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 iPhone apps
• Apple's "Apps for Managing Money" page
• MasterCard ATM Hunter iPhone app (iTunes link)
• Mobile remote deposit from WV United FCU (previous post)
• Chase text banking page
• Evangeline Credit Union (Canada) text/mobile banking demo
• Bank of America's SafePass mobile security page
• Mobile payments integrated with prepaid cards at Obopay
• iPhone app on homepage at Meriwest Credit Union

Second-generation online banking (online banking 2.0)

• Startups demoing new financial apps (link to videos) at FinovateStartup 2009
• Quicken Online's "what's left until payday" tool
• Online personal financial management at Mint
• Long-term financial planning at SimpliFi
• Wesabe's co-branded site at UK's Telegraph and coming soon to Delta Community Credit Union and Addison Avenue Credit Union (also mentioned Jwaala)
• Property tax savings at LowerMyAssessment.com
• Home-Account's fee-based mortgage management
• Free credit grades at KnowBeforeYouApply.com (also mentioned Credit Karma)
• BillShrink's wireless savings tool and credit card tool 
• Social savings at SmartyPig

Connecting with people

• Social networking tools showcased on Michigan State University Federal Credit Union's (MSUFCU) homepage
• MSUFCU twitter page
• BakerTweet, the UK bakery using Twitter
• University of Wisconsin Credit Union's blog, Source Code
• Blog feed on homepage of Piedmont Credit Union (no longer on homepage...blog has gone dormant)
• Subscription options at Piedmont CU's blog site
• Facebook page at Fairwinds Credit Union
• FreeAllATMs campaign from Amplify Credit Union carried out on its Facebook page and YouTube page
• Video usage at Generations Federal Credit Union
• Our newsletter, Online Banking Report and next financial innovations conference Finovate 2009 in NYC, Sep. 29, 2009

Day two of the Mobile Commerce Summit ran just for the morning (see Day 1 highlights), but anyone who overslept missed the highlight of the conference: the much-too-short panel discussion on revenue opportunities that started at 8:15 AM and ended at 9:00 (note 1). 

Panel: Mobile revenue opportunities 

• Drew Sievers, founder & CEO, mFoundry
• Joe Salesky, chairman & chief strategy officer, ClairMail
• Cameron Franks, director, Mobile Commerce Americas, Sybase 365
• Jayatsu Bhattacharya, SVP business development, Mobile Money Ventures (Citigroup & SK Telecom joint venture)
• Mustafa Patni, former director of mobile banking, WaMu

Observations from the panel:

• POS payment services: NFC at point of sale
• Value-added services
• Fees for mobile banking services: transaction, monthly, or annual
• Premium accounts with a rich mobile feature set
• Stock/investment trading (Citi Hong Kong is able to charge a premium for mobile trading)
• Bill pay: expedited payments
• Person-to-person (P2P) payments
• Much of the revenues will be indirect, from deepening and improving customer relationship
• Remote deposit capture for businesses
• Merchant advertising: offers to customers as they shop
• Loyalty programs: driving customers to certain merchants with alerts, offers, and discounts
• Lots of cost-saving opportunities: self-service customer service, moving bill payments to on-us transactions, loyalty program management, security, fulfillment, marketing, call deflection

Panel: Smartphone impact on the customer experience 

Armin Ajami, VP retail Mobile channel, Wells Fargo

• Almost half of smartphone users use the mobile Web daily (source: ABI research, Feb. 2009)
• 18% of U.S. consumers have smartphones
• 263,000 apps now available for smartphones, predicted to grow to about 700,000 by 2013
• There are 27 different app stores today
• Mobile-optimized website <wf.com> launched in July 2007, text banking launched Oct. 2007, native iPhone app launched May 2009
• Funds transfer on mobile-optimized websites takes 2 minutes with 5 clicks, no zooming or scrolling vs. 10 minutes via iPhone mobile browser with 7 clicks, 5 zooms, 7 scrolls and 10 minutes

Alain DeSouza, sr. mgr., market development solutions marketing, Research in Motion

• Globally, 12% to 14% of mobile phones sold now are smartphones; in North America, it's now above 20% (22% to 26%)
• Blackberry app store officially launched April 1, 2009
• Not excited about putting NFC chips into handsets (adds cost); will do it when it makes business sense (last year it was a top-5 opportunity, this year more of a top-20)
• P2P transfer is not a killer app, but could be important for adoption
• Be careful not to waste bandwidth in your app development

Note:
1. Note to conference organizers: Never start a session at 8:15 AM after a Thursday night in Las Vegas.

