Live Safe and Prosper: The Themes of FinovateAsia 2016

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2016
Let there be no doubt as to trends driving fintech innovation. Providing greater security and encouraging better financial health—if not prosperity—are among the major organizing principles for fintech innovators around the world. And this is especially true for those CEOs bringing their teams to demo at FinovateAsia 2016 next week. There's still time to pick up your ticket. Join us in Hong Kong, on 8 November for our day-long exploration of tomorrow's financial technology today. See live demonstrations of next-generation biometric authentication solutions, and aggregation tools that bring better data to bear on everything from e-commerce and credit decisioning to investment planning and wealth management. After demos are done, we've set aside time to make it easy to meet and network with our presenting companies, your fellow attendees, and other industry professionals. FinovateAsia 2016 will feature 35 companies on stage at PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong. Learn more…

Read more →

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Algomi, Avoka, Boku, Fiserv, Overbond, Thomson Reuters, Yoyo
On Finovate.com Live Safe and Prosper: The Themes of FinovateAsia 2016 Around the web Algomi partners with Euronext to develop corporate bond trading network. Fiserv adds SAS endpoint protection from CrowdStrike to its cyber security suite. Top U.K. mobile wallet Yoyo picked by Caffé Nero for its mobile payment and loyalty rewards program. Avoka unveils new analytics module, Transact Insights, to support digital account opening. New partnership with Swisscom enables Boku to provide carrier biting for users of Spotify. Overbond integrates fixed-income market-data from Thomson Reuters. This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Read more →

US Bank’s Way-Too-Long Customer Survey

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Metrics & Market Research, US Bank
A few months ago I received an email (above) from US Bank where I'm a long, long-time customer. It was a simple request for my opinion on the bank's products and services. I was slightly put off by the wordy intro, which concluded with a 31-word sentence telling me how important my opinion was. But that's just the editor in me. As I was about to press the Begin Survey button, I noticed that I was about to enter a 25-minute questionnaire hell. That was all I needed to know, I left it undone and went on to other things. Twenty-five minutes! That's just too long for any normal customer. Ideally, keep online surveys to 5 minutes at most or you risk losing the attention and thoughtful answers of your respondents. If you really need a half-hour of your customers' time, provide some type of thank-you gift, even if it's…

Read more →

FinDEVr Flashbacks: Full Presentation Videos Now Live

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: 1787fp, Alloy, FinDEVr 2016 Silicon Valley, IBM, Lleida.net, MX, OCR Labs, WiseBanyan
It's FinDEVr Silicon Valley like you've never seen it before—on video! If you missed out on last month's conference and want to catch the latest in fintech developer trends, or if you just want to re-live the moments from the show, you're in luck. All of the presentation videos from the conference are available for free on FinDEVr.com. Not sure where to start? Take a peek at these award-winning companies: Tuesday crowd favorite: MX https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/hw0d7cgo71 Wednesday crowd favorite: OCR Labs   https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/9lvl2gcv90 Media favorite: 1787fp https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/mrgdjy1eii   Favorite alum: Lleida.net https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/7czixwworr Favorite debut: WiseBanyan https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/azeph9q4ag Favorite established company: IBM https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/neerlm3mo4 Favorite startup: Alloy https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/u0s9cmd4va   We'll see you next year or at FinDEVr New York on March 21 & 22, 2017!

Read more →

Strategic Insight Buys BrightScope for Reported $35+ Million

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BrightScope, Mergers & Acquisitions
Financial information and technology company BrightScope, one of our earliest alums, has been acquired by data and business intelligence provider, Strategic Insight. Terms of the deal were not immediately available. But RIABiz reports that the acquisition was financed by Genstar Capital and notes "outside sources peg the deal at $35 to $40 million." Commenting on the news, Strategic Insight CEO Joel Mandelbaum said, "BrightScope is well known for its unique retirement data and its technology innovation. We are excited by the opportunity to add retirement data to our portfolio and accelerate our commitment to the asset-management industry." The acquisition comes in the wake of a pair of other recent pickups for Strategic Insight, Market Metrics and Matrix Solutions. Both deals were designed to add to the company's access to investment data and to be able to get that data to its clients efficiently and quickly. Interestingly, BrightScope's attempt to acquire…

Read more →

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, CardFlight, Fiserv, iSignthis, Ixaris, Thomson Reuters
On Finovate.com FinDEVr Flashbacks: Full Presentation Videos Now Live Around the web ACI Worldwide teams up with Turkish Bank U.K. to connect to the U.K. Faster Payments system. CardFlight partners with Security Card Services to provide SwipeSimple to SCS merchants. Digital KYC service from iSignthis to automatically verify key controllers with Ixaris. Thomson Reuters unveils cloud-based audit solution, Checkpoint Engage. Jim Grech appointed as new Chief Information Officer at Fiserv. This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Read more →

Is Money the OS for Living?

