from Zillow or others. But for most banks, it would be far simpler to outsource the service to LMA or other specialists.

If the service were sold for $100+, with revenue shared 50/50, a bank or credit union could earn a respectable profit while providing a unique and free service to customers; however, the folks at City Hall may not be so appreciative. If city government is a big customer, you might tread carefully here.

1. New LowerMyAssessment homepage emphasizes free (2 June 2009)

image

2. Previous homepage disclosed the substantial fee up-front (12 May 2009)

image

3. Online appeal form for King County Washington (2 June 2009)

clip_image002[8]

4. $125 (+tax) fee is not disclosed until checkout (2 June 2009)

image

Notes:
1. States currently covered: Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Washington
2. That was on May 11. Now, three weeks later, LMA shows the house having declined another 20%. Home prices are certainly fluctuating, but n
ot that much. It appears that LMA has switched to using Zillow’s low estimate instead of the mid-range one. That may help sell more services, but it’s a bit misleading. It would be much better to show the range of potential market values pulling data from all three third-party valuation sites, in much the way RedFin does. 
3. They also have some work to do in clarifying the buying process. It’s not really clear exactly what you are buying at checkout. Are you submitting a property-tax challenge at that point? What about the FairValue Report? When do you see that? But we’ll cut them slack on that since they just launched a few weeks ago.

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Fake credit union advertisement on Google

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Security & Privacy

image It’s not often I see an unfamiliar name amongst the top bidders for “online banking” at Google. But today, the sixth advertiser on the right-hand column (number nine overall), was an ad supposedly from CenturyCU.org (see ad right and  search results page below).

The ad had a seemingly clear call to action, Visit Our Credit Union Today For Online Banking! However, when I clicked on the link, it lead to a .info page full of ads unrelated to the legitimate Century Credit Union (see second screenshot below).

While this doesn’t appear to be a phishing attempt since it’s not displayed on searches for “Century Credit Union” or “Centurycu.org,” it is a bit disconcerting. It’s clearly a violation of Google’s terms of service and shouldn’t have made it past Google’s filters, but they are not perfect.

But my bigger question is: How does a spammy .info site make it to the top-10 advertisers on this popular banking term? Are there really so few serious bank or credit union bidders in the area? Or is it that the Google AdWords ROI just isn’t there right now? 

Other than a regional Chase ad on the top <chase.com/washington>, it wasn’t until the fifth page of results that another Northwest financial institution made an appearance, Coastal Community Bank advertising its BancVue/FirstROI-powered high-yield checking account (landing page here).  

Search results page for online banking (1 June 2009, 3:20 PM from Seattle/Comcast IP address)

image

Landing page for the fake CenturyCU.org Google ad (1 June 2009)

image

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New Online Banking Report Published: Connecting to Customers with Twitter

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

obr 166_167 front page We just uploaded our latest Online Banking Report.
It will be mailed to subscribers next week. It’s also available online here. There’s no charge for current subscribers; others may access it immediately
for US$595.

———————————————————

Connecting to Customers with Twitter
The comprehensive guide to Twitter for financial institutions

84 pages (published 25 May 2009)

Twitter is everywhere these days (note 1). Those who use it think it’s the best thing since the invention of email. Those who don’t, think it’s just another Internet fad, enjoying its 15 minutes of fame before flaming out with only a Wikipedia entry to remember it by. 

imageThe reality: No one knows exactly how it will play out, but it’s something likely in between those two extremes.   

We are not surprised Twitter has taken off as a social connector. It’s a lot like other extremely popular communication methods: email, texting, and instant messaging. The rise of MySpace, Facebook and other social networks has paved the way.

image However, what’s surprising is that Twitter is actually a surprisingly effective, and extremely cost-effective, way for companies to engage online with customers and prospects (see Wachovia example in the inset).

Numbering more than 200 in the United States alone, there are already more financial institutions using Twitter than any other so-called social network. Most have started in the last month or two (see previous coverage). 

In this report (abstract), guest author Jeffry Pilcher (note 2), a branding and marketing guru who recently launched his own brand consultancy, ICONiQ, tells you exactly what you should and shouldn’t do with Twitter. He was an early adopter of the tool, and an expert on harnessing its power.

