Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AcceptEmail, Betterment, Fidor Bank, Klarna, MX, Nous.net, On Deck Capital, Ripple, TIO Networks, TSYS, WePay, Zopa

On Finovate.com

  • “Four Finovate Alums Land on Inc. Magazine Top 100″

Around the web

  • Check out Utah Business’s video interview of Ryan Caldwell, MX CEO, honored as one of Utah’s Fast 50. Come see what MX has for developers at FinDEVr this October.
  • Silicon Republic names WePay, Betterment, and OnDeck as companies to follow on Twitter.
  • Pymnts examines how Ripple Labs’ partnership with Earthport enables payments between global trading partners in real time.
  • TSYS hires Patricia Watson as Senior EVP and CIO.
  • Finovate, FinDEVr alums make Let’s Talk Payments’ list of payment companies raising money in 2015.
  • Waters Technology looks at the use of sentiment analysis by investment-oriented startups like Nous and Market Prophet.
  • BankNXT profiles the partnership between two disruptive businesses, Uber and Zopa.
  • Klarna valued at more than $2.25 billion after secondary offering.
  • Fidor Bank CEO Matthias Kroner calls bitcoin a “natural part of the digital lifestyle.”
  • TIO Networks initiates a non-brokered private placement of up to 2.1 million Common Shares priced at $1.08 CAD per share.
  • AcceptEmail names Ron Averett as president and CEO for U.S.A. and Canada.

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.

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Four Finovate Alums Land on Inc. Magazine Top 100

Four Finovate Alums Land on Inc. Magazine Top 100
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Cardlytics, Kabbage, Prosper, WePay

Inccollage

Last week, Inc. Magazine published its annual ranking of private American companies based on 3-year revenue growth.

Four out of the top 100 companies are Finovate alums:

KabbageLogo2015Kabbage, provides working capital to small businesses online:

WePayLogoWePay, payment technology provider for online platforms and marketplaces:

ProsperLogoProsper, online P2P lending platform:

CardlyticsLogoNewCardlytics, a card-linked offers platform that provides big-data insights to financial institutions

Further down this year’s list are Payoneer, ranked 1976; CAN Capital, ranked 3206; Forte Payment Systems, ranked 4,466.

Having four alums among the 100 fastest-growing companies is a testament to fintech’s recent growth spurt. Last year, only two—Lending Club (ranked 248) and OnDeck (ranked 726)—made the top 1,000. Since both went public in late 2014, neither qualified for this year’s list.

The increasing number of Inc.’s 500 fintech companies is partially fueled by the swell in funding over the past few years. Inc. Magazine noted this trend in its recent article, Why Fintech Is One of the Most Promising Industries of 2015. It primarily focuses on WePay’s achievements but also highlights growth and success stories throughout the industry.

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Mobile Monday: Turning Spending Management Into a Positive Experience

Mobile Monday: Turning Spending Management Into a Positive Experience
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Mobile Banking, Moven, SmartyPig, Social Money

moven_wheelMany people closely track their spending because they have to. They live paycheck to paycheck and there is no choice. A few track it because they are masters of control, and they love the sense of order that results from processing each transaction. But almost no one tracks spending for fun or fulfillment.

If a bank, card issuer, or fintech startup cracks that barrier into entertainment, they would surely be en route to fame and fortune (or at least a demo slot at Finovate). If I knew how to make expense tracking fun, I wouldn’t be writing about it here. I’d turn it into a startup, or at least a consulting practice.* So for what it’s worth, here’s my five-point plan for making banking fun.**

1. Go all-in on mobile
This is probably obvious to most readers. But I still encounter people who still believe that money management is best done on a desktop. True, it’s easier to design for the big screen, and real keyboards are nice, but it’s just NOT how people interact with digital providers today. For example, 76% of Facebook’s and 88% of Twitter’s ad revenue last quarter was on mobile (source). What more do you need to know?

2. Remove the login
You cannot engage mobile users multiple times per day with a standard username/password system. Thankfully, logging in via fingerprint is becoming a handset standard. Bank of America said last week it was about to adopt TouchID on iOS, so the log-in problem should eventually be going away. And for non-biometric handsets and/or users, a 4-digit PIN entry is a pretty good workaround.

3. Stream the transactions
Users should not have to do any work to see each new transaction in reverse chronological order. It should be just like an email system showing new transactions at the top. Unread ones should be super-easy to identify by staying boldface until viewed. For extra credit, adopt the gmail standard, identifying Priority transactions at the top of the stream.

