WaMu’s New P2P Funds Transfer Service, WaMu Send Direct

image When’s the last time you Googled something and found nothing? Evidently WaMu’s innovative P2P funds transfer service got lost in all the “excitement” this year and word never got out.

Luckily, I was seated beside Aliaswire (see note 1) SVP Keith Smith at dinner in Orlando two weeks ago. His company powers WaMu Send Direct, a service for P2P payments service for WaMu credit card holders, launched earlier this year at <wamusenddirect.com>.

WaMu Send Direct uses a variety of methods to transfer funds with as little hassle or with as much privacy as desired (see note 2). Cost to the sender is 2% of the amount sent with a $2 minimum. Recipients pay nothing.

This makes for a good pricing model for such things as parents sending money to a child, but not so good for consumer-to-business payments, UNLESS the consumer can avoid a late payment and/or finance charge (aka, expedited payments).

In addition to the 2% fee, the amount sent is posted to the WaMu credit card as a purchase and is subject to the prevailing APR and presumably an interest-free grace period if applicable (see note 3).  

Transfers all come out of a WaMu credit card, but they can go to the recipient in any of the following ways:

  • Directly to a checking/savings account if the sender has the bank account info of the recipient
  • Directly to a debit card, ATM card, or credit card if the sender has the recipient’s card number
  • To the recipient’s phone or email address, requiring the recipient to call or log in at WaMu to claim the funds by providing bank account info; however, on subsequent transfers the recipient would not be required to contact WaMu so long as they signed up for Automatic Claim

Transfers can be initiated via:

  • Website <wamusenddirect.com>
  • SMS message to specific short code
  • Telephone call to a toll-free number

It’s a cool service. It will be interesting to see if Chase continues the service as they assimilate the WaMu credit card portfolio. 

WaMu Send Direct Homepage (5 Dec 2008)

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Note the text message box at the bottom offering to text a bookmark to the user. 


Notes
:
1. The name comes from the ability for a user to transfer funds (aka “wire”) to other users via “alias”, e.g., email address or mobile phone number.

2. Despite my longstanding policy of avoiding flow charts in NetBanker, here’s a schematic of how Aliaswire’s mPay works. mPay is the service that WaMu has private-branded as WaMu Send Direct

image 

3. The Terms & Conditions states that the payment is considered a “purchase,” which sounds like it would qualify for an interest-free grace period on accounts not currently revolving; however, the terms did not specifically say that.

ZimpleMoney Launches Peer-to-Peer Loan Platform to Power Social Finance

image Start-up activity in the financial technology sector has slowed dramatically since Sept./October when a dozen online finance startups launched (see previous post), not a surprising development given economic conditions and the time of year. 

Still, a number of companies remain in the pipeline, and yesterday we saw the launch of an entrant into the battered P2P lending space. But ZimpleMoney is not entering into the newly SEC-regulated market occupied by Prosper, Lending Club, Loanio and other hopefuls. Instead, the Costa Mesa, CA-based startup is offering a platform with tools so that third parties can either build lending services on top of it, or use ZimpleMoney’s processing capabilities to manage loans and financial transactions.

ZimpleMoney can also be used like Virgin Money USA or LoanBack to handle a single loan amongst friends and family, either for personal or business use. The introductory price for an individual loan is $39 plus $7.99/mo.  

The site, which opened Monday, still looks more like a beta operation. The registration system wasn’t fully functional yesterday, and I ran into several broken links today. But minor annoyances aside, it’s an interesting development that should help drive social finance forward.

Given Prosper’s recent woes, we are not likely to see new Prosper-like P2P exchanges using the ZimpleMoney platform any time soon. But it could be a good way for nonprofits, foundations, or microfinance organizations to launch Web-based loan operations with a minimal amount of development time and expense. Banks, credit unions, and other financial services companies could also private-label the service for their clients.

In his announcement email Monday, CEO (aka ZEO) Steven Rabago said they’d had interest from several nonprofits, a realty company, an investment management company, a student lender, and a large regional bank. Rabago started his career as a commercial banker at Bank of America. He left in 1983 to start National Corporate Finance (now called Archarios). In 2001, he co-founded a location-based services company Telogis, where he remains as a board member.