About 100+ folks gathered in the brand new M Resort near Las Vegas for the third annual Mobile Commerce Summit by SourceMedia. Jeff Dennes from USAA and Jim Simpson from City Bank of Texas, both provided an extraordinary amount of metrics on their mobile rollouts (details below).

The biggest innovation of the day was iPhone-enabled remote check-deposit capture soon to be available from USAA (official launch June 25; see picture below). 

Session highlights
Jeff Dennes, executive director, mobile money & movement, USAA:

• 7.9 million logins so far this year vs. about 7 million in all of 2008
• Highest week to date, 476,000
• 4.8 million USAA members own mobile; 1.5 mil use it to access Internet
• 20% say mobile is primary channel
• 11.4% of members using USAA mobile
• Why so much usage: no branches, members trust USAA, extremely mobile military-oriented customer base, more technically capable than average
• Have SMS, Firethorn downloadable app, WAP <mobile.usaa.com>, native iPhone app
• Native iPhone app released 2 weeks ago: Went to number 1 in first week with 55,000 downloads; 45,000 logins in first week, 93,000 in second week
• iPhone app built in-house and has patents filed
• Will be launching first iPhone remote deposit-capture app on June 25 (see photo above); tune in to the bank's webcast at 7 PM Central time at <budurl.com/usaaannouncement>
• Current iPhone app has insurance functions: filing a claim, roadside assistance
• Personal financial management functions coming soon
• With mobile rollout, are seeing call volumes going down
• 35% of access to mobile site comes from iPhone, 35% from Blackberry
• Will be building app for Blackberry; others as demand warrants (e.g., Pre)

Jim Simpson, VP IT, City Bank of Texas

• Mobile banking is powered by ClairMail (use Jack Henry for core processing and online banking)
• Launched 17 Oct 2008 with balance, history, funds transfers, "call me," near-real-time alerts (not batch) including reward-checking status/summary (sent out 7 days before end of checking cycle telling users how they stand on meeting necessary activity levels
• Have microsite: www.citybankmobile.com
• Made a major cross-channel marketing effort at launch: TV, print, radio, in-branch, and so on; used it to differentiate themselves in competitive Lubbock market
• 10.2% online banking penetration
• 64% use weekly
• Average age is 32
• Average account balance on primary account is over $5,000
• More than 3,000 active users
• Limited use of mobile browser site, bnkngo.mobi; text-message banking is much more popular (also have gocitybank.mobi); get 5,000 balance requests via text messaging each week vs. 25 or 30 mobile Web logins
• Real-time alerts (vs. batch) is one of the key benefits that users like; they often can text message a confirmation of the transaction while still standing at the checkout counter; not always that fast, sometimes can be a few minutes later
• Coming: End-of-day, text-based account summary, "payit" loan payment via text (in response to text alert), iPhone/Blackberry apps
• How to make money? Adding ad-supported links within text messages; e.g., link back to the restaurant where the transaction originated

Ginger Schmeltzer, SVP, SunTrust

• Currently at 2.5% penetration of online banking users powered by Firethorn
• 33% access via iPhone; 33% via Blackberry
• Have an RFP out now to find vendor(s) to increase functionality
• See real benefits from using mobile channel to decrease fraud

Patrick Reetz, VP & director, online banking, M&I Bank

• Rolled out mobile in Oct 2008 powered by MShift
• Within 11 days, achieved one-year goal of 2% penetration of online banking users (longer term, their initial goal was 10% by YE 2010)
• Currently have 7% penetration

Ellen Johnson, SVP retail online services, Huntington Bank

• Have just under 25,000 users of mobile Web banking, launched in June 2008
• Number of users of text banking surpassed mobile Web in April, launched 6 months ago
• Mobile banking customers are 38% more profitable; text banking, 13% more profitable
• Call center contacts per active user dropped 3.4% in first 6 months
• Have a mobile microsite for marketing

Juli Anne Callis, president & CEO, National Institutes of Health Federal Credit Union (previously at Keypoint Credit Union)

• At Keypoint Credit Union, even usage between iPhone and Blackberry access
• Keypoint powered by mShift and will be using mShift at her new CU
• Launched on Facebook Nov 2007 (OBR Best of Web winner)
  