4. Gamify the spend
Once you’ve laid the groundwork with #1, #2 and #3, it’s time to do the tough part of making tracking fun, or at least interesting enough to hook users. I look to Fitbit and Starbucks for inspiration. I probably look at my Fitbit app 7 to 10 times per day to see how I’m doing against my weekly goals; in comparison, I probably open a mobile banking app about 1 or 2 times per month. Why does Fitbit get 20x the engagement? Because it’s a POSITIVE experience. Every time I open it up I’m literally steps closer to my goal. That’s positive reinforcement. In comparison, every time I look at my banking app, I’m one more step removed from my goal of spending less. That’s a negative.

Banking is never going to be as fulfilling as step tracking, but it doesn’t have to be a downer at every login. FIs need to provide positive reinforcement instead of negative. Moven does as good a job as any along these lines by showing a red/yellow/green color-code rating on each expenditure to help users instantly understand what they are doing. And there are lots of ways to begin quantifying spending once users stop being afraid to log in for fear of always getting bad news.

5. Reward the save
Once users start seeing tracking as a positive experience, positive behaviors can be rewarded. Starbucks does a great job getting me to change my behavior by delivering custom offers and rewards to the mobile app. Before the mobile app, and more importantly, mobile ordering, I was a once-or-twice per-month customer. Now, it’s my seventh day in a row inside a store in order to win “14 bonus” stars (value about $7 if I use them to score a sandwich).

Until interest rates get back to something that you can actually measure, financial institutions need to overhaul their rewards programs to provide incentives for beginning savers. I realize how challenging that is based on the near-zero margins currently in the deposit and debit-card business. But there are ways to do this, such as providing retailer discounts when savings goals are reached. See SmartyPig/Social Money (post) or Finovate demo.

—–
*Just kidding, Finovate employees do not invest in or advise fintech startups (outside the Finovate event-coaching process).
**By “fun,” we are not saying money management will compete with television or Facebook. The aim is to make banking useful on a daily basis, perhaps the equivalent of checking the weather forecast.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Blockchain, PayPal, Prosper, SigFig, Top Image Systems, Zopa

Around the web

  • Zopa CEO Giles Andrews quoted in The Financial Times column on the growth of P2P lending in Asia.
  • Daily Fintech looks at SigFig and its turn toward a B2B business model in the wake of the Yodlee acquisition.
  • Consumer Reports calls Betterment a “top 5” in customer service.
  • Top Image Systems announces “multiyear, multimillion” deal with a “top 5 U.S. bank”
  • Hot Topic names multiple Finovate and FinDEVr alum leaders in its list of top 100 in the industry.
  • Blockchain achieves 4 million bitcoin wallets.
  • Prosper moves into new headquarters after growing from 88 to 500 employees since 2013.
  • PayPal ranks in the top 5 of payments companies based on market cap.

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.

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Fintech Fundings: 27 Companies Raise $345 Million Week Ending 14 August 2015

Fintech Fundings: 27 Companies Raise $345 Million Week Ending 14 August 2015
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

pig_money_beachDo VC investors slow down in the summer? Not this year. Since 1 June 2015, we’ve seen 189 fintech deals globally raising a total of $3.1 billion.

And this week was no different, with the highest number of funded companies since we began tracking a year ago. In total, 27 companies raised $345 million ($257 million equity; $88 million in debt). It was another stellar week for Finovate alums with 6 fundings totaling $123 million, including: Money-transfer service Payoneer ($50 mil); AI innovator Kensho ($33 million); tax specialist VATBox ($24 million); cash-back specialist Mogl ($7.9 million); mobile security provider Tyfone ($6.6 million); digital payments provider Digital Retail Apps ($770,000); and StockViews ($16,000 check from London-based accelerator, Startupbootcamp). Finally, Finovate charter-alum Yodlee received a buyout bid in excess of $660 million from Envestnet.

———

Fintech Unicorn Watch: Along with Yodlee’s near-unicorn exit, another apparent fintech unicorn was crowned when London-based Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) was acquired by Optimal Payments for a reported $1.2 billion. We’ll add it to our full unicorn list when we receive confirmation.