ZimpleMoney homepage (9 Dec 2008)

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Note: For more info on the market, see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending.

Bank of America Sponsoring Popular iPhone Tip Calculator CheckPlease

image Like much of the Internet, many free iPhone apps have embedded advertising as their revenue model. The most popular tip calculator, and third-most-popular app in the finance category, CheckPlease, added advertising across the top of its calculator in its version 3.3 release (Nov. 12).

The current sponsor? Bank of America mobile banking, which has the second-most-popular finance app in the iPhone App Store. The advertising is handled by Mobclix, an advertising network focused on the iPhone and Android markets that debuted at TechCrunch50 in September. In a half-dozen visits, I’ve seen only the BofA ad. But the developer, Hardy Macia, says he’s seen several movies advertised on the app. 

Clicking on the BofA ad (first screenshot) takes users to the BofA landing page (second screenshot on right) hosted within the App Store environment, i.e., the pages are not displayed within the normal Safari environment. The only navigation options are:

  • Learn more (see 3rd screenshot)
  • Download (see 4th screenshot)
  • Visit bofa.mobi
  • Close (the X in the lower-right) which takes you back to the CheckPlease app

CheckPlease is a product of Catamount Software which has developed mobile personal finance software since 1994, when it launched PocketMoney for the Apple Newton. PocketMoney is now available for the Palm and iPhone. The company just added an ad-free version of CheckPlease for $0.99.

The free CheckPlease iPhone app has been downloaded more than 200,000 times according to its developer and owner of Catamount Software, Hardy Macia.

      CheckPlease iPhone App                       BofA landing page

  photo (2)          photo 

          Learn More page                                 Download page (note 1)

  photo (3)         photo (4)

Note:
1. Surprisingly, the buttons on this page are not clickable. To download the BofA app, iPhone users must close this screen and open the App Store button on the home screen(s) of their iPhone.

Schwab Takes Over Tully’s WiFi Landing Page

image I go online at a Tully’s coffee shop every few weeks, but I don’t recall ever being pitched something outside the usual Costa Rican blend when logging in to its free Internet connection.

But today, Charles Schwab owned the Tully’s landing page, with three banners running across the page touting its High Yield Investor Checking among other things (see below). The two on the right have financial questions that, when clicked, take the user to an article on the Schwab.com site (see last screenshot).

The banner lower-left is more interesting. Little squares scroll across the banner in a very Web 2.0 way and, when clicked, additional info is delivered directly within the banner. Users stay on the Tully’s page unless they click the Open an Account Today button.

The three scrolling graphics include:

  • ATM fee graphic leads to an ATM calculator (see below)
  • The High Yield Investor Checking graphic (not shown) leads to a description of that product
  • The map leads to a short animated audio visual piece promoting ATM access and the High Yield account

Comment: This type of grassroots marketing can be done by financial institutions of all sizes. Just find a local coffee shop or cafe and see if they’d like a little cash to subsidize that bandwidth each month.

Schwab banner ads on Tully’s landing page displayed after logging in to free WiFi at a coffee shop (Seattle, 3 PM, Friday, 5 Dec 2008)

image

imageClicking on How much do ATM fees cost you? in the banner above opens the following tool in the window. >>>

Users can move to the slider to calculate the cost of a foreign ATM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schwab landing page after clicking on question in right-hand banners
(link, 5 Dec 2008)

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Out of the Inbox: Virgin Money’s Thanksgiving Fundraiser "Pass the Thanks"

image While the SmartMoney example below is simple and inexpensive, it won’t win any marketing awards or new customers. Virgin Money USA, on the other hand, could do both with its clever Thanksgiving email (sent the Friday before) to registered users (see below).

The message from Virgin has a dual purpose:

  1. Holiday well wishes if you simply read the header or glance at the message
  2. Viral fundraiser and user-generated content device if you follow the link labeled, click the sauce to pass the thanks

Sauce clickers are sent to a landing page (see second screenshot below) that encourages them to send their own Thanksgiving greeting to friends. The greeting includes a short message superimposed on an uploaded picture. The company donates $1 to Give a Drop for every message sent and posted 200 of the well wishes on a Picasa Web-album page (here) which are streamed back to the original microsite (second screenshot).