Amy Johnson, channel manager -- CEO Mobile, Wells Fargo

• Launched 2 years ago (April 2007), and Wells Fargo remains the only major U.S. bank offering full corporate mobile banking
• Mobile Web-based system
• No charge except certain text messages (and those fees may go away)
• No set-up process -- just log in at mobile site with existing online credentials
• Will not disclose usage, but are targeting top-tier customers: top 10%-15%
• Access: 30% iPhone, 50%+ BlackBerry -- no Android so far
• $2.5 billion in wire approvals via CEO Mobile in 2008

Kevin Morrisson, AVP card products, H&R Block

• Using text messages to defer calls to call center (currently receive 80 million annually), especially people checking to see if their refund has arrived.
• Program was piloted this year and is expected to roll out nationwide later this year. Found dramatic decline in voice calls from test group.
• Mobile program powered by Metavante/Monitise joint program. 

Rebecca Mann, director of strategic alliances, Western Union

• Using mobile to replace either the sending or receiving part of a money transfer
• Partnering with US Bank for international remittances

Lisa Stanton, CEO, Monitise America

• Can do more secure services within an app compared to mobile Web or SMS

Matt Krogstad, VP business development, M-Com

• Critical for banks to be point of registration and source of funds
• Should be able to register outside online banking -- via call center, ATM along with mobile phone
• In Australia, mobile money transfers was slower to take off, approx. 18 months after adoption of mobile banking

Clint Heyworth, attorney, consumer finance group, Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel

• One-to-one relationship with phone (e.g., you have it with you) makes it better for security compared to PC where others have access
• Not a lot of legal differences between delivering banking services via mobile vs. online
• Don't expect to see specific regulation regarding the mobile channel; will likely be the same regulations as for online banking

Tom Wills, senior analyst, Javelin Strategy & Research

• Security is single biggest factor inhibiting mass consumer uptake
• Only 500 pieces of malware have been identified so far in mobile vs. thousands of new ones every day online
• 47% of respondents are uncomfortable with mobile security (Mar 2008 data)
• Main concern is hackers, mentioned by 73% of those above
• Expects anti-virus software makers to build mobile versions

Rebecca Sausner, editor, Bank Technology News

• Total revenues for mobile banking vendors this year will be $26 million (source: Aite)

Sean Moshir, CEO, CellTrust (also mobile banking sub-committee co-chair of Mobile Marketing Association)

• 66% of consumers still not yet comfortable using mobile device for financial transactions (source: 2009 KPMG Global Consumer Survey)
• 7% said they would pay a nominal fee to access online banking services via mobile phones (source: 2009 KPMG Global Consumer Survey)

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 Money" page
• Blog entry about Quicken Online's iPhone app
• iPhone on the homepage at 1st Mariner bank
• Chase mobile banking page
• Mobile data entry at Xpenser
• Bank of America's SafePass mobile security page
• mobile payments integrated with prepaid cards at Obopay
• Quicken Loan's Twitter page
• Twitter mentioned on Wachovia's Contact Us page
• Wachovia's Twitter page
• University of Wisconsin Credit Union's blog, Source Code
• Sierra Vista Bank's President's Corner blog
• Chase Bank's Chase +1 Facebook site
• Online personal financial management at Mint
• Property tax savings at LowerMyAssessment.com
• BillShrink's savings tool
• Social savings at SmartyPig
• Free credit scores at Credit Karma
• Free credit grades at KnowBeforeYouApply.com
• Long-term financial planning at SimpliFi
• Deposit auctions at MoneyAisle
• Carbon footprint estimates pulled from spending data by Cooler Inc.
• Wesabe's co-branded site at UK's Telegraph
• H&R Block's five-level fee structure for tax prep
• Wells Fargo's fee-based vSafe online account storage
• Home-Account's fee-based mortgage management
• Fee-based credit monitoring at MyFICO
• Expedited payments at Seacoast National Bank
• Prepaid cards plus expense reports geared for small businesses at Expensify
• Blog post about Mitek's remote deposit capture via mobile phone
• Selling behind the login at Wells Fargo, Citibank and Chase
• Product placement at Rainier Pacific Bank (expedited payments)
• Intuit's Quicken Health
• Fifth Third's HSA account
• Webster's HSA Bank
• Optum Health Bank's debit card
• High-rate HSA account at San Francisco Fire Credit Union
• IOUSOS health-debt collection system from Globefunder
• Finovate 2009 in NYC Sep. 29

With our FinovateStartup conference just a month away (April 28), I wanted to alert readers to the upcoming early-bird deadline. This Tuesday, March 31, is the last day to save $100 by purchasing tickets for the early-bird price of $895 each. Registration is here.

