Blog - Page 1156 of 1198

Mortgagebot Offers Custom Mortgage Rates Widget

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 26, 2006
Categories: Bank 2.0, Desktop Presence, Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity, Mortgagebot

Mortgagebot LLC, the online mortgage spinoff from M&I, has introduced an online widget for its clients (see Fairwinds CU version inset). The widget allows users to keep current mortgage rates visible on their desktop.

Typically, it would appeal primarily to someone currently in the market for a mortgage or refi where an 1/8 difference in rate can add up to thousands over the life of the loan.

So far, seven of Mortgagebot's 600 clients have posted the widget at Yahoo's widget center; however, many more offer the service through their websites.

The first widget posted on Yahoo was uploaded Aug. 28 for Northwest Savings Bank and has been downloaded 711 times. In total, the Mortgagebot widget has been downloaded 2,200 times.

Northwest Savings Bank (national), 711 downloads since Aug. 28
Fairwinds Credit Union (Florida), 215 downloads since Sept. 27
Vista Federal Credit Union (California), 330 downloads since Sept. 27
Gateway Community Bank (Iowa, Nebraska), 275 downloads since Oct. 2
Northwest Bank (national), 351 downloads
since Oct. 3
Macon Bank (North Carolina), 216 downloads
since Oct. 12
Riverside Bank of Florida, 127 downloads
since Oct. 12

For more information on creating a desktop presence, read Online Banking Report #85, Grabbing Desktop Mindshare. Also see our previous coverage here.

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FFIEC Multi-Factor Scorecard: 30 Banks and Credit Unions Disclose Security Solutions

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 26, 2006
Categories: Security & Privacy

There seems to be a new announcement every day about a bank or credit union intent on stalling this or that security solution to comply with the FFIEC's year-end guidelines (see previous coverage here).

However, if you drill-down through the press releases, usually initiated by vendors, details are sketchy. In fact, according to the Glenbrook Partners in-house security wizard, Linda Elliot, only 26 U.S. financial institutions have disclosed specific security solutions from a total of 13 vendors. Her most recent scorecard, as published in the consulting company's Payments News, is here.

We added another three credit unions to bring the total to 29:

Banks (22)

American Bank (RSA)
AMSouth Bank (vendor not disclosed)
Associated Bancorp (Corillian)
Bank of America (RSA/Passmark) our post
Barclay’s (RSA)
Citibank (Consumer: Entrust; Business: VASCO DigiPass)
E*Trade (RSA SecurID)
Farmer's and Merchant's Bank of Long Beach (RSA/Passmark)
Frost Bank (RSA/Passmark)
ING Direct (RSA)
M&T Bank (Corillian, Cydelity)
Nevada State Bank (RSA/Passmark)
North Fork Bank / All Points Capital (Arcot)
Northern Trust (Verisign)
Silicon Valley Bank (Bharosa)
Stonebridge Bank (RSA)
The Bankers Bank (Digital Persona)
United Bankers' Bank (Digital Persona)
U.S. Bank (Entrust)
Washington Mutual (RSA)
Wells Fargo (Bharosa, Quova, Actimize, RSA SecureID,
Symantec)
Zions Bank (RSA/Passmark) our post

Credit Unions (7)

Automotive Federal Credit Union (BioPassword)
North Island Credit Union (RSA/Passmark) our post
Schools Financial Credit Union (RSA/Passmark)

our post

Desert Schools FCU (Bharosa)
FORUM Credit Union (BioPassword)
Parda Federal Credit Union (BioPassword)
Stanford Federal Credit Union (RSA/Passmark) our post

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Blog Sighting: Toronto Electrical Utilities Credit Union

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 24, 2006
Categories: Bank 2.0, Blogs

Toronto Electrical Utilities Credit Union <teucu.com>, the ninth North American financial institution blog, and third in Canada, debuted Aug. 15 at <teucu.ca/blog>. The other eight are listed here.

The CU has done a reasonably good job keeping the blog alive with 11 posts in its first two months. The posts have been all business, ranging from notice of an ATM service interruption to a discussion of loan options.

The CU allows comments, and so far 13 have been posted. None were particularly interesting, mostly "thanks for the info." That will change as users understand what blog comments are for (i.e., furthering the "conversation" or adding some informational value).

