Strands Finance’s What If Functionality Gives Users Insight to Future Purchases

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First up in the second session, Strands Finance showcased its What If functionality:

“Strands Finance is presenting new “What If” functionality that takes PFM historical data and makes it relevant for the future. Users will gain greater insight and control of their financial health with little to no effort. For banks, the data is invaluable to better advise their customers. Strands has developed and leveraged pattern identification algorithms that help model future scenarios and the impact to the user’s short-term cash flow and long-term net worth.”

Product Launch: Q1, 2013
HQ: San Francisco, CA, USA
Founded: 2004
Metrics: 45 employees worldwide; $55M in funding raised to date
Twitter@StrandsPF
Finovate demo video: Demo videos will be posted next week
Introducing Edward Chang (CEO), Marc Torrens (Chief Innovation Officer) and Simon Shorey (UK Retail & Business Banking, Barclays)

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FinovateAsia 2012 Sneak Peek: Part 1

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For our first ever FinovateAsia conference, we’ve selected 36 leading innovators to take the stage in Singapore on November 6.
Each company provided a sneak peek of what they’ll demo next month. Below is the first installment of these teasers. We’ll have more next week.
Don’t miss your chance to see the live demo from each company and be a part of our inaugural FinovateAsia conference. Get your ticket here.
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Airline pilots train in flight simulators, known to be one of the most effective training methods. After the financial crisis, isn’t it about time your risk managers have access to the best training techniques?
BankersLab offers training products designed to enhance a banker’s ability to develop and test strategies in a range of real-world market conditions. Utilizing a blended learning model, BankersLab integrates numerical simulations, scenario games, the gamified classroom, and m-learning for optimal understanding and knowledge retention. 
BankersLab’s comprehensive suite of products suits all skill levels; ensuring your teams are the best trained in the industry.
Innovation type: Cards, lending, payments

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BellaDati launches BellaDati agile analytics and reporting cloud tool for financial data analysis. 
BellaDati reinvents the way business users can interact with data. BellaDati will introduce features like GEO analytics, mobile reporting BellaDati Piccolo or social network for business data analysis. All this topped with easy connectivity to various data sources. Stay tuned to the new wave of business analytics inspired by gorgeous Isola Bella island located close to the Sicilian coast. 
Innovation type: Back office, mobile, sales

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Bank lending to thin-and no-file small businesses in emerging markets is a billion dollar opportunity – yet traditional lending requirements make it inefficient and expensive. EFL’s Credit Screening Tool, which uses non-traditional data such as psychometric principles that statistically relate entrepreneurial qualities such as intellect, business acumen, ethics, attitudes and beliefs to credit screening, makes lending scalable and profitable. 
EFL will show how seamlessly its partners have integrated Credit Scoring Tool to their existing lending processes to increase their loan portfolios by over 100% and decrease defaults by over 40%.

Innovation type: Banking, identity, lending

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Fiserv will demonstrate its world leading mobile banking platform – Mobiliti – used by over 1,000 banks and credit unions around the world. The focus on the demo will be on Mobiliti Reach – a product to help banks profit from servicing underbanked and unbanked market segments.
Innovation type: Back office, mobile, payments

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Heckyl FIND is a simple and yet powerful platform which integrates real time news, analytic, and sentiment mining in your trading terminals.
Heckyl FIND provides the first and a very powerful enterprise social trading terminal enabling your analyst to collaborate in real time with Traders, exchange great ideas, trading insights and empower your Traders with all the information to take the next action, here on Heckyl Dashboard.
Heckyl FIND is exclusively for financial institutions, brokerages and the trading community to get access to real time trading ideas, research reports, economic alerts and much more.

Innovation type: Investing, online UI, PFM

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Innovation Café is an advanced crowdsourcing innovation platform for companies to engage their innovation communities. It is highly configurable and able to provide for both private and public ecologies, as well as emergent and structured innovation approaches. 
Innovation Café is a lightweight platform with advanced white labeling, and custom theme capabilities. It has the ability to integrate with different systems and provide detailed reporting. Crowdsourcing and community collaboration are used to focus the attention on business objectives, enhanced through idea challenges.