You've seen the amazing lineup of 52 participating startups (latest four here plus previous 48 here), but I also wanted to point out there is an equally impressive lineup of attendees already registered for the event (see selected logos below).

Whether you work for a tech company, bank, credit union or other financial services company, there is no better way to be exposed to so many new ideas in just a single day. It can be extremely thought-provoking to view the market through the lens of focused, energetic and creative startup. It's an entire day thinking outside the box. 

Some of the ideas you'll experience April 28:

• Opportunities with decoupled debit
• Social savings, lending and investing
• Helping consumers find the best financial solution to fit their needs
• How to leverage the community to help solve financial problems 
• The grand reopening of person-to-person lending
• New mutual funds targeting retail investors
• The best ideas for online personal financial management
• New ways to help users find and track investments
• Using PIN-debit online
• How to help consumers manage their total debt
• Small business solutions for managing expense reports online
• iPhone applications that help you engage customers
• An online solution for accounts-receivable financing
• Using the credit report/score as a jumping off point to targeted offers
• New ways to increase actual and perceived security
• Mortgage optimization engine

Sample of registered attendees for FinovateStartup 2009

Participating startups at FinovateStartup 2009

To give you an idea of the types of innovations being funded in financial services these days, here's a capsule description of the first 48 companies demoing at FinovateStartup April 28 in San Francisco (note 1).

Attention attendees: You have just one day left to register (here) at the discounted price of $795. 

Finovate Startup 2009 Participants

Acculynk
Acculynk is a payments solutions provider with a suite of software-only services that secure online transactions by utilizing a graphical, scrambling PIN-pad for the secure entry of sensitive cardholder information.

AlphaClone
AlphaClone is a web-based investment research service that lets users explore the investing ideas of top hedge fund and institutional money managers.

Aradiom
Aradiom is a mobile solutions provider and designer of Java mobile applications and platform development technology including turn-key applications, embedded soft-token security solutions and BlackBerry® enterprise applications.

BillShrink
BillShrink is a personalized savings advisor that helps consumers make smart, money-saving decisions by providing continuously updated, personalized, usage-based recommendations on everyday services like credit cards and cell phone plans

BudgetTracker
BudgetTracker is a personal finance manager that allows users to manage their finances and keep track of their budget, bills, and transactions online without having to install software.

CalendarBudget
CalendarBudget is a free online personal budgeting tool that helps users organize and track their finances, plan future spending and save money.

Centrro
Centrro is a financial search engine that allows consumers to anonymously shop for personal financial products that best fit their specific credit profile.

CircleUp
CircleUp provides group communications services, which enable actionable and efficient interactions across diverse social, email, mobile, messaging and private web networks.

Cooler Inc.
Cooler Inc. enables users to know, decrease, and offset the global warming impact of their everyday purchases and activities by using the country's only peer-reviewed carbon calculator to calculate impact and then providing reductions targets and strategies, and offering recommendations on high quality carbon offsets.

CreditArray
CreditArray is a vault of proprietary information to allow consumers to better apply for and manage their credit portfolios.

Credit Karma
Credit Karma provides consumers free access to their credit score and offers credit simulators, advice, and credit score comparison tools in order to allow them to more actively manage their credit and financial health.

GoalSpring
GoalSpring's product, DebtGoal, makes paying down debt as easy and efficient as possible by taking into account all of a customer's debt and helping them organize, optimize and pay it down.

Expensify
Expensify simplifies keeping track of business expenses by combining an electronic payment card and a web-based expense manager to automate expense report preparation, approval, and reimbursement.

Green Sherpa
Green Sherpa offers personal cash flow management software that lets users conveniently download, manage and update all their financial accounts via a single online resource.

Home-Account
Home-Account is in stealth mode at this time. 