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Virgin production without an irreverent component. Users can choose whether their cranberry sauce is canned (pictured) or homemade.

The Pass the Thanks campaign was also featured on the company’s homepage during the Thanksgiving time period (see third screenshot below).

Grade: A+ for simultaneously engaging customers, doing good, and creating a viral marketing message

Virgin Money USA Thanksgiving email message (21 Nov 2008)

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Virgin Money USA Thanksgiving landing page (link, 2 Dec 2008)

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Virgin Money USA homepage (2 Dec 2008)

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Note:
1. For more on Virgin Money and peer-to-peer lending, see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending

Out of the Inbox: SmartMoney Uses Simple 3-Question Survey to Engage Customers and Solicit Feedback

image Engaging users doesn’t have to to be a long and drawn-out process with multiple passes through legal and compliance to ensure you won’t end up on the 10-most-wanted list at the OCC.

All you have to do is ask customers a question now and then to show that you are genuinely listening. And with low-cost web-based surveys, the cost to conduct a short survey among your own customers is minimal.

Some sample questions:

  • What should we write about in our next newsletter/blog/website?
    (provide list of ideas plus write-in area)
  • Which offer should we put on our homepage?
    (similar to the SmartMoney example below)
  • Where should we locate our new ATM? (with list of choices)
  • How would you rate your recent experience with our call center?
    (sent shortly after a customer talks to a CSR)
  • How would you like to retrieve your balance on your cellphone (via text message, via mobile browser, via voice)

In a real-world example today, SmartMoney Magazine sent me an email (see below) requesting that I complete its “cover survey” which would take “no more than a minute.” The Survey Monkey-powered survey was indeed just 3 questions and took only seconds to complete. There was no marketing (see note 1), no cross sales, and I was left with a better impression of the magazine. Besides a satisfied customer, SmartMoney gains valuable editorial feedback.

image

Note:
1. After completing the survey I was dropped on to the SmartMoney homepage increasing its pageviews and unique visitor totals for December.

2. Photo credit (via flickr): Ryan McFarland at www.zieak.com.

Prosper Pays $1 million to States to Settle Securities Complaint; Nightmare Not Over Yet

image No one said it would be easy trying to disrupt a multi-trillion dollar industry. Prosper’s latest blow is the cool $1 million it spent to settle what could have been a legal black hole, individual states suing it for securities law violations. Here’s today’s press release from the NASAA announcing the settlement.

With state securities regulators off its back, Prosper now has two of its three problems settled. Last week it announced a settlement with the SEC (here). Terms were not disclosed.

But there is one major hurdle remaining: potential claims from lenders wanting their money back. Attorney Broox Peterson commented on Prosper’s potential legal liability yesterday (here):

Sale of a security that has not been registered under Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933 gives rise to a private right of action under Section 12(a)1 of that Act.  The remedy that can be enforced with this private right of action is rescission of the sale of the unregistered security.  In practical terms this means that investors in unregistered Prosper notes that were ultimately uncollectible can get their money back.

If a significant portion of the lenders, who hold an estimated $30+ million in bad debt, successfully sue Prosper for a refund on the grounds they were sold an unregistered security, it could be very expensive for the company. At least one class action suit has been filed against Prosper (The Rosen Law Firm suit filed Nov. 26 ).  

Comment: Ultimately, I think the U.S. peer-to-peer lending industry will recover from these legal setbacks. However, the regulatory situation has put a damper on innovation, reduced competition (see note 1), and caused a significant reduction in credit available to consumers via P2P exchanges (see note 2).

Court cases aside, the bigger issue is whether P2P loan losses can be kept to a level that provides a reasonable rate of return for lenders. The jury is still out on that (see note 3).

Notes:
1. Zopa has now admitted that the reason it did not open a fully peer-to-peer loan market in the U.S. was because it expected this regulatory treatment (post here).

We always took the view that the SEC would likely view our platform, as operated in the UK and Italy, as requiring registration with them. That’s the key reason why we didn’t launch our UK model in the US…

2. P2P lender Lending Club, which reopened Oct. 14, is fully SEC compliant and open for business. Prosper and Loanio remain shuttered until the SEC filing process is completed sometime in 2009.