Innovation type: Banking, mobile, online

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Get peace of mind knowing that your company’s financial mobile app is secure. Metaforic technology stops malware and hackers in their tracks. See live, an attempted malware attack on a mobile app and the technology that st
ops it.
Innovation type: Security

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With fewer people going to branches due to the convenience of internet, it weakens banks’ ability to acquire, develop a face-to-face personal relationship and recommend relevant products to their customers. 
Users are also spending very little time on internet banking due to a very transactional “touch-and-go” behavior. So how do you get the right customized products to the right customer at a time when they most need it?
Innovation type: Marketing, PFM, rewards

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Sandstone will be showcasing its ‘next generation’ consumer banking solution combining internet and mobile banking, personal financial management and loan origination capabilities to form a powerful end-to-end customer acquisition and retention tool.
Building on the “anytime, anywhere” capabilities of emerging tablet and smart phone platforms, Sandstone will show how consumers can interact with their bank for a range of integrated banking services.
For example, we will demonstrate the customer’s experience of finding and purchasing a new home, including property suggestions based on their savings, property selection, valuation, credit assessment and loan approval – all in real time from any device
Innovation type: Lending, marketing, PFM

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Strands Finance is presenting new “What If” functionality that takes PFM historical data and makes it relevant for the future. Users will gain greater insight and control of their financial health with little to no effort. 
For banks, the data is invaluable to better advise their customers. Strands has developed and leveraged pattern identification algorithms that help model future scenarios and the impact to the user’s short-term cash flow to long-term net worth.
Innovation type: Mobile, online, PFM

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The 21st century customer is all about the experience. 
To be ahead of competition, retailers and banks need to drive revenue through new channels and differentiate themselves through unique customer experiences to build loyalty. With the combination of time, relevance, and behavior, TIBCO offers an integrated solution linking the end-users, retailers and banks – anytime, anywhere.
Innovation type: Mobile, payments, rewards

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Wipro will debut its Wipro SmartOffers solution at FinovateAsia 2012. The innovation provides bank customers with Digital Offers which can be redeemed at merchants for availing benefits/discounts at the time of purchase. These offers may be merchant-or-bank-funded at the bank’s preference. 
The solution is different from the aggregator-centric models currently in practice in the market, championing the bank centric offer model. Wipro’s solution gives the power back to the banks, by making them the center of the Digital Offers Universe. By making the entire offer landscape bank-centric, banks reap the benefits hereto left for aggregators.
Innovation type: Banking, rewards

A Closer Look into the Strands Finance PFM

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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

    • Developing PFM solutions since 2007
    • Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in U.S. and Spain
    • 50 employees worldwide

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Clients

    • Bank of Montreal
    • BBVA
    • ING
    • Post Finance
Product highlights 

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.

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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.

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3) Timeline view on expense analysis feature

Specific ranges of time are easily selected by using drop down and slider features.

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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.

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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.

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What’s new?

Since presenting FinovateEurope last year, Strands Finance has added features such as a financial calendar and net worth analysis.

What’s next?

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.

Finovate Alumni News– June 29, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgAustin Business Journal discloses Bazaarvoice reports $104M financing.
  • IBT, FI solutions provider announces the launch MoneyDesktop as its PFM solution.
  • Affinity Solutions Lands $14.5 Million in Funding from Chestnut Hill Ventures.
  • Finovate takes a closer look into the Strands Finance PFM.
  • The WSJ examines how SimpleTuition’s SmarterBank help students and alumni pay back student debt.
  • Balance Street becomes an Affiliate Member of the California Bankers Association, will begin a pilot program to bring its debt settlement tool to California banks.
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.