——–

Here are the deals in order of size between 8 Aug and 14 Aug 2015:

Prodigy Finance
Loan marketplace for graduate students
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $100 million ($87.5 million Debt; $12.5 million Equity)
Total raised: $100 million($87.5 million Debt; $12.5 million Equity)
Tags: Lending, credit, crowdfunding, P2P, student loans, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Payoneer
International money transfers
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $50 million
Total raised: $90 million
Tags: Payments, p2p, remittances, mobile, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Maestro Health
Health insurance solutions for the enterprise
HQ: Highland Park, Illinois
Latest round: $35 million
Total raised: $35 million
Tags: Insurance, self-insurance, enterprise
Source: Crunchbase

PokitDok
Healthcare and insurance APIs
HQ: San Mateo, California
Latest round: $34 million
Total raised: $46.2 million
Tags: Insurance, payments, healthcare, enterprise, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

Kensho
Artificial intelligence technology
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $33 million Series A
Total raised: $58.3 million
Tags: Analytics, AI, business intelligence, BI
Source: Finovate

VATBox
VAT tax refund solution
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Latest round: $24 million
Total raised: $24 million
Tags: Taxes, compliance, SMB, accounting, governance, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

eShares
Equity management system
HQ: Mountain View, California
Latest round: $17 million
Total raised: $25.8 million
Tags: Investing, trading, stock shares, enterprise, compliance
Source: Crunchbase

Tyfone
Mobile security and payments
HQ: Portland, Oregon
Latest round: $6.6 million
Total raised: $12 million
Tags: Mobile, payments, security, authentication
Source: Finovate

Mogl
Online cash-back services for restaurants
HQ: San Diego, California
Latest round: $7.9 million
Total raised: $45.2 million
Tags: Payments, POS, SMB, acquiring, merchants, FinovateFall 2015 presenter
Source: FinovateFall 2015

OneAssist Consumer Solutions
Mobile and payment security
HQ: Mumbai, India
Latest round: $7.5 million
Total raised: $11 million
Tags: Mobile, security, payments, insurance
Source: FT Partners

Cloudability
Cloud-based spending management
HQ: Portland, Oregon
Latest round: $5.9 million
Total raised: $15.8 million
Tags: Accounting, enterprise, financial management, SMB
Source: NW Innovation

NUMONI
Micropayments
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: $4.8 million Series B
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Payments, underbanked, unbanked, mobile
Source: The Paypers

bitFlyer
Bitcoin exchange
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Latest round: $4.0 million
Total raised: $6.9 million
Tags: Cryptocurrency, virtual cash, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Scripbox
Online mutual fund investment platform
HQ: Bangalore, India
Latest round: $2.5 million Series A
Total raised: $ million
Tags: Investing, wealth management
Source: Crunchbase

CASHBOARD
Online investment management
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Latest round: $2.2 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Investing, wealth management, personal finance
Source: EU Startups

Avalon Solutions
Payment processing solutions
HQ: Damascus, Maryland
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $5 million
Tags: Payments, acquiring, SMB, merchants, point-of-sale, POS
Source: FT Partners

PaidEasy
Mobile payments at the point-of-sale
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: Payments, point-of-sale, merchants, POS, mobile, SMB, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

Stash
Digital investment adviser
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $1.4 million Seed
Total raised: $1.4 million
Tags: Investings, savings, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Invesdor
Equity crowdfunding platform
HQ: Finland
Latest round: $1.1 million
Total raised: $2.1 million
Tags: P2p, investing, peer-to-peer, SMB
Source: EU Startups

ToneTag
Mobile payments via audio waves
HQ: Mumbai, India
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Payments, POS, point-of-sale, acquiring, merchants, SMB, contactless
Source: NFC World

Vendorin
Enabling electronic payments in B2B commerce
HQ: Omaha, Nebraska
Latest round: $900,000
Total raised: $4.9 million
Tags: Payments
Source: FT Partners

Digital Retail Apps
“Self-pay” mobile payments in-store
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Latest round: $760,000 Seed
Total raised: $760,000
Tags: Payments, mobile, POS, point-of-sale, acquiring, SMB, merchants, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Money Clouds (aka Quemulus)
Goal-based savings
HQ: Bellevue, Washington
Latest round: $380,000
Total raised: $700,000
Tags: Personal finance, consumer, mobile
Source: Geekwire

Xfers
Payments platform for Southeast Asia
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: $120,000
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Payment processing, online, mobile, merchants, SMB, API, Ycombinator (YC S15)
Source: YC

Second Measure
Applying consumer spending data to investment analysis
HQ: San Mateo, California
Latest round: $120,000
Total raised: $120,000
Tags: Y-Combinator (YC S15), investing, metrics, analytics, valuation
Source: YC

StockViews
Social investing platform
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $16,000 Accelerator
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Investments, social network, crowdsourcing, trading
Source: Finovate

SABR
Crypto-currency tracking
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: Unknown
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: 500 Startups (accelerator), bitcoin, security, regulation
Source: VentureBeat

—–
Image: 123RF

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LoopPay-powered Samsung Pay Launches

LoopPay-powered Samsung Pay Launches
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Loop

LoopPay_homepage_2015

Move over, Apple Pay. Featuring technology from Finovate Best of Show winner LoopPay, Samsung’s Samsung Pay mobile payment service is on its way. We spotted founder Will Grayling on the CBS Evening News last night demoing the technology at a Manhattan retailer.