3. For more info on the market see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending.

Best of the Web: Zions Bank’s Holiday Gift Planner Wraps Personal Finance into a Neat Package

imageAs I was publishing my earlier post on the Thanksgiving message on the Zions Bank homepage, I noticed a small Holiday Gift Planner banner in the lower left corner (see inset below). Expecting to find a pitch for Visa or MasterCard gift cards, I clicked on it and was surprised to find a very cool holiday microsite called at MyHolidayGiftPlanners.com (see screenshot 1 below and note 1).

imageThe gift planner is a personal financial management tool for planning, budgeting, and tracking holiday gift expenditures. Users create a gift list for each person by entering a budget amount per person, an estimated cost for each planned gift, and then later the actual amount spent.

The tool does all the math, tracking progress against each recipients’ gift list and how the total holiday budget is faring (see screenshot 2). It even includes a space for capturing gift-buying notes (see below). This year’s list will be archived to provide a handy reference for next year. Hopefully, the bank will use email to draw users back next year.

image

Consumers could do the same thing on a spreadsheet or within most personal finance programs. However, Zions has built an elegant solution that is faster and more convenient. I’ve always done this for my kids on a piece of paper which I inevitably lose and/or leave out on the table where anyone can read it. I look forward to keeping this list bookmarked and password-protected on my computer this year. 

Anyone can use the program, you needn’t be a Zions customers. It takes seconds to sign up inputting name, email address and password (see screenshot 3). The site gently cross sells credit cards to pay for itself. There’s a banner that runs across the top of the planning page (screenshot 2) and a link to special cardholder discounts on the main page (screenshot 4).

Zions should turn the planner into an iPhone/Android app to help users track gift purchases on the go and avoid the need to print the list prior to the trip to the mall.

obr_bestofweb Bottom line: The Zions gift planner is a great example of how to creatively use branded financial management tools to both help customers and create synergy with banking products. We’re giving Zions our sixth OBR Best of the Web 2008 award for creating a simple solution to help customers avoid holiday overspending, a pesky personal finance issue that is top-of-mind this year. 

 

1. Homepage of Zions Bank’s gift planner (28 Nov 2008)

image

2. A credit card cross sell runs across the top of my personalized gift planner

image

3. Email address is captured for future marketing purposes

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4. Credit card discounts are displayed along with an credit card application

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Note:

1. Evidently the planner was available in early December last year. The first blog mention was 7 Dec 2007.

Loanio Shuts Down (updated with statement from Loanio)

image It’s 3 for 3 now. All major P2P U.S. peer-to-peer lenders have been shut down this year by the SEC (see note 1). First Lending Club in March, then Prosper Oct. 15, and finally Loanio this week (see note 1).

Here is the statement I received from Loanio founder Michael Solomon this afternoon:

In light of the recent cease-and-desist ruling issued to Prosper Marketplace by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Loanio voluntarily suspended its operations. We were not contacted by the SEC or any other government agency. The SEC ruling on Prosper, combined with the recent registration of Lending Club, removes all ambiguities as to the Commission’s legal interpretation on the issue of whether P2P promissory notes, in all of their varieties, are considered securities under current law.

Regulators have concluded that loans created in these networks are, in fact, securities and must be registered as such. You can read the SEC’s logic in its Prosper filing published this week (here).

I have mixed feelings. While I applaud regulators for taking the initiative to understand this new way of lending/investing, I find it a bit ironic that a $100-million self-regulating and relatively transparent marketplace receives heavy-handed treatment while multi-trillion dollar financial products grew relatively unchecked in recent years (see my prior editorial on the matter).

The good news is that Lending Club has proven that SEC registration need not be a death sentence. The startup successfully completed the registration process after six months, relaunching at our Finovate event Oct. 14. The company has funded $2.6 million in loans since reopening.

We are hopeful that Prosper, which has $40 million in venture funding, will be back in business in early first quarter. Angel-funded Loanio may need to raise money to finance the registration process.

image

Notes:
1. Last month (here), the Loanio founder predicted that at some point he’d also need to register with the SEC.