Finovate Alumni News– June 4, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgO’Reilly Radar takes an in-depth look at FutureAdvisor, interviews CEO Bo Lu.
  • Business Insider recommends Mint & BillGuard as worthy personal finance apps to help you control your finances.
  • Strands Finance, selected as tech partner of PostFinance, a Swiss FI & payment transactions provider.
  • HIT Consultant features Diversinet CEO on Newest Podcast.
  • Security Service FCU selects Tyfone to deliver next gen mobile services.
  • PaySimple named to JMP Securities Hot 100 Software Companies 2012.
  • Austin’s Statesman.com asks: Can Bazaarvoice IPO be catalyst for new wave of startups?
  • Altoona’s Hearld-Index profiles T8 Webare.
  • Barron’s looks at SigFig as A Take-Charge Portfolio Manager.
  • InComm & Absolute Software form partnership.
  • The Examiner looks at how Virtual Piggy is protecting kids online & interviews Founder & CEO, Dr. Jo Webber.
  • Check out the latest founder interview: Laura Mather of Silver Tail Systems.
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.

Strands Featured in Bank Technology News for PFM Strategy

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Earlier this week, Bank Technology News featured an article on Strands, a PFM solution provider looking to stand out in a very crowded market by tailoring consumers’ PFM experience.

Here are some quick snippets of information from the article:

    • Aim of the PFM: create a single location to give clients a holistic picture of their assets and liabilities 
    • Target market of the PFM: consumers, bank staff, advisors
    • Clients include: overseas financial institutions such as Bank of Montreal, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. and ING Group NV
    • Competitors: Mint.com, Geezeo, Wesabe, Yodlee, and more

The article notes that the competitors have started adopting different strategies to compete. One of those strategies, it notes, is to provide demographic-specific content. LearnVest, a PFM for women, is a great example of this.

To learn more about Strands, watch its FinovateEurope 2011.

Alumni News– Week of June 20, 2011

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AlphaClone
AlphaClone launched a new feature that measures sentiment. Link
BillFLO
Taulia acquired BillFLO. Link
Bills.com

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Bills.com shared money-saving strategies for recent college graduates. Link
BrightScope
BrightScope was highlighted on the Tuscon NBC news channel series, “4 Your Money.” Link
CashEdge
Ally Bank began offering CashEdge’s Popmoney service. Link
Continuity Control

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LEVERAGE, the Service Corporation for the League of Southeastern Credit Unions, began offering Continuity Control’s CreditUnion Assistant program. Link
CreditKarma
Credit Karma introduced its Approval Odds service to help avoid being declined for a card. Link
Currensee
Currensee reached $6 billion in trading volume and $12 million under management. Link
doxo
The MakeUseOf blog reviewed doxo’s online filing cabinet. Link
Dwolla
  • Dwolla CEO commented on the Bitcoin virtual currency debate, exchange, and hysteria.  Link
  • Dwolla’s fees were compared to PayPal’s. Link
  • Silicon Prairie News discussed Dwolla CEO’s comments on Bitcoin. Link
eWise
eWise Payo’s smartphone app won the Editor’s Award for Consumer Focus at the 2011 Cards International Awards. Link
Expensify

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  • The Dallas News highlighted Expensify. Link
  • Expensify was listed as one of 25 tools to help you manage spending by cmvlive.com Link
HelloWallet
HelloWallet posted a short video series explaining its wealth-tracking service. Link
Jwaala

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KEMBA Financial Credit Union implemented Jwaala’s platform. Link
Lending Club
  • Lending Club is approaching its financial breakeven point. Link
  • Reuters commented on Lending Club’s P2P marketplace. Link
Lendio
Lendio helped banks increase business loans by finding qualified borrowers. Link
Mortgagebot

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Mortgagebot and Business Solutions extended their Tech Alliance to provide mortgage application solutions at preferred terms. Link
PayNearMe
PayNearMe facilitated 7-Eleven’s partnership with Greyhound for cash transactions. Link
Prosper
Reuters commented on Prosper’s P2P marketplace. Link
Receivables Exchange

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The Receivables Exchange won 2011 “Management Team of the Year” at the Stevie Awards. Link
Strands
Strands Personal Finance landed in the 2011 Red Herring Top 100 North America list. Link
TradeKing
TradeKing announced its free webinar series on trading advice beginning July 12th. Link
Voice Commerce

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Voice Commerce launched its CashFlows app. Link
Xero
Getapp.com reviewed Xero’s cloud-based software. Link