Finovate is part of the Informa Connect Division of Informa PLC
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Online investment management site, SigFig, released mobile versions of its platform for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices today.
The free, native app enables users to:
To learn more about SigFig, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.
Cartera Commerce recognized with a Golden Link award for its OfferLink network.
The inspiration for today’s installment is from The Financial Brand which wrote about a new app from branch automation provider, Better Branches. The widget shows the real-time queue at various branches so customers can better time their visit. The company offers a mobile and online version (screenshot below; see note 1).
While, I’m not convinced the branch feature would be used that often (Really? How many branch-centric customers are going to query their iPhone or hit the website before heading out?), I like the overall concept for these reasons:
What is much more helpful for most online/mobile customers is call-center wait times, something Ally Bank positions clearly on its homepage and recently launched in its mobile app.
————————————
Better Branches wait-time mobile app and desktop widget (29 June 2012)
—————————–
Note: No financial institution users were cited in the article. But according to a comment left by Brett King, of Bank 2.0 fame, RBS offers this feature in the UK.
Last month, I caught up with the team from PFM platform, Strands Finance, to chat about what they’ve been up to since demoing at FinovateEurope last year.
Overview
Clients
1) Widgets
Strands Finance offers 15 different widgets that users can drag and drop on any page of their financial institution.
The company has found that the new widget design is especially popular with gen-Y users.
2) Categorization engine
The proprietary categorization has a 90%+ accuracy rate at launch of a client’s PFM after it is tweaked to recognize businesses in certain geographic regions. Its algorithms use vendor names, transaction codes and text strings to determine an appropriate category for a purchase. Transactions are categorized into over 80 categories. Customers can edit, split categories, or create custom categories.
3) Timeline view on expense analysis feature
Specific ranges of time are easily selected by using drop down and slider features.
4) Community comparison feature
Compare and contrast saving and spending habits with the average bank client. Users can drill down into details and filter by demographic information such as zip code, county, or city and narrow the search to specific spending categories.
5) Mobile/Tablet
The native app is simple to use, and it retains most of the capabilities as the online version. It is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
Strands Finance is developing a product marketing intelligence tool that will help banks analyze transactions and deliver personalized product recommendations. It has also started working on a wealth management solution that will provide users a picture of their overall wealth within the PFM.
To learn more about Strands Finance, watch its FinovateEurope 2011 demo.
Yesterday, card-linked offers company Affinity Solutions announced it closed a round of $14.5 million in funding from Chestnut Hill Ventures.
Affinity Solutions, which counts over 4,000 financial institutions and 25,000 brick-and-mortar retailers as clients, plans to use the funding to fuel growth, finance product innovation, business development, and technology initiatives.
To learn more about Affinity Solutions, watch its FinovateSpring 2012 demo.
Austin Business Journal discloses Bazaarvoice reports $104M financing.
I put my name on the list for PayPal Here (its response to Square) when it was announced in the spring. Yesterday, I received my invitation to “apply” for the service.
I was a little surprised that I still had to apply given that I’ve had this PayPal account since 1999, and have run many thousands of dollars through it, both as a buyer and a merchant. But I understand the enormous risks in payment acceptance, so I will happily oblige some hassle.
Interestingly, the process must be done via the mobile PayPal Here app. You cannot simply complete the application via PayPal’s normal online system. Again, this is slightly inconvenient for me, but it’s good to see PayPal enabling the mobile app for signup. This may be the first financial product from a major U.S. company that has a mobile-only app process.
The mobile signup process is a little confusing. First, you must download the separate PayPal Here app (it in not integrated with the regular PayPal app). Then when launched, if you press “register” on the opening screen (screenshot below), instead of being allowed to register, you are asked to put yourself on the PayPal Here waitlist
I thought I’d hit a dead end, so I went back to the invitation email (below). What you must do instead is login to the app with your PayPal credentials (note 1). Once in, users go through a quick account verification, then a merchants services mini-application, and ID check against credit bureau data.
At the end of the process, a reader is mailed to your business address and an optional debit card is mailed to your primary address on file. But you are immediately allowed to begin accepting payments through by scanning a card with the mobile camera or keying it in. That’s impressive.
The next day, I received an email with a tracking number for the reader (screenshot below).
Bottom line: The process seemed a little convoluted for an existing customer. But, in all it took 4 to 5 minutes and required no supporting info and I was able to accept a credit card immediately. Had I not had trouble logging in, I could have completed it in closer under 3 minutes. Overall, I score it a B+.
—————————————-
Email to apply for PayPal Here (26 June 2012)
PayPal Here login screen
Note: Invited users must login, NOT try to register (which won’t work)
Pre-populated account Card reader
verification confirmation screen
Confirmation email the next day (28 June 2012)
————————–
Note:
1. The email said to login with my PayPal email address and password. I got an odd error message doing that, saying to “append my code to the password.” I think this is because I have second factor authentication turned on for my PayPal account. But I could not see any way to get a code sent to me through the PayPal Here app, so I was stuck. I then tried logging in with my PayPal mobile credentials, and that worked fine. It seems like there might be a bug here.
Financial education site, DoughMain, announced earlier this week it received an investment from Iacocca Family Capital. This investment marks the New Jersey-based company’s second round of funding since it launched in August 2011.
The undisclosed amount of money will help support the enhancement and expansion of DoughMain’s platform.
In unrelated news, DoughMain also announced it acquired Allowance-Plus, a site with a similar focus on financial education.
To learn more about DoughMain, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.
The Bank Of Marion selects Continuity Control for compliance platform.
Shopping and billpay platform, Billeo, announced two new services yesterday, ZipThru Pay and ZipThru Buy. With these new features, the California-based company aims to simplify and speed up the online shopping and bill pay experiences.
ZipThru Pay
Enables financial institutions and card issuers to place a pay now button on an online bill payment platform or in a mobile app.
Without leaving the app or website, consumers can pay their bills using their credit, debit, or prepaid card in one click and receive confirmation information.
ZipThru Buy
Enables any website or app that features products from multiple merchants to place a buy
Without leaving the shopping site, consumers can purchase the item in only two clicks and receive all confirmation information.
Both services can be integrated into any new or existing website or app using Billeo’s API.
To learn more about Billeo, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.
CU Times reports T8 Webware expanding, expects to add 20 employees to its staff of 60.Virtual Piggy’s platform now supports subscription payments.