2. Fynanz and GreenNote, the P2P student loan lenders, appear to still be accepting lender funds.

Highlights from BAI Retail Delivery 2008

image BAI’s Retail Delivery Conference is an annual rite for bank tech geeks from around the world. Although attendance was down 20% or so from last year, causing some grousing on the trade-show floor, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here’s my personal list of highlights from the show (see note 1). 

The Netbanker awards:

  • Most audacious business plan: Alt-payment startups Moneta and sister company Acculynk which are looking to disrupt online payments at the point of sale
  • Most likely to succeed: mobile anything 
  • Biggest “wow” factor: Cardless ATMs by Wincor Nixdorf  
  • Best demo of something that actually exists: Bank of Montreal’s demo of its new branch locator using Microsoft Virtual Earth (shown at the Microsoft’s booth)
  • Coolest solution looking for a problem: Microsoft Surface
  • Product most likely to be used in our company: Bankserv remote deposit integrated with QuickBooks 
  • Product least likely to be used in our company: Wii banking from Wincor Nixdorf (but it’s very cool)
  • Best presentation: Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Growing Up Digital 
  • Best buzzword comeback: Push banking (mobile apps, widgets, alerts)
  • Best trade floor freebie: Free espresso from ClairMail 
  • Best financial screenshot during a keynote: PayPal CEO Scott Thompson showed PayPal Mobile from Chase Bank, a pilot program running on several college campuses (Ohio State), where Paypal Mobile is bundled with banking services from Chase Bank
  • Worst financial screenshot during a keynote: Don Tapscott used Zopa USA as an example of a promising new Web 2.0 financial company (Zopa pulled out of the U.S. market last month)
  • Biggest jinx: Second Curve Capital CEO Tom Brown, who Tuesday afternoon explained why he is so bullish on bank stocks; the NASDAQ bank stock index proceeded to drop 200 points (10%) over the next two days (note 2)
  • Most amazing stat: In his keynote, CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann said ING Direct (USA) had originated more than 100,000 mortgages worth $36 billion, and initiated foreclosures only 15 times
  • Best time: Dinner with Trey Reeme and the gang from TDECU who are not only some of the nicest people you could ever meet, but also provided absolutely stimulating conversation and some great laughs

image Best of show: Drum roll please. After dozens of amazing conversations over three days, the company that most intrigued me is alt-payments startup Moneta (note 3). 

Notes:
1. I visited with only a couple dozen of the 300 or so companies in Orlando, so comments here are not meant to be an overview, just the highlights of my experience. As usual, I spent most of my time looking for new ideas and ended up spending half my time talking to mobile providers.
2. To his credit, Mr. Brown did not say bank stocks had bottomed; in fact, he said they could very well go lower. But by this time next year, he expects a substantial turnaround. It was a great presentation.
3. Moneta didn’t have a booth, but board member and investor Ashish Bahl was in attendance and briefed me on his firm. We’ll provide more details on the company later. 

Wells Fargo is Second Online Personal Finance Provider to Join the 1-million Club

imageIn April, we reported on the robust adoption of Bank of America's online personal finance manager, My Portfolio (see note 1), used by 10% of the bank's 25 million online bankers. The results are especially impressive given that it's a full-featured module accessible via online banking, but not particularly well integrated.

imageIn comparison, Wells Fargo offers a completely integrated PFM tool, My Spending Report, that's extremely simple to use, but offers limited functionality. On Oct. 29, the bank made an important improvement, adding a basic budgeting tool, Budget Watch, to what had been essentially a list of transactions divided by category.

The bank told me last week they have 1 million monthly users, making it the second online PFM provider to break the 1-million mark (after BofA). Wells has about 15% of its online banking base (note 2) using the tool, a slightly higher penetration than BofA. Again, not surprising considering how well it is integrated. The budget tools should boost penetration.

Who'll be the next one to join the 1-million club? Mint, with about 500,000 users in its first 15 months in business, is headed that way, possibly as early as late next year.  Chase/WaMu could get there in a few weeks, if they added online personal finance to their feature set. Quicken Online, now that it's free, should get there relatively quickly as well.

Note:
1. BofA's My Portfolio is powered by Yodlee.

2. Excluding Wachovia accounts.