Samsung’s decision to acquire LoopPay in February for $250 million clearly signifies that Samsung is stepping up to the challenge of Apple’s mobile payment technology, Apple Pay. Samsung has since announced its unique take on mobile payments will launch in South Korea on 20 August and in the United States on 28 September. Next up: Launches in Spain and China.

Samsung Pay will be preloaded on Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5. The technology will be available for free download on Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

Loop_stage_FS2014

CEO Will Graylin demonstrated LoopPay’s mobile payment technology at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

LoopPay’s magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology enables mobile devices to communicate with the mag-stripe readers of point-of-sale payment terminals. By placing the mobile device near the reader, consumers can pay for purchases with a variety of stored credit and debit cards (although LoopPay is quick to point out that due to tokenization, no credit or debit information is stored on the device or actually transmitted during the transaction).

Authentication comes courtesy of either fingerprint, or pass-code. MST technology—being compatible with much of the existing POS technology—differentiates it from Apple Pay which relies solely on near field communication (NFC) to transmit information; Samsung Pay uses both NFC and MST.

Read more about the differences between Apple Pay and Samsung Pay (with Android Pay thrown in for good measure) here.

Talking about his company’s acquisition by Samsung shortly after the announcement, LoopPay CEO Will Graylin pointed out that Apple Pay wasn’t in mind when his company and Samsung began working together.

“A lot of the focus was really ‘How do we solve a bigger problem, which is consumer adoption,'” Graylin said in an interview with USA Today. “Consumers are not going to adopt if they can’t use a vast majority of their cards at a vast majority of merchants.”

LoopPay was founded in August 2013 and, post-acquisition, remains headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2014 for its demonstration of Loop and LoopWallet.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Encap, Loop, mShift, PayPal, Realty Mogul, SocietyOne, ThreatMetrix, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • “LoopPay-powered Samsung Pay Launches“

Around the web

  • MSN Money interviews Betterment CEO Jon Stein on the relationship between Baby Boomers and robo-advisors.
  • Xero announces plan to help SMEs get bank loans.
  • Jessica Ellerm talks with Mitchel Harad, SocietyOne CMO.
  • Discussion on multifactor authentication features insights from Thomas Bostrom Jorgensen, CEO of Encap Security.
  • Fox News looks at Realty Mogul in a feature on real estate investing for non-millionaires.
  • Blackberry selects PayPal for its P2P Payments provider.
  • ThreatMetrix appoints Armen Najarian as chief marketing officer.
  • Team One Credit Union and Mshift expand pilot tests of MShift’s AnyWhereMobile by bringing more merchants on board.

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.

 

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Payoneer Pulls in $50 Million

Payoneer Pulls in $50 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Payoneer

PayoneerHomepage2

PayoneerPlacedMobileCross-border payments platform Payoneer closed its eighth round of funding yesterday, a $50 million investment from seven contributors.

Financiers include new investors Greylock, Secondary Market, and Wellington Management. Existing investors Carmel Ventures, Nyca Partners, Ping An, and Susquehanna Growth Equity also contributed.

The new installment brings the company’s total funding to $90 million. While shares were purchased from existing investors, all of Payoneer’s major shareholders retained the majority of their holdings.

Payoneer’s money-transfer solutions enable small businesses and professionals to receive funds in 150 currencies and withdraw the money to their local bank account in their own currency. It also facilitates mass payouts for businesses looking to transfer money internationally, a service that supports companies such as newegg, airbnb, and fiverr.

The New York-based company has 500 employees in offices across Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia.