The blog runs on Google's free Blogger platform (see screenshot below). It's an OK start, but the CU should invest a few hundred dollars in upgrading the template as soon as possible.

TEUCU publicizes the blog in a prominent spot on its homepage (see inset).

Thanks to the guys at Trabian for the scoop.

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TrueCredit Email: "Credit is Scary"

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 24, 2006
Categories: Credit Reports & ID Theft Protection, Email Marketing, Email Samples

I'm a sucker for holiday-themed messages. There's something about a big, well-timed graphic that makes an email stand out from the crowd.

Here's the latest from TrueCredit, a prolific emailer to ex-customers such as myself. I usually hear from them every week or two.

Date: Tue 24 Oct 2006 9:27 AM
From: TrueCredit [truecredit@email.truecredit.com]
Subject: Autumn Special: James's 3 credit scores

Personalization used: My first name in the subject and message body

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South Carolina Federal Credit Union Fails to Simplify its Homepage

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 24, 2006
Categories: Website Usability & Design

It's not often that a press release leads directly to a Netbanker post, but here's an example. We received an announcement last week that South Carolina Federal Credit Union <scfederal.org> was launching a complete rebranding under the "life simplified" theme (press release here).

We eagerly headed to its homepage, expecting to find a site that did for banking what Google did for search. In other words, a website that instantly lays out the critical tasks for online banking customers.

What we found was good, and light years ahead of its old homepage (see End Notes below), but it was not revolutionary. The homepage design follows most best-practices including the left-hand log-in area, tabular main navigation, and site search and other utilities in the upper right.

The first navigation tab is Convenience. That's an unusual choice that could help the CU differentiate its member benefits. However, the laundry list of electronic and online banking features cited have been industry standards since 1997.

Website visitors are not going to walk away thinking "that credit union really saved me time." If anything, the homepage is somewhat cluttered with 80 hyperlinks, many in small type, plus another dozen or so in two lefthand, drop-down boxes. Five choices are simple (see Google above). Eighty are not.

The credit union missed a great chance to build a website that clearly directs users towards what they most want from their credit union: online access, customer service, and research.

Grades
Homepage design: A- (a bit cluttered)
Navigation: B (too many choices)
Homepage fit with "life simplified" branding effort: C-

End Notes (click on the link below to see the old homepage)

Previous homepage (from Google cache, Oct. 3)

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Prosper Launches Group Ratings, Schedules User Meeting

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 23, 2006
Categories: Conference Calendar, Loans & Credit, Prosper, Zopa

Person-to-person lender, Prosper, announced its first annual user meeting next February in San Francisco. Registration is a refundable $25 and includes an all-day session with dinner on Monday, Feb. 12, and a half-day on Tuesday, Feb. 13.

The agenda has not been published. Online signup is here.

The October newsletter (see End Notes for screenshot) also announced the arrival of the group ratings, an important milestone for the nine-month-old service. Group ratings promise to help lenders locate borrowers with better-than-expected likelihood of repayment. If it works, Prosper could become a major force in consumer lending. If it doesn't, the company will have to find another way to beat the loan default odds.

For more information:

For prior coverage of Prosper and its U.K. rival Zopa, look here.
For detailed analysis of the market, see Online Banking Report #127 published in March

End Notes (click on the link below to see Prosper's Oct. newsletters)

Banner advertising at About.com's banking blog <bank.about.com>

Landing page for direct navigation to <bankofamerica.com/nofeemortgage>

Landing page from bank's Google ad on "bank of america mortgage no fee"

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Bank of America’s Multimedia No-Fee Mortgage Promo Omits Key Search Term

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 20, 2006
Categories: Bank of America, Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity, Search Engine Marketing

When Bank of America launches a new product, you might as well try to ride on their coattails rather than fight it. One obscure loan-referral website is doing just that.

Bank of America's product-du-jour, at least in our Seattle market (UPDATE 10 Jan 2007: Confirmed as a market test in this article here), is a unique no-fee mortgage that comes with a built-in "refi" option. The refi feature allows users to lower their underlying mortgage annually if rates drop. It's a product that makes a ton of sense for today's savvy mortgage holders, who know when to hold 'em and also when to fold 'em into lower-rate loans.

