Here we are at The American Conference Center in New York City. The presenters are getting ready, people are arriving, and the caffeine is kicking in (hey, it's barely 5 AM my time - I arrived last night).

Finovate is about to begin.

I'll be updating this blog post throughout the morning with new updates, timestamped, letting you know the latest from our presenters. I will do my best to catch spelling mistakes, but bear with me as I try to keep up with the 7-minute demos each company presents to show off their product or service. I'll continue with a new blog post this afternoon. If you have questions, please leave comments, and I'll try to address your question as soon as I can.

This morning, the lineup will consist of:

    Geezeo
    Shawn Ward, Co-Founder

    Metavante
    Chris Burfield, Product Line Manager, E-    Payments

    Lending Club
    John Donovan, COO

    Andera
    Charlie Kroll, CEO

    CheckFree
    Bob Homer, VP Product Management
    Milind Pandit, Director Product Management

    Mortgagebot
    Scott Happ, President & CEO

    Billeo
    Murali Subbarao, Founder & CEO

    Online Resources
    Bill Kinnelly, SVP Product & Marketing
    Mike Martell, Business Development Exec.

    Identity Theft 911
    Adam Levin, Chairman

    Yodlee
    Peter Hazlehurst, SVP Product Development

The updates will be starting at 9 AM Eastern Time. Watch this space, hit refresh now and then, and keep scrolling down to read about the latest scoop.

UPDATE: 8:56 AM

As 9 AM approaches, people are taking their seats.

UPDATE: 9:06 AM
Jim Bruene is welcoming the crowd, outlining the format, setting the stage.

UPDATE: 9:10 AM - Geezeo
Shawn Ward is explaining his service as a next-generation Quicken. Eight people in the company. Log in to all your online accounts, including investments, bank accounts. All balances and all transactions. Aggregates all activity real time, with text-messaging access.

Looking at transactions, auto-categorized (tags). Tags are customizeable. See how you're spending, how your money is growing. Tag cloud shows goals of community of users. Can easily surface those with similar patterns, goals, etc. 

With investment aggregation, can show positions within your portfolio. Partner with Motley Fool. Historical look at trades.

Groups allow discussion on topics. Advice given and gained.

Facebook app called iWant.

UPDATE 9:17 AM - Metavante
Expedited payments. Consumers who use online bill payment still use other methods to pay bills. Speed of posting is main thing consumers look for. Take the transactions that are occuring outside of the bank today and allow the bank to aggregate them

Shows all payees in Metavante's system that allow expedited payments.

Shows historical context on last payments. Allows expedited payments for all payees, including the gardener down the street.

There is an extra charge for expedited payments. Payment via credit card is free.

All records are now consolidated, because all payments go through a single provider.

Changes game from free bill-pay to fee-based, expedited bill payment. 

UPDATE: 9:25 AM - LendingClub
Integration with Facebook via their app. Pulls all connections and networks within Facebook to their network.

Facebook users have done $1 million in loans.

Internet provides a more efficient platform to allow people to lend and invest.

LendingMatch is their technology. Assesses credit risk, existing social connections, and financing needs. User identifies amount needed along with individual risk tolerance. LendingMatch sources other users likely to be a good match. May find a connection through the borrowers alma mater.

Lender sees credit rating of borrower, how much time is left on bidding, how many bidders, but no personaly identifiable information.  Anonymity is part of the process.

Leverages power of connection.

UPDATE: 9:32 AM - Andera
Online account opening. Simple solution for consumers as complexity is behind the scenes.

User selects account they want to open, offers options such as eStatements, sign off on terms and then gets an electronic signature.

Shopping-cart approach.

Verification process to ensure users are who they say. Third party ensures home address is real, verifies SSN is not a newly issued number, and asks user multiple choice questions based on credit report history and public records. Past residences are an example of these questions.

Integrates with third-party credit-check provider, whichever the bank wants.

May upsell a credit card and electronic bank transfer. The latter allows you to instantly transfer from another account and fund the account online. Asks for log-in credentials for other bank to bring in money via Yodlee (who will be presenting later today).

Instantly moves money, gives a confirmation number, and an email. Now they are a part of the bank, verifiable via any channel (branch, call center).

UPDATE: 9:40 AM - CheckFree
Electronic bill payment and billing. System calls cell phone and asks an identification number to complete log in. Cell rings and asks for your PIN. Only then can you log in. 

When people pay bills, relevant information is shown, such as last bill amount and date paid. When a large bill payment is made, a security question is asked before payment is submitted. Consumers say how large a bill has to be before a question comes in. Totally consumer-configurable.

User-experience enhancements. Drag and drop: Drag a payee onto the account you want to pay from. The amounts are pre-filled based on previous activity. Or, you can drag the account onto the payee. Checks are in place to prevent duplicate bill payments.

UPDATE: 9:48 AM - MortgageBot
Mortgage Marvel is their new product. Instant and accurate mortgage comparisons. Asks loan amount, property value, and zipcode. Over 250 lenders participate. No personal data is asked before search is activated. Shows FI, kind of mortgage, APR, closing costs, payments. User can sort via any column, so users can find lower APR, closing cost, monthly payment, whatever is most important to them.

Price comparisons are seen without entering any personal data.

Advanced quote function allows a deeper dive into specific situations. Also gives information on specific kinds of loans and some helpful information to educate.

Can see lenders own websites to see more about them.

Users can apply for mortgages instantly on their site.

UPDATE: 9:56 AM - Billeo
Bill Pay Assistant and Electronic File Cabinet.

Install Billeo onto your computer: it has a Firefox extension.

Flags you on bills coming due. See a payment-summary page for historical bill payment information. Billeo takes user to bill-payee website and logs in. Can pay bill via vendor website. Billeo extension can prefill vendor-website's bill-payment form. Can drag information from Billeo sidebar to the vendor website. Shows you rewards earned when paying by credit card.

When you are done, the receipt/confirmation is saved within Billeo and captured within Firefox app.

Can view previous transactions at any time, to view receipts.

User display in Electronic File Cabinet is very intuitive and atrractive. Users can easily see history.

UPDATE: 10:05 AM - Online Resources
Virtual Collection Agent. Non-confrontational online service to pay debt, promise to pay or work out payment plan.

Can take collection information from FIs and can staff up to meet demand.

Allows people to cure their delinquency ills, reduces cost for companies to collect, and controls the experience visitors have based on corporate strategies.

UPDATE: 10:12 AM - Identity Theft 911
Educate on issues related to identity theft, as well as resolve situations when security theft occurs. Partners with FIs to help inform about and fix issues.

Will not market directly to bank customers.

Concept of an identity portfolio, which needs to be managed. Consumers must see the whole picture, based on their holdings, purchases, legal information, everything tells your story.

Banks can pass calls to them when customers need assistance or have questions. They neither own your customer, nor ask for their account information.

UPDATE: 10:21 AM - Yodlee
Persional finance. Shows you your net worth and our account holdings. How you spend your money. Nearly 3 million users. Can split transactions between different categories.

Everything is available on a mobile browser or via text messaging.

Can make bill payments directly through system.

Can see a calendar view of bill payments, due and transfers. Can see everything in one place.

Can roll up your view to see all your accounts. Can see all types of accounts, and supports largest FIs in US. Starting to partner with smaller FIs, too.

UPDATE: See continuation here.