The report includes:

  • An overview of Twitter terminology and how the service works
  • Advice on how to develop a successful Twitter strategy and
    avoid common pitfalls
  • Explanations and examples of the different ways
    financial institutions are using Twitter 
  • A step-by-step guide on how to implement a Twitter strategy
    and navigate the “Twittersphere,” including explanations of
    how to create and customize a Twitter profile and presence

Notes:
1. USA Today even had a story on the front of the Money section two weeks ago, entitled, “Banks try social networking, jump on Twitter wagon“

2. Jeffry Pilcher blogs at The Financial Brand and frequently tweets here. He maintains a comprehensive listing of banks and credit unions on Twitter here.

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NetBanker 2009 Survey — Please Give Us Your Feedback

By Eric Mattson Posted on
Categories: Market Research & Metrics

Feedback is important for improvement and reaching one’s maximum potential. That fact is why businesses have regular reviews for top employees, the best athletes have coaches and elite schools have grades. In order to be their best, people and businesses need to regularly receive criticism, suggestions, advice and ideas from others. We at NetBanker are no different.

So we’d love for you to take 5 (or less) short minutes to fill out our annual reader survey (it’s completely anonymous). This is your chance to tell us a little about yourself, what matters to you, how we can do better and more. Please help us serve you better by clicking the link below and filling it out right now:

http://www.netbanker.com/2009readersurvey.htm

If you’d rather give your feedback in a more personal way than this survey, please feel free to contact me at eric@netbanker.com. Thanks!

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 or 206-331-1178.

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Another reason for banks to push out a native iPhone app

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Apple, iPhone

imageRumors abound that Apple will super-size its iPod Touch next year with a 7- to 10-inch-screen version. VentureBeat has a compelling picture (inset), although it’s not likely to be authentic.

The thinking is that this device fits nicely between the $299 iPod Touch and the $999+ MacBook with a price in the
$600- to $700-range.

The device is expected to run the iPhone OS and use the same touchscreen interface as its much-smaller siblings. That makes it the perfect in-home device for running any of the 40,000+ apps available in App Store. 

Why it’s important
Because there are apps for everything, this device could become the de facto controller for key in-home systems running the television, DVR, telephone (especially if it has a built-in web cam), heating and air conditioning, plus the audio system, of course. It will also be perfect for checking the weather in the morning, the traffic on the way out the door, reading feeds, twittering, and sharing YouTube videos and photos with visitors at the kitchen table. 

And while those are the interesting uses, the Apple device will also be a convenient way to access all types of information, from Google, to ESPN, to your bank balance, all with the touch of button.

Significance for banks and credit unions
If Apple works its magic yet again, this device could end up in the living room of half the upscale households in the world.

image While this device can run a browser to access any website, the user experience is much better with a native app (see note 1). And when push notifications become available in the next OS release, it will be even better.

Note:
1. For more information on why you must build a native iPhone app for your financial institution, see our recent Online Banking Report on iPhone Mobile Banking.

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Has Mercantile Bank cracked the code for generating online banking fees?

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Fee Income, Mercantile Bank of MI, Premium-level Products

imageWe are always on the lookout for examples of U.S. financial institutions charging fees for value-added services online (see note 1). In the past seven or eight years, the sightings have been rare. 

But today, we have a great one. And like most brilliant ideas, it seems pretty obvious in retrospect. The new service from Mercantile Bank of Michigan is called Funds Manager (PDF FAQs here) and it’s not only a great service innovation, but also promises to bring fees back to online banking.

How it works
Funds Manager is basically a consumer version of positive pay, a standard offering in commercial banking. In the commercial version, clients look at checks and electronic items being presented for payment, and can nix any that are fraudulent.

Mercantile launched similar capabilities for its retail customers, allowing them to peek at their pending checks and ACH items a half-day before they are withdrawn from their account (see note 1).

Between 11 AM and noon, the bank posts the checks that will be processed that evening, giving customers a few hours lead time to make a transfer to avoid an upcoming overdraft. Customers have until 5 PM to make a branch deposit or 7 PM to make an online transfer to cover a shortfall.

Mercantile’s online and mobile banking are powered by S1.

Business case
Sure, the service would impact OD/NSF income. But the bank makes up for that by charging a small fee, $4/mo, for the service. Given the type of customer who’d be drawn to this service, $48/yr should more than cover any lost OD income. And it provides a service that improves customer satisfaction and differentiates the bank from others. Business customers pay $30/mo, a potentially lucrative small-business service.

According to an article in Friday’s American Banker, the bank has signed up a quarter of its retail online banking customers for the service (558 of 2,361). While the $27,000 in annual revenues to Mercantile barely covers costs, if Bank of America experienced similar penetration, it would be worth more than $250 million per year, a nice boost to the online banking P&L.

