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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.
Back in April, we showed you the list of the 30 most popular iPad apps from U.S. banks and other financial services companies listed on iTunes. The list featured the usual big names, but one surprise was #14, Texas Dow Employees Credit Union (TDECU), a 132,000 member, 19-branch, $1.6B credit union headquartered in Lake Jackson, TX.
The app, UniFI, available on iPad, iPhone and Android platforms, was developed by startup FI-Mobile. The full-featured offering includes:
FI Mobile says it can launch the app in three weeks for FIs that already have a mobile banking application, and seven weeks if they have to develop a native app.
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Features
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Clicking on Mobile Banking from the home screen launches the WAP service developed by Q2ebanking (note 1).
Both the Locations screen and the Check Our Rates page fetch real-time content from tables that the bank or credit union maintain in FI Mobile’s advanced-content management system (admin tool).
TDECU has an active social network presence, so Facebook and Twitter integration facilitates more frequent views and comments.
The app also includes contact information, rates, and access to TDECU credit cards through gotomycard.com.
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Results
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According to Brad Clutter, Online Banking Product Manager at TDECU, in the first two months after the app’s launch in March, mobile subscribers grew 50% (their target was 10%) and the number of mobile transactions (balance inquiries, transfers, etc.) grew 30% compared to their existing WAP-only, mobile-banking program. He said, “We have been blown away by the results we’ve seen, and they have more than justified the cost.”
Thanks to FI Mobile’s analytics, TDECU can now see that their app is being used by members in all 50 states and in 16 different countries. They know that 84% are returning users and use of Android devices outnumbers Apple iOS nearly 2-to-1.
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Note:
1. UniFI is vendor agnostic and will launch the mobile banking program developed by any vendor. And if you don’t have one, FI Mobile will develop one.
Innovative. Inspiring. Fascinating.
Whatever your preferred descriptor, the scores of companies that have submitted applications to demo their latest and greatest at FinovateFall (September 20-21 in NYC) can live up to it.
They’re innovating in everything from biometric security to mobile apps to online lending to artificial intelligence to the “gamification” of financial education and much more. Right now, we’re sorting through the thick stack of applications to fill FinovateFall‘s two days with fintech’s best new ideas for your education and enjoyment.
Last year, the fall conference sold out weeks in advance so be sure to get your ticket now to lock in your seat (and the early-bird price) to see these exciting demos of new technology and connect with hundreds of leading financial executives, venture capitalists, industry analysts, reporters and technology entrepreneurs.
Register before midnight on Friday June 24th to save $200 off the list price and reserve your seat. We’ll see you in September!
FinovateFall 2011 is sponsored by: The Bancorp, Tier One Partners, and the law firm of CB&S.
FinovateFall 2011 is partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on Windows, PYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group, MyBankTracker.com, Mobile-Financial.com.
Innovative. Inspiring. Fascinating.
Whatever your preferred descriptor, the scores of companies that have submitted applications to demo their latest and greatest at FinovateFall (September 20-21 in NYC) can live up to it.
They’re innovating in everything from biometric security to mobile apps to online lending to artificial intelligence to the “gamification” of financial education and much more. Right now, we’re sorting through the thick stack of applications to fill FinovateFall‘s two days with fintech’s best new ideas for your education and enjoyment.
Last year, the fall conference sold out weeks in advance so be sure to get your ticket now to lock in your seat (and the early-bird price) to see these exciting demos of new technology and connect with hundreds of leading financial executives, venture capitalists, industry analysts, reporters and technology entrepreneurs.
Register before midnight on Friday, June 24th, to save $200 off the list price and reserve your seat. We’ll see you in September!
FinovateFall 2011 is sponsored by: The Bancorp, Tier One Partners, and the law firm of CB&S.
FinovateFall 2011 is partners with: BankInnovation.net, BankerStuff, CardWeb, Filene Research Institute, Finance on Windows, PYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group, MyBankTracker.com, Mobile-Financial.com.
Yet-to-be-launched BankSimple scored more great press this month with a tease on the cover of the July/August issue of Fast Company:
The Zappos of Finance
The one-page profile in the magazine’s Next column (p. 32) is titled:
A Bank that Doesn’t Suck
For Netbanker readers, the article mostly covered familiar ground. However, there were two huge reveals near the end that I almost missed; two banks the startup is working with to power its services:
BankSimple has a wait-list of 50,000 for beta invites. According to the article, 12,000 of those will be allowed in by year-end before its general-public launch in 2012.
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Notes:
1. The Bancorp is a Finovate sponsor
2. It took 119 years for the bank to get to $6 million in deposits for a net growth of $50,000 per year. They’ll get that much in the first 10 minutes after BankSimple opens its doors.
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:
Bottom line: Prepaid bankcards are about to become much more popular. Here’s why:
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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:
Short-term losers:
Long-term unchanged:
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 Windows, PYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group, Mobile-Financial.com and TheStartup.eu
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 Windows, PYMNTS.com, Mercator Advisory Group, Mobile-Financial.com and TheStartup.eu
eWise
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.