What is Bank Simple?

There's a new "banking entity" in formation, Brooklyn, NY-based Bank Simple operating (temporarily I assume) at the .net version of its name <banksimple.net>. I chatted with the founders, Josh Reich and Shamir Karkal earlier this year and am anxiously...

Posted by Jim Bruene on May 18, 2010 8:20 AM

New Online Banking Report Published: Making the Case for Person-to-Person (P2P) Payments

We just published the latest Online Banking Report: Making the Case for Person-to-Person PaymentsDoes mobility provide the tipping point for bank-branded P2P? Author: Jim Bruene, Editor & FounderPublished: 10 Dec. 2009Size: 40 pages, 10,000 wordsAuthor: Jim Bruene, Editor &...

Posted by Jim Bruene on December 15, 2009 3:13 PM

Citibank Ends its Three-Year Test with Obopay

It appears that the Obopay/Citibank co-branded service is being shut down. From the sparse note on the webpage <citi.obopay.com> (see screenshot below), it doesn't sound like a temporary hiatus:  As of Dec. 22, 2009, "Citi Obopay" will no longer be...

Posted by Jim Bruene on December 6, 2009 7:21 PM

Links from My Presentation at the National Credit Union Directors' Convention

Thanks to everyone who attended my presentation: Ecommerce Opportunities for Credit Unions yesterday at the CU National Directors' Convention in Las Vegas.  Here are the links to the examples cited: Mobile banking Walt Mossberg's Mar. 25, 2009 article about...

Posted by Jim Bruene on August 6, 2009 9:12 AM

Links from my Metavante Client Conference presentation

Thanks to everyone who attended my presentation on Trends in Ebanking last week at Metavante's annual user conference. Here are the links to the examples cited: Walt Mossberg's Mar. 25, 2009 article about iPhone apps Apple's "Apps for Managing...

Posted by Jim Bruene on May 19, 2009 3:25 PM

RIM's New Blackberry App World Includes Wells Fargo, E*Trade, Fidelity, and Bank of America

It will be a long time before the new mobile application markets, Google's Android Market and RIM's Blackberry App World, get anywhere close to Apple's App Store in breadth or depth. Currently, there are 162 apps listed across all categories in...

Posted by Jim Bruene on March 11, 2009 6:30 PM

Links from My Metavante User Conference Presentation

I delivered a presentation on Online Banking Innovations at Metavante's annual user conference in Milwaukee yesterday. As promised, here are the links to the companies and products mentioned. Thanks to everyone that attended and thanks to Metavante for having...

Posted by Jim Bruene on May 15, 2008 2:52 PM

Facebook Financial & Banking Apps Have Only 263 Daily Users

It's been a while since we looked at the actual usage of payment, personal finance, lending, and banking apps on Facebook (previous coverage here; see note 1). And assuming the numbers provided by Facebook are accurate, it's not good...

Posted by Jim Bruene on March 14, 2008 12:40 PM

Social Networking Meets Savings Accounts: SmartyPig Launches this Week

Update March 6: I added two clarifications pointed out in the comments. First, that normal ACH deposits to your own SmartyPig account are free of charge. Second, that the retailers bonus on withdrawals to their gift cards is UP TO...

Posted by Jim Bruene on March 4, 2008 12:24 AM

Wesabe is First with True Online Banking Widget

We first discussed the usability advantage of direct-to-the-desktop information delivery in the 1998 Online Banking Report, Creating the Amazon.com of Financial Services  (see note 1). We called it a "meter" instead of today's widget or gadget, but its essential function was to show balance levels on...

Posted by Jim Bruene on November 12, 2007 5:56 PM

Geezeo iWants Facebook Users

  I check Facebook about once or twice per week to see what new financial apps have been posted. So far the ones we've looked at include (see previous coverage here): Lending Club's P2P marketplace Prosper's Fantasy Banker PayPal Wesabe...

Posted by Jim Bruene on September 26, 2007 10:27 PM

Top-10 Facebook Money & Banking Applications

  After six short weeks, there are 48 applications in Facebook's Money category. At Netbanker we are most interested in the 14 directly related to banking, payments, and lending. So here's the most-used list with the stock trackers, calculators, and shopper apps removed....

Posted by Jim Bruene on July 13, 2007 6:38 PM

Conference Notebook: SourceMedia's Mobile Commerce Summit

I just returned from an enjoyable day and a half at the inaugural Mobile Commerce Summit put on by SourceMedia, the publisher of American Banker and numerous other financial publications. The conference featured speakers from the entire mobile banking...

Posted by Jim Bruene on June 20, 2007 11:06 AM

Wall Street Journal Publishes Roundup of Social Personal Finance Sites

If you are interested in online personal finance, you'll want to read tomorrow's feature by the Wall Street Journal's Jane Kim, Managing Your Money in Public View (here). It's an accurate and almost entirely positive story that includes interviews from four satisfied users: two...

Posted by Jim Bruene on June 13, 2007 9:48 PM

New Person-to-Person Lender, Lending Club, Hopes Facebook Linkage Allows it to Prosper

Just as we are putting the finishing touches on our latest Online Banking Report, which looks at the intersection of personal finance and social networks, a new person-to-person lender launches. And how do they plan to gain traction? Through...

Posted by Jim Bruene on May 25, 2007 12:13 PM

Mobile Money & Payments 2.0 Released: The Latest from Online Banking Report

Our parent publication, Online Banking Report, has just released its latest in-depth report: Mobile Money & Payments 2.0: Why credit & debit card issuers should embrace mobile delivery nowLink to the full report hereLink to the abstract here The report builds on last month's Mobile...

Posted by Jim Bruene on April 12, 2007 11:59 AM

Creating the Perfect Mobile Wallet for Payments and Banking

Obopay and PayPal both offer phone-and-text based payments along with a linked debit card for spending the money sitting in your payments account. But it's not as powerful as a true mobile wallet with a cellphone preprogrammed to connect to...

Posted by Jim Bruene on June 7, 2006 12:01 AM

Mobile Payments vs. Mobile Wallets

One of the better overviews of mobile payments appeared in the Wall Street Journal several months ago (April 26). It looked briefly at TextPayMe, Obopay (see screenshot below) and PayPal Mobile (NB June 5). The article does a good job...

Posted by Jim Bruene on June 6, 2006 11:18 AM

Financial Mashups like Billmonk

In the musical world, a mashup combines music from one song with lyrics from another, often mixing two very different genres. One of the more famous examples is the Grey Album by DJ Danger Mouse that put words from Jay-Z's...

Posted by Jim Bruene on April 30, 2006 5:06 PM

Payments via Text Message

In today's WSJ, there's a good roundup of the text-message payment systems attempting to find traction in the United States. The article looks briefly at TextPayMe, Obopay, and PayPal Mobile. The article does a good job of contrasting these systems...

Posted by Jim Bruene on April 26, 2006 9:02 AM