Community banking app company Malauzai has teamed up with payment processing giant Vantiv to launch a youth spending tool called Family Manager: SmartKid Control. Malauzai’s SmartApp users will have access to the new tool, which is offered by Vantiv and powered by OnDot.
The SmartKid Control feature offers parents oversight and control over their child’s spending via transaction monitoring and spending tools. The app generates purchase alerts and lets parents define and authorize specific merchant categories, such as grocery and gas (see image on right). While the card gives parents ultimate control by enabling them to remotely turn the card on and off, it also allows the child to begin forming their own spending habits by setting a budget and alerts.
Integrating the card control feature into a community bank or credit union’s existing app gives the financial institution a way to build loyalty among its existing users and build out its customer base of Generation Z-clients. According to Robb Gaynor, chief product officer for Malauzai, the new tool will offer “families the opportunity to include their children in the financial dialogue.”
Malauzai’s new tool leverages OnDot’s CardControl, a solution the company launched at FinovateSpring 2014 that allows consumers to control payment cards from a smartphone app. The solution, which the company later showcased at FinovateSpring 2015, won them Best of Show honors. Since then, the product was brought to market by Fiserv (under the brand name CardValet), COOP Financial Services (under the brand name CardNav), and Vantiv (under the brand name MobiMoney). OnDot most recently demoed Mobile Card Services at FinovateAsia 2016.
Founded in 2009, Malauzai last demoed at FinovateSpring 2016, where it debuted MOX Pay powered by Visual App Builder. In March of this year, the company launched Touch ID biometric authentication technology for Android users. In October 2016, Malauzai teamed up with Guardian Analytics to leverage its fraud detection solution.
Payment processing company Vantiv most recently presented at FinDEVr New York 2017 and last demoed at FinovateFall 2014, where it debuted its TriPOS solution. Earlier this week, Vantiv agreed to acquire B2B payments company Paymetric.