The bank has been blitzing the market with branch, Web (see End Notes), and radio advertising for the product. Today's mid-day radio spot included a URL in the call to action, <bankofamerica.com/nofeemortgage>. Typing that URL directly into the browser leads to the correct Bank of America landing page (see screenshot in End Notes).

However, for a good portion of listeners that navigate with Google, typing "bank of america no fee mortgage" brought search results that did NOT include the bank as an advertiser although they were the second organic result listed (see screenshot below).

Google search results for "bank of america no fee mortgage"

Surprisingly, the top advertiser, YourQuoteOnline, was running an ad that was rather deceptive (see screenshot above). It fooled me into thinking it was a BofA ad.

A similar search for "Bank of America mortgage no fee" did bring up the bank's Google ad (see below), although it linked to a "$2,000 savings" landing page (see End Notes) instead of the no-fee promotional page. Evidently, Bank of America has not properly coded their search-word criteria to include the more obvious search term or to send searchers to the current no-fee campaign page. The bank is leaving money on the table by allowing some of the traffic generated by its advertising to be funneled off to other companies.

Google search results for "bank of america mortgage no fee"

End Notes (click continuation link for footnotes)

Banner advertising at About.com's banking blog <bank.about.com>

Landing page for direct navigation to <bankofamerica.com/nofeemortgage>

Landing page from bank's Google ad on "bank of america mortgage no fee"

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Billeo Scores Distribution Deal with Target REDcard

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 20, 2006
Categories: Bill payment, Billeo, Epayments

In a distribution deal similar to the Visa.com partnership launched earlier this year, Billeo is now powering biller-direct payments for Target's REDcard (see inset). See previous coverage here.

Billeo received an Online Banking Report Best of the Web award in 2005 for its innovative toolbar-based payment services (see 15 March 2005 post).

How it works
New users start by searching for credit-card-accepting billers via zipcode and company search (see screenshot below).

To schedule a payment and use the other tools, users must first register with Billeo. While the initial biller-search screen runs under Target branding, the sign-up page and subsequent user interfaces do not maintain any Target branding.

Previous Billeo users can skip the registration process and simply sign in to their previous Billeo account.

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Bank of America Adds 760,000 Users in Third Quarter

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 19, 2006
Categories: Bank of America, Epayments, Metrics & Market Research

Although growth has slowed, as it must when you have the penetration of Bank of America, the company still managed to add 760,000 active* online banking users and 430,000 active* bill pay users in the latest quarter. The bank's $15 enrollment bonus surely helped boost the total (see Aug. 11 post).

Excluding PayPal with 31 million active users (includes international accounts, see previous post), Bank of America continues to hold a large lead over the next largest U.S. online banking base, Wells Fargo's 8 million.

Although the bank posted an impressive 6.3 million gain year over year, about 4.5 to 5 million of that appears attributable to the MBNA acquisition (see chart below).

Bank of America Active* User Base
Qtr Online Banking Bill Pay
2006 (includes MBNA)
Q3….20.6 million 10.8 million
Q2….19.8 million 10.4 million
Q1….19.6 million 10.1 million

2005 (excludes MBNA)
Q4….14.7 million 7.3 million
Q3….14.3 million 7.0 million

*BofA defines Active as having used the service in the past 90 days.

On the bill-pay front, the bank processed $49 billion in payments for its users during the quarter, up $2.1 billion over the previous quarter (+4.5%). The average payment amount was $4,500 per active bill pay user, or $1,500 per month with 84% of the payments delivered to the payee in electronic form (ACH).

The bank also reported e-bill delivery volume of 21 million in the quarter from 370 billers.

Thanks to Scott Loftesness at Payments News for digging through the bank's 47-page earnings supplement for these gems (see pp. 18-19).

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Online Banking Report Releases its Annual Planning Issue

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 19, 2006
Categories: Business Planning, Online Banking Report, Strategies

Our sister publication, Online Banking Report, released its latest report, 2007 Online Banking Planning Guide. The 60-page report is packed with more than 1,000 ideas, tactics, and strategies for use by banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, credit card issuers, brokerages and insurance companies.

