Today I am blogging live from Finovate 2007. Please check back throughout the day to learn more about the presenting vendors.  - Brandon McGee (Mobile Banking)

1) Geezeo -
"Geezeo is a social finance application that helps you make educated financial decisions." 
Newsworthy: Geezeo has moved past simple account aggregation and now incorporates investment data.

2) Metavante -
"Banking and Payment Technology Solutions for Business"
Newsworthy: Metavante has a new expedited payment tool to help banks capture a larger percentage of payments by recapturing the "biller direct" payments.

3) Lending Club -
"Lending Club is a lending community where you can borrow or lend money, bypass the banks and get better rates."
Newsworthy: Facebook members have financed over one million dollars of loans through Lending Club.

4) Andrea -
"The industry's leading integrated account opening solution."
Newsworthy: Until today I was not familiar with the company. They have a very slick account opening tool that manages the entire new account opening process from start to finish. I have reviewed the account opening processes at all of the top U.S. banks and this process is simple!

5) CheckFree -
"Banking and financial transaction management solutions."
Newsworthy: The combination of Corillian and Checkfree has resulted in a very powerful online banking solution. The account summary screen now facilitates drag-drop functionality that is unlike anything I've seen to date. 

6) Mortgagebot -
"The leader in Web-based mortgage origination technology"
Newsworthy:  A new product called MortgageMarvel.com. The customers only need three pieces of information to search for rates: Loan amount, Property Value, Property Zip Code.

7) Billeo -
"Whether you're paying bills, shopping online or need help managing passwords, Billeo combines three great tools into one convenient package to make your online life easier and more secure."
Newsworthy: This is a revolutionary tool to manage all of your payment devices, and integrates with the websites that you ordinarily visit to perform biller direct payments.

8) Online Resources -
"A new way to collect loan and credit card payments at your website - securely and quickly."
Newsworthy: The Virtual Collection Agent, a better way to automate the collection of outstanding debts without the risks involved with relying on people and their inherent shortcomings.

9) Identity Theft 911 -
"Leading America's institutions to cutting-edge identity solutions."
Newsworthy: Customer satisfaction rate in excess of 98%. They never market additional products to your clients. They work with the client to resolve the issue from the beginning to end - not just giving advice and then disappearing.

10) Yodlee -
"Know the bottom line. Experience higher profits."
Newsworthy: Now multilingual (French, Spanish, English, Chinese). Averaging a new user every 2 seconds. Product is completely mobile ready.

WHEW - that's the morning session. I love this format. Allowing only 7 minutes per presentation forces the vendors to truly focus on the key concepts! 
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Lunch was terrific and the networking opportunities were the best I have experienced at a conference. I was able to meet with the heads of mobile for Chase and Citi Bank; plus, I was able to meet a number of vendors that I have only heard of date.
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Afternoon Session:

1) Firethorn -
"Firethorn mobile banking and payment solution helps carriers and financial institutions deliver valuable services to their wireless customers."
Newsworthy:
* Focus is on the consumer wallet.
* Branded experience with the banks logo 
* Strong relationships with the carriers to prevent pop-ups and error messages
* Solution offers offline mode for when signal is not available
* Signed clients: Wachovia, Suntrust, Bancorp South, Synovus, 1stBank
* Application is burned onto handset and marketing materials are contained at the purchase 

2) Monitise -
"Monitise has created the most extensive and commercially successful mobile banking and payments service in the world."
Newsworthy:
* First part of demo is conducted on a mainstream 2G phone
* Joint partnership between Metavante and Monitise PLC
* Use ATM network for simplicity and low cost
* Branding is customized for the institution
* Mobile wallet demonstration conducted on a smart phone. Complete demonstration was conducted live with projectors and actual devices.
* Very bold to conduct entire demo with live phone real time.

3) Clairmail -
"Clairmail optimizes any mobile phone for 2-way customer interaction."
Newsworthy:
* Platform supports the "Triple Play" (SMS, Browser Based, Downloadable)
* Again full demo is conducted with an actual device being projected onto the screen
* Focus on 2 way customer interaction
* Demo includes a marketing message on screen to cross-sell product (revenue generation!!!)
* The browser based solution can be activated by dial back reply to an SMS message
* Focus on security by not requiring login and password at once
* Conducted a demo where the client requested "call me" and the bank called the client to offer a product (revenue generation!!!)

4) mShift -
Newsworthy:
* This is a browser based solution
* Nothing to download to the device
* Over 100 deployments currently live representing 80-90% of the mobile banking market
* Wide compatibility with all devices. Over 9000 handsets are compatible
* Demonstrates how 2 factor authentication is incorporated into the solution
* Only bill payments to existing payees are allowed - additional level of security
* Product also has the ability to view check images and perform bill presentment 

5) mFoundry -
"mFoundry's Spotlight Platform provides all of the components necessary to bring mobile financial services to millions of consumers. Spotlight enables all parties in the mobile financial ecosystem."
Newsworthy:
* Begins with demo using Citi solution (Top 5 Bank - impressive)
* Solution offers a calendar feature to that you don't have to input a date
* Demo is conducted on a 2G phone yet still very quick
* Promotes flexibility and the fact that solution can be customized to your liking
* Allows GPS functionality - zip not required
* Branch locator even gives you the branch hours, directions, map of the surrounding location
* Citi mobile can be updated on the fly without impacting the client or requiring them to re-download the application.
* Demonstrates an application designed with Yahoo finance functionality

6) Prosper -
"Where people come together to borrow and lend money." 
Newsworthy:
* 430,000 members
* 91 million dollars in loans during the first year
* New feature (out in 2 weeks) will show - loans like this one have X% likelihood of default. Previously the lender would have needed to make a judgment call solely based upon looking at the credit bureau.
* Another new feature (out in 2 weeks) will allow you to build a "Portfolio Plan" For instance, if you have $10,000 to invest the solution will help you build a diversified loan portfolio.

7) Jwaala -
"A unique and refreshing company that is bringing technology innovation galore to the world of Credit Unions and their members."
Newsworthy:
* PFM tool
* Allows you the opportunity to review spending, budgets, reports, etc.
* Questions that clients ask: What do I have? / Where's it going? / How can I do better?
* Announced: iPhone view of the application
* Announced: RSS via OFX (open source)

8) iPay -
* Application developed called - Mobile Shortcut
* Two way SMS
* Built from online banking solution
* Person to person payments, account to account transfers
* Functionality allowing charitable donations and gift checks

9) Digital Insight -
"Our mission is to help our clients compete and win."
Newsworthy:
* The next generation of online banking by combining the strengths of Intuit and Digital Insight
* Account summary page now includes a pie chart of where money is being spent
* Homepage also includes an icon showing the number of bills due "Envelope image - 3 bills due"
* Lots of other web 2.0 features that make the service much more user friendly
* Tool now incorporates a check register feature to assist customers in managing their finances

10) Mint -
"The free, automatic, online way to manage your money is here."
Newsworthy:
* Sign up in under two minutes
* Tool connects to financial institutions through Yodlee
* Their tool alerts you when you're about to be charged a bank fee
* Mint finds ways to help you: Make money. Save Money. It analysis your current financial situation and then finds offers that will help you improve your financial situation.
* Clients already signed up: ING, HSBC, AT&T
* Launched two weeks ago. Login volume during that time period higher than Wells Fargo