Payoneer debuted its commercial account capability at FinovateAsia 2013. Check out the live demo video below:

 

 

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Boku, Cloud Lending, DigitalMailer, Entersekt, Geezeo, Holvi, MicroStrategy, Payoneer, PayPal, ProfitStars, Prosper, Tradeshift, Zooz

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • FIDO Alliance now certifies security products from Entersekt and MicroStrategy.
  • Prosper updates credit model to PMI 6.
  • Boku acquires Mobileview Italia, offering it access to all four of the major mobile carriers in Italy.
  • NAFCU chooses Geezeo as PFM Preferred Partner.
  • Cloud Lending Solutions unveils CL Originate, its next generation, cloud-based loan-origination platform.
  • PYMNTS.com takes a look at Tradeshift’s acquisition of Merchantry.
  • BlackBerry and PayPal team up to beta test P2P payments via BBM in Canada.
  • Albawaba profiles Zooz and its unique approach to hiring developer talent.
  • Partnership with DigitalMailer to enable Primadata to provide its clients with the ability to send digital statements.
  • The Tennessean names ProfitStars a 2015 Top Workplace.

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.

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FinDEVr San Francisco Very-Early-Bird Ticket Discount Ends Friday

FinDEVr San Francisco Very-Early-Bird Ticket Discount Ends Friday
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

FinDEVrYodlee

For FinDEVr’s second visit to the Bay Area on 6/7 October, we’re projecting a sell-out crowd of more than 600 builders from organizations such as:

  • JP Morgan Chase
  • Twitter
  • Intel
  • BancVue
  • ING
  • Experian
  • TSYS
  • USAA
  • Insuritas
  • Wells Fargo

Very-early-bird tickets offer discounted access to this developer-focused event. Sixty companies will present their latest case study, innovation, or tutorial, followed by a Q&A session and one-on-one networking. So you will get all of your questions answered from the industry’s top tech gurus.

It will all take place at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. Be sure to register before the discount expires on Friday.

FinDEVr is sponsored by Yodlee Interactive. Our event partners are the Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, BayPay Forum, bobsguide, California Bankers Association, Celent, The CoinTelegraph, Mercator Advisory Group, and SF Fintech.

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Help, My Apple Pay is Not Working

Help, My Apple Pay is Not Working
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Apple, Bank of America, Credit/Debit Cards, Mobile Payments, Service

applepay_launch_bofa

The last few times I’ve tried to use Apple Pay, it’s not worked. And when that happens at the POS, you pretty much look like an idiot waving your fancy phone around and smacking it against the terminal (as if that would help). So yeah, I’m that guy holding up the line, although in my defense, not nearly as long as that person that still uses paper checks.

When Apple Pay is on the fritz, besides my looking like a fool, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. I tweeted this today:

While it may appear snarky, it’s a serious question. When Apple Pay doesn’t work, there is no clear path to resolution. So here is what happened when I tried the various methods in my tweet.

A. Google it

At first glance, there seems to be promising results, including Apple Support. But alas, its FAQ makes no mention of it “not working,” but it does offer a way to get through the help topics and to an online/phone support area (see C below). And while there is much discussion on the Apple forums, the best advice was to “reboot” your phone, which is surprisingly effective for many.

Grade: Incomplete. While I was able to find Apple support within a few minutes, I had to go to the chatbot for a full diagnosis (see B below)

B. Contact Apple

applepay_support_choicesDuring my Google search, I stumbled into the correct area to get to Apple Care support (see A above). While I had to go through a few screens in the self-service area, it took only about 30 seconds to get to the one that offered a choice of online chat, call center (with 2-minute estimated wait time), or alternatively, I could schedule a call (see inset).

As always, I chose online chat. The chatbot was good (not sure if/when a human stepped in), but it took a full 13 minutes to diagnose the problem (including looking up my serial number at the outset). Apple suggested I delete the existing payment card and add the new one, which was the right answer.

If you try to figure out the problem directly on your phone, a search for “Apple Pay” within the phone, i.e., Spotlight Search, directs users to the Passbook app. If you select the “i” button for more information, you are directed to the bank’s call center (see C below). Alternatively, you can navigate directly to Settings, find Passbook & Apple Pay (below the fold), and locate the bank contact number.

Grade: C >> for the 13 minutes it took through Apple Care chat support

C. Call the bank (BofA)

I had just a single card, issued by Bank of America, hooked to Apple Pay. Although I try to avoid call centers if at all possible, I have been very pleased with BofA call center support in the past, so I called the number on the back. And while SIRI, or whatever their voice recognition is called, was not able to understand Apple Pay questions (“I hear that you want to make a payment, is that right?”) I had passed authentication and was put through to a live operator in about 3 minutes. I’d already figured out the problem during my 13 minutes with Apple Care (old card number), so I didn’t torture BofA and play dumb. But had I not known the answer already, the CSR was prepared to get Apple Pay support on the line for help.