HomeATM
HomeATM provides a secure PIN debit and PIN credit card transactions method via the Internet that utilizes the HomeATM swipe pad technology to allow users to conduct secure PIN-based transactions from home, ensuring virtually zero fraud and lower merchant processing fee costs.

iBearSoft
iBearSoft is the creator of iBearMoney, a personal finance application for the iPhone that allows users to input and categorize their transactions, run financial reports, analyze payments, and keep track of expenses.

iThryv
iThryv is a financial literacy platform that combines a content delivery system and an incentive system in order to create an immersive learning environment which provides a powerful tool when used in partnership with online banking and core providers.

Jwaala
Jwaala provides software for banks and credit unions that improves their online banking services. Their MoneyTracker application offers a personal financial management solution that can be added to any bank or credit union's existing online banking solution.

kaChing
kaChing is a social investment community that applies an open source and social-networking strategy to offer every investor the opportunity to find outstanding investors, emulate their portfolios, and access the returns, insights, transparency and talent previously only available to wealthy individuals.

Kapitall
Kapitall is a rich web application that aims to make investing easy for everyone. Inspired by game design, Kapitall combines an graphical user interface with tools that make it easier than ever to research companies, build portfolios, share ideas and get smarter about the market.

Lending Club
Lending Club is an online social lending network where people can borrow and invest money at attractive rates.

LendingKarma
LendingKarma is a person-to-person lending site that makes it easy for parties that know each other to create loans and provides borrowers and lenders with tools to help service the loan and see it through to repayment.

Looniesdesk.com
Looniesdesk.com enables people to manage their finances online using an open source financial platform that allows developers to build sophisticated applications which will help users enhance their experience and increase the efficiency of the service.

Mint
Mint is an online personal finance service that securely downloads users' financial transactions, allows them to categorize their transactions, provides a unified view of all account activity and relevant account alerts, and offers personalized suggestions for significant savings opportunities.

Moneta
Moneta provides a secure, quick and easy form of online payment that directly debits users' checking or money market account allowing users to only enter a secure username and password when making online purchases.

NCore
NCore provides enterprise class delivery channel solutions to financial institutions within the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions fusing applications, innovative security and middleware technology into a single integrated platform.

OurCashFlow
OurCashFlow offers personal finance management tools for financial institutions that can turn their website into a place where customers can create a budget, save money and achieve their savings goals.

Pennyminder
Pennyminder helps individuals and small groups manage their shared and personal finances by tracking deposits and withdrawals allowing them to see what's happening with their money

People Capital
People Capital is a peer-to-peer private student loan service that utilizes a unique scoring system to predict a student's potential and provide a true, unbiased measure of the economic value of an education that empowers students to make better educational decisions and offers multiple advantages for both borrowers and lenders.

Pertuity Direct
Pertuity Direct offers social lending for personal loans by bringing together the advantages of capital markets, social networks and traditional banking.

Portfolio Monkey
Portfolio Monkey provides free online portfolio management tools to help average investors optimize their portfolios and find customized investment ideas so they can create more efficient portfolios with higher expected return and less risk.

Prosper
Prosper is a person-to-person lending marketplace where people list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform.

The Receivables Exchange
The Receivables Exchange is a real-time online market for trading accounts receivable that gives businesses access to working capital at a competitive cost by connecting a global network of accredited investors to the nation's small and mid-sized businesses.

Rudder
Rudder is a free personal finance software designed to minimize the effort required in managing money by helping users to manage their budget, track their bills and analyze their expected income and projected expenses.

Silver Tail Systems
Silver Tail Systems provides fraud prevention to defend users' websites against business logic abuse through the use of behavior detection, efficient investigation and real-time mitigation to track suspicious behavior and divert the bad actors, leaving legitimate users unaffected.

SimpliFi
SimpliFi provides independent financial advice online. Users can complete a profile and receive a personal financial plan with specific actionable steps.

SmartHippo
SmartHippo uses the power of the community to find users the best rates on financial products and services.

SmartyPig
SmartyPig is a social saving service that helps users save for a specific goal by allowing them to invite others to contribute to their account, providing incentive boosts from top retailers, and offering a competitive interest rate.

Strands
moneyStrands is a money management service that helps users get information on anything from practical savings tips to getting help tracking expenses down

Syphr
Syphr is a technology and marketing credit union service organization that created RateMatch, a service that matches participating credit unions with the thousands of credit report purchasers per month.

ThreatMetrix
ThreatMetrix helps companies control online fraud and abuse in real time by profiling the device used in an online transaction so companies can determine whether the users are fraudsters or customers.