Opportunities
Not only is consumer positive pay a nice standalone service, it could be the cornerstone of a premium online banking option that could be priced at $5/mo or more. 

It would be even better if users received email or text-message alerts whenever they had items to review. And it would be a great addition to an iPhone/mobile app where the items could be reviewed, and transfers initiated, right on the phone.

Notes:
1. Please email other examples to me or add them to the comments.
2. The advanced look does not include branch deposits, ATM transactions, wire transfers, or telephone transfers.  

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Technology Credit Union and TDECU are first CUs with native iPhone Apps

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Apple, Blogs, Firethorn, iPhone, Mobile Banking

More than 10 months after the iPhone App Store launched, two U.S. credit unions have joined the application marketplace, which numbers more than 40,000 in the U.S. store alone.

The first was Texas Dow Employees Credit Union (TDECU), whose ATM and shared-branch locator, Culoc8, launched on April 29, according to the company’s Twitter page (below, link). image

image

The TDECU app (see inset) is unbranded and can be offered by other CUs to their members. 

Eaton Family Credit Union is offering CuLoc8 to members on its website (see below).

image

————————————————————————————————

image Yesterday, Tech CU, became the first credit union with a full-featured branded native iPhone app (App Store link, see note 1). The app (see below) includes full online banking functionality and an ATM/shared branch finder (second screenshot). The credit union also added something we haven’t seen yet, an iPhone optimized feed of its blog, Money Savvy (third screenshot). Nice touch.

Tech CU has offered a mobile website since Sept. 2007. 

image    image   image

Note:
1. America First Credit Union was the first CU with native iPhone support via its participation in Firethorn’s shared mobile banking app which launched in Nov. 2008.

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PayPal markets its credit card to users at logout

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Credit/Debit Cards, PayPal

image For many years PayPal has deposited users on its shopping portal when they log out of their PayPal account. This afternoon I saw something different at logout for the first time in recent memory, a pitch for the PayPal Plus MasterCard (screenshot below).

Although the company has marketed this card to me dozens of times immediately after logging in, it’s the first time I remember seeing it after logging out. The hook is the card’s new personalized photo option.

But a funny thing happened when I clicked on the Get Started button: I was dropped on to PayPal’s homepage where an error message explained:

You must log in before you can access this page.

A very odd requirement for an offer made after logging out. I followed the instructions and logged in, but there was no mention of the credit card. I just ended up at the regular account management page.

I guess it was PayPal’s turn for a programming glitch (see yesterday’s post on Rudder). Luckily, this problem doesn’t impact anything but PayPal’s online marketing results (see note 1). When I logged out this time, I was shown the usual PayPal shopping portal (see third screenshot). 

PayPal pitched its PayPal Plus MasterCard at logout
(21 May 2009, 3:30 PM Pacific)

image

 Error message after clicking “Get Started” on offer page
(21 May 2009)image

 PayPal logout offer a few minutes later (21 May 2009)

image

Note:
1. For more info, see our most recent Online Banking Report: Selling Behind the Password

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Fallout from Rudder’s mishap, will it impact all third-party PFM apps?

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Personal Financial Management, Public Relations

imageYesterday, Rudder suffered an embarrassing email glitch that affected 732 customers. In the pre-Internet days, no one other than those few hundred customers, and a few of their friends, would have heard about it. Even in the days before blogs became common, pre-2007, it’s unlikely the story would have made it to the mainstream press.

And even last year, before Twitter, the story might have died without ever crossing over to the mass media. But when it comes to breaking news and company gaffes, it’s a whole new ball game. Everyone wants 15 minutes of fame as an investigative reporter, and Twitter is the dream platform.

I’m going to recap the problem, and how the news broke, in excruciating detail, because it illustrates the power of Twitter- and blog-fueled grassroots reporting. If you are a financial services company, think about how you could use social media to help with damage control should something similar happen to you.  

What happened at Rudder
According to the detailed description first published in TechCrunch and then later published by the company on a new blog created specifically for this issue, an email upgrade the night of May 18 caused 732 users to receive dozens of email updates containing balance and transaction information of other users. Only Rudder users with email addresses that begin with “a” or “b” received the erroneous emails because the company stopped the email job at that point after realizing the “upgrade” had gone terribly wrong.

Besides seeing the info in the email updates, the bigger security/privacy problem was that unauthorized users were able to click through email links to access the full aggregated account at Rudder.com (see screenshot in the TechCrunch article). However, at no time could anyone actually log in to anyone’s bank account or move money in any way.