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Strategic Planning
Since the day I started writing about financial services 21 years ago (yikes), people have asked me if I'm running out of things to write about. Most people can't imagine how you'd write four paragraphs on banking innovations, let alone 40,000. But running low on ideas is the least of my concerns. The underlying topic, money, is massive and ever-changing with new technology, regulations, and consumer tastes. Money impacts us every single day. And for most people, it's an almost 24/7 pursuit, and defines what they do all day, where they live, who their friends are, how they spend their leisure time, how happy they are (up to $75k annually in the USA anyway), and even how long they live. So if you are in the business of managing money, be it storing it, spending it, maximizing it, or protecting it, you have a vital role. It's not a perfect…

Read more →

From Advisers to VPs: A Profile of FinovateAsia Attendees

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2016
Coming to FinovateAsia in Hong Kong next week? On 8 November at PMQ, a range of fintech companies will show off their latest technologies. Tickets are still available so register today. We'll host 35 companies as they step up to the stage to show off the hottest trends to the fintech elite, an audience that consists of high-profile representatives ranging from C-level executives and engineers, to analysts, and business developers. Here's who you can expect to see:   For more information on what to expect at next week's show, check out sneak peeks from the 35 presenters. Questions? Visit the FAQ section on the website or email [email protected]. We'll see you in Hong Kong! FinovateAsia 2016 is sponsored by: DBS Bank (Hong Kong), InvestHK/Hong Kong Fintech Week, and KPMG. FinovateAsia 2016 is partners with: Aite Group, The Asian Banker, BankersHub, Banking Technology, BeFast.tv, Big Data Made Simple, Byte Academy, Celent,…

Read more →

Brad Garlinghouse Appointed CEO of Ripple

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ripple
Enterprise blockchain solutions provider Ripple has announced a change in command this week. Renowned serial entrepreneur Chris Larsen will transition from CEO to chairman of the board and Brad Garlinghouse will segue from COO to CEO on January 1, 2017. Garlinghouse (pictured) has served as the company's president and COO for a year-and-a-half, where he led more than 3.5x growth in customer adoption. Prior to that he worked as CEO of Hightail, where he doubled the company's revenue. Garlinghouse has also held positions at Yahoo! and AOL. In a press release announcing the change, Garlinghouse notes his plans to pick up where Larsen leaves off, saying, "I look forward to continuing to work with Chris and the board to set the strategic direction of the company." What's next for Larsen? In an interview with PaymentsSource he said, "This has now been 20 years, I’ve got two young boys, I want…

Read more →

FICO Teams Up with EFL Global as Part of Financial Inclusion Initiative

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, FICO
One of the joys of being a part of fintech is watching companies with long and distinguished pedigrees find new ways to put their tried and true solutions to use. The recently announced partnership of 50-year old FICO partnering with 10-year old psychometric scoring specialist EFL Global—to promote financial inclusion outside the United States—is another example of this trend. Specifically, the partnership will enable FICO clients to use the analytic credit-scoring technology developed by EFL Global. Added to FICO's own credit-scoring products, the solutions—available initially in three countries: Turkey, Mexico, and Russia—will provide another way for lenders to reach members of underbanked communities. EVP of Scores at FICO Jim Wehmann praised EFL's years of experience working with thin-file consumers and SMEs with little or no credit histories in 30 countries. "Combining this with FICO's credit-scoring expertise and market reach takes us another step closer to helping people [live] better lives,"…

Read more →

Fintech Trending: Australia and the Road to Fintech in Asia

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Fintech Trending, Full Profile, identitii, iSignthis, KlickEx, Sandstone, SocietyOne, SuiteBox, VIX Verify, Welcomer, White Label Personal Clouds, Xero
FinovateAsia 2016 is right around the corner. Be sure to visit our registration page and pick up your tickets today. We look forward to seeing you next week, 8 November, as Finovate returns to Asia. When we talk about financial technology in Asia, we typically turn to places like Singapore, widely regarded to be the fintech "hub" of the region, or to Japan, with its advanced consumer economy (and increased participation in fintech events in the West, like Finovate and FinDEVr, or to China which was recognized by H2 Ventures and KPMG in their 2016 Fintech 100 report as follows: China now tops the global ranks—swithin three years, China's fintech ventures have gone from only one company included in the top Established 50 rankings in 2014, to this year China featuring four of the top five companies and eight of the top 50. This includes Ant Financial, formerly known as…

Read more →