Grade: B- >> for being able to get to Apple Pay phone support within 4 to 5 minutes (though did not test their diagnostic skills)

D. Use the mag stripe

Honestly, if I wasn’t into this stuff for my job, I would have just started using the mag-strip card and forgot about Apple Pay until v2.0.

Grade: A >> for the 5 to 7 seconds it took to get the plastic out of my wallet, swipe, and stop holding up the line

———-

The fix

bofa_applepay_dontuseAs mentioned in B above, my Apple Pay problem could be solved either through the Passbook app itself or through the Passbook settings within the iPhone Settings area.

Here’s what I saw when clicking on my “card” in Passbook (see inset).

And that was the reason why Apple Pay had stopped functioning. Bank of America had revoked my card a few months prior during a breach-related reissue.

But I’m not sure how I was supposed to know that I needed to update my Apple Pay card. I’ve searched my email from Bank of America, but I see no message from them on the subject. While it could have been trapped by the SPAM filters, that would be unusual for messages from my card issuer.

It’s completely understandable why the bank would pull my card out of Apple Pay if it was cancelled and replaced by a new number. But they either need to inform me, along with good instructions on what to do next, or better, simply replace my old card with the new one within Apple Pay, with notification of course (see update below).

But that’s probably v2.0 customer support. Until then, I’m glad there’s still a mag-stripe as backup.

—–

Update 19 Aug 2015: Apparently, Citibank is automatically replacing new card numbers into Apple Pay when the old one is canceled. Not sure if this applies to its entire portfolio or selected customers. Thanks to Ian Kar for the pointer.

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Finovate Debuts: 3E Software’s Teslar is a Toolbox for Credit Management

Finovate Debuts: 3E Software’s Teslar is a Toolbox for Credit Management
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: 3E Software, Finovate Debuts

3EHomepage

3E Software’s Teslar offers a fully integrated system to track loans. Its lending and credit management tools offer multiple services to track commercial debt.

Company facts:

  • Self-funded
  • 100% employee owned
  • Five-year annual average revenue growth rate of 150%+
  • Average customer ROI totals 200%

3E’s Teslar toolbox integrates with all of a bank’s systems to present commercial loan officers with portfolio and performance data. What is unique about Teslar’s platform, according to CEO Joe Ehrhardt, is that it aggregates multiple tools to offer a cradle-to-grave approach to assist with all phases of loan management.

Teslar’s capabilities are highly configurable and suitable for small community banks, as well as large regional banks.

Dashboards

Teslar’s dashboards offer a customized overview of loan-related stats and facts pertaining to specific concerns. Banks can configure dashboards at the branch level and even the user level by using filters. And managers can use it to compare various teams of loan officers.

Upon logging in, the lender sees the main dashboard (below) which outlines maturing loans, past-due loans, exceptions, and covenants. This overview highlights important factors for that day. Users simply click through graphs for details and borrower contact information.

TeslarDashboard

Teslar’s Main Dashboard (above)

The Loan Portfolio Performance Dashboard (below) graphs six aspects of a loan portfolio:

  • Balance comparison
  • Yields
  • Income
  • Problem percentages
  • Exception trends
  • Past dues

Similar to the main dashboard, users can customize each graph.

Loanportfoliodashboard

Teslar’s Loan Portfolio Performance Dashboard (above)

Exception tracking

Teslar supports five different types of exceptions: collateral, credit, policy, financial, and covenant (see section below). Its reporting system minimizes the need for data entry and helps quality-control groups find irregularities faster.

exceptionsDash

Covenant tracking

Banks that service large commercial loans with complex covenants often need a system to track and monitor them. Covenant tracking is one of the more popular modules.

Teslar pulls in information for each covenant, then tracks loan documents, calculates values such as debt-service-coverage ratios, and maps the historical values over time.

covenantTracking

Tailored Covenant Exception Summary (above)

Teslar also offers a waiver and forbearance system that helps banks handle covenants in default.

CovenantsSummarySummary of Customers with Covenants (above)

 

We’ve looked at just three of Teslar’s large feature set. 3E Software can also integrate with a bank’s entire lending system, including:

  • Image systems
  • Origination systems
  • Core
  • Factoring
  • Small businesses

3E Software demoed Teslar live at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose. It is the first company from Arkansas to take the Finovate stage.

 

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