Luckily, Rudder, like all account-aggregation companies, does not include account numbers or personal details in the updates. However, the email addresses of each user was displayed, so any of the 732 customers using an email address at Rudder that can be traced back to their real name, had their financial details exposed to hundreds of users. 

How the news broke
At 5:36 AM yesterday (19 May), Twitter user @adambassador tweeted this:

image 

And @adambassador didn’t stop at that. He took the time to search and communicate warnings directly to several other users who’d recently mentioned “Rudder.com” on Twitter. Adambassador would go on to tweet 21 times yesterday about the Rudder problem.

One of the people who heard from @adambassador was financial services consultant and blogger, Mike Linskey (@mikelinskey) who’d just Tweeted about several of the PFM companies he’d seen at our FinovateStartup conference, including Rudder.com. Mike then posted the problem to his Fincision blog at 8:04 AM, and at Mike’s request, adambassador posted screenshots of the emails to document the problem, which were then published in Mike’s blog entry.

image

At 10:05 AM, using Twitter, Mike alerted the blog Mashable about the Rudder problem. A half-hour later, Mashable, the fifth largest blog in the country (see note 1), posted the story citing adambassador’s tweets and Mike’s blog entry. From the Mashable blog entry (below), the problem was retweeted 115 times (see the retweet button below on left).

image

Then at noon, the second largest blog, TechCrunch, with more than 2 million subscribers, posted the story. And because of high comment activity, it stayed on the top of TechCrunch most of the day (see screenshot below), generating 58 comments.

How Rudder handled it
By almost any standard, Rudder did a good job responding. Although their reply took more than 10 hours since the error was first reported on Twitter, Rudder’s CEO posted a detailed comment on the TechCrunch (scroll down to his comment at 4:38 PM here) and Mashable posts, apologizing for the error and explaining in great detail what had happened. 

In addition, Rudder created a special “Rudder Update” blog (see screenshot below) apologizing, explaining the mishap and exactly what info was mistakenly displayed, and detailing the steps they were taking to fix the problem and help affected customers:

  • Turned off the email system entirely
  • Contacted each affected user individually and offered them a complimentary subscription to an identity theft service
  • Engaged an independent security auditor to survey its system and look for weaknesses
  • Published a URL for users to go in and delete their accounts if desired

Analysis
Rudder did a good job considering the situation. It was smart to comment on TechCrunch and Mashable, and the new damage-control blog site was a savvy move. And the company did an exceptionally good job with the tone and wording of its mea culpa.

That said, the company could have used social media better. The company’s Twitter page (@userudder) and that of its CEO (@nikhilroy) were silent all day. A short Twitter posting, even “we’ve stopped all emails and are working on it” would have reassured users and potentially made the Mashable post less alarming. Also, the company didn’t have a blog, so there was no place where they could post periodic updates during the day. It was complete silence for 11 hours, other than the interview with TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld mid-day.

Impact on third-party PFM credibility
While this was embarrassing and violated the privacy of several hundred users, there will likely be no financial loss to anyone. There was no data breach or stolen account numbers. Even a single bank account statement stolen from a mailbox could cause more potential financial damage.

And even though third-party PFM providers have had a relatively spotless record for security/privacy, this mistake, now well-documented in two of the largest online publications in the world, will be cited in the media for years, to cast doubt on the security of online personal finance.

It might cost the industry a point or two in short-term market share, but it would take something much worse to materially slow growth. Even Rudder should be fine. By addressing the issue in a highly professional way on the same day, most customers will be reassured, at least those that weren’t directly impacted.

The bigger lesson here is the need for damage-control procedures that take into account the power and speed of new media (note 3). The entire episode could have—prior to Twitter and the blogosphere—been known to just a few hundred customers of a very small company, but instead traveled from a lone tweet to a large splash across the homepage of a major publication, all within a 6-hour period.     

TechCrunch featured the Rudder post on its main page most of the afternoon (19 May 2009)

image

Special damage control blog created by Rudder yesterday
(19 May 2009; link)

image

Note:
1. Ranking by Technorati authority (here)
2. Thanks to Mike Linskey for the tip yesterday morning.
3. Also, account aggregation users should use an email address that is not directly associated with their name.

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Links from my Metavante Client Conference presentation

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Conferences, Metavante

image

Thanks to everyone who attended my presentation on Trends in Ebanking last week at Metavante’s annual user conference. Here are the links to the examples cited:

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