The report includes the following sections:

Consumer product planner
Small business product planner
Fee-income planner
Messaging planner

Online Banking Report subscribers may download the free report here. Others may purchase the report for US$495 here.

For more information, download the table of contents here.

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Is PayPal the Largest Bank in the World?

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 19, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized

Yes and no.

PayPal offers a full range of payment services that includes debit and credit cards, a savings account paying more than 5%, and loan options on major eBay purchases. Sounds pretty much like a bank, doesn't it?

But are they the biggest? According to eBay's earning release yesterday, PayPal ended the quarter with 123 million accounts, 36 million MORE than they had a year ago (41% growth). The new accounts alone would dwarf almost any financial services company in the world; for instance, American Express has 74 million accounts worldwide (as of June 30), up 7 million since a year earlier.

So yes, by number of accounts, PayPal is clearly the global leader in financial services. However, by most other measures, PayPal's size is more modest.

For example, unlike most financial companies, the majority of PayPal's accounts were inactive. During third quarter, less than a quarter of its accounts made a payment.

Those 31 million active accounts made an average of 5 transactions during the quarter, resulting in a total of 146 million payments worth $9.1 billion (an average of $62 per payment). Across the entire 123 million base, that amounts to just $73 in spending per account. In comparison, American Express cardmembers spent 15 times more, $141 billion in second quarter, an average of $1,900 per card.

In summary, PayPal is an enourmous financial services company, growing far faster than most rivals. But it's still a niche service for online purchasing, primarily at eBay. However, with more than 100 million accounts and one of the most widely recognized online brands, PayPal is in a position to compete with major banks around the globe.

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Zopa Emphasizes Community with New Homepage

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 18, 2006
Categories: Bank 2.0, Prosper, Zopa

Although you may have little interest in the niche market for person-to-person loans (previous coverage here), you should keep tabs on the websites of Zopa and Prosper to see how they build a community of borrowers and lenders.

The new Zopa homepage (see screenshot below) features several interesting community-involvement devices:

"I'd like to meet…" tool in upper left
Community factoid ticker running across the middle of the screen (see list of factoids below)
Community tab in primary navigation (top)

"I'd Like to Meet" tool
This tool, placed in one of the most-viewed areas of the homepage (upper left), allows users to find like borrowers and lenders. Using drop-down boxes, users may narrow their search to just borrowers in a single city, or those of a certain age or age range, and so on (see inset).

Unfortunately, we were unable to see the results since our search queries just showed an endless "search in progress" graphic image.

Community factoid ticker
Even though scrolling tickers are annoying, they do draw attention. Since Zopa must make prospective users comfortable with its novel service, it makes sense to be mildly annoying to get the point across that Zopa is a vibrant and fast-growing community. However, the 3-minute cycle time (before stopping) is too long; a 30-second scroll along with a link to more factoids would be better.

In our test at 7:00 PM London time Oct. 18, there were 17 items running across the screen in this order:

1,571 Johns have joined since we launched …
4,350 members have registered so far this month …
480 Zopa members have logged into their accounts today …
553 Sarahs have joined Zopa so far …
Adrian from HULL has just joined …
In the last hour, 8 new members joined …
Lorraine just offered 50 to Zopa borrowers …
Mark from OXFORD just had a loan reserved in the B market …
More members come from London than anywhere else …
The average age of a Zopa member is 36 …
The last member from the Isle of Wight to lend was Laurence …
The last person to join from Aberdeen was Clare …
The most common name amongst Zopa members is David …
There have been 4,875 requests for loan quotes in the last 24 hours …
Thomas recently paid in using their debit card …
We have 595 members from Leicester …
Yesterday, 251 new members signed up …

Community tab
The Community tab in the site's main navigation leads to a page jammed with more community-building features and tools including (see screenshot below):

Company blog
Member discussion board
Finance news as gathered by "Zopa and friends"
Zopa newsletter
Member story (monthly feature)

Summary
A good effort by the person-to-person lending pioneer. We look forward to the company's U.S. launch while passing along our regrets to the recent passing of its founder Richard Duvall (memorialized in this Oct. 17 Zopa blog entry).

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