Transparent Financial Services
Transparent Financial Services is online comparison-shopping service for small businesses that uses technology to help users compare and purchase financial services like payroll processing, credit card processing and business loans.

Victrio
Victrio offers a credit risk management system that uses voiceprint recognition technology to fight credit card fraud and identity theft.

Wesabe
Wesabe is an online personal finance management tool that provides members with information about where they spend and links them with a community dedicated to helping each other make smart financial decisions.

WeSeed
WeSeed seeks to demystify the stock market by helping real people share what they know and make smart investing decisions based on the collective wisdom of the community.   

ZimpleMoney
ZimpleMoney is a web-based financial services platform enabling people and organizations to manage and administer financial agreements including loans, leases, rentals, tithing, trusts and settlements.

Note
1. Several other participants are remaining anonymous for the time being. 

The financial services startup community will be out in force April 28 at our second annual Finovate Startup conference.

The nine new companies below, along with the 39 participants announced two weeks ago, plus several we can't yet name, bring the total to 50 startups. That's eleven more than last year! We can now say that we'll have the largest group of financial services startups ever assembled in one place.

Don't miss your opportunity to talk to the companies that will help change the financial services landscape in the coming years. Join the many bank, credit union, and technology execs in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 28, for a thought-provoking and exciting day (see note 1).

The early-bird deadline ends Friday, so register now for just $795. Current Online Banking Report subscribers can save even more. Look on the back page of the most recent issue, or email info@netbanker.com for your customer discount code. 

Here are the latest additions to the conference (note 2):

• AlphaClone           
• CircleUp
• HomeATM
• LendingKarma
• OurCashFlow
• Pennyminder
• People Capital
• ThreatMetrix
• WeSeed

Notes:
1.  And if you can come early, don't forget BarCampBankSF2, happening Saturday and Sunday, April 25/26 (previous post). 

2. Are you a startup interested in participating? Contact Eric Mattson.

3. Members of the media, including financial industry bloggers, should request a press pass here .

FinovateStartup09, our annual springtime technology event in the San Francisco Bay area, is just three months away. Today, we announced the first wave of young companies committed to participate on April 28.

More companies are in the pipeline, and when all is said and done we expect more than 50 startups to be on hand to demonstrate the latest in online and mobile financial services and technology.

The Finovate format combines fast-paced demos (no PowerPoint!) with extensive networking where you can meet the start-up founders along with influential industry executives, press corps, and analysts. To get a taste for the event, take a look at videos of past demos.

Because we hadn't named any companies until today, we've extended the Super Early Bird registration deadline until this Friday, Feb. 6 (register here). See you in San Francisco.

Finovate Startup 2009 lineup (as of 2 Feb. 2009):

• Acculynk
• Aradiom
• BillShrink
• BudgetTracker
• CalendarBudget
• Centrro
• Cooler Inc.
• CreditArray
• Credit Karma
• GoalSpring
• Expensify
• Green Sherpa
• Home-Account
• iBearSoft
• iThryv
• Jwaala
• kaChing
• Kapitall
• Lending Club
• Looniesdesk.com
• Mint
• Moneta
• NCore
• Pertuity Direct
• Portfolio Monkey
• Prosper
• Receivables Exchange
• Rudder
• Silver Tail Systems
• SimpliFi
• SmartHippo
• SmartyPig
• Strands
• Syphr
• Transparent Financial Services
• Victrio
• Wesabe
• ZimpleMoney

One month ago we announced the 2009 version of our Finovate Startup Conference. Since then, we've been busy talking to FinTech startups from around the world. We are glad (and a bit relieved) to announce that we already have 35 committed to demo at the event. There is still an enormous amount of activity and energy in the banking and financial technology sector (note 1).

We are several months out from the deadline, so we expect in excess of 50 startups, along with several hundred bankers, investors and other industry execs to convene April 28 at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center (note 2).

While last year's FinovateStartup was dominated by social-media plays (see logos below), this year we have more diversity, with companies from the following categories:

• Alt payments
• Financial shopping/comparison tools
• Investment management/tools
• Mobile banking & payments
• iPhone/Android applications, personal financial management/tools
• Peer-to-peer lending
• Personal credit management tools
• Other technologies

Participating companies will be named beginning Feb. 1, but you can save by reserving a ticket now.

Super-early-bird prices that are easy on the budget
We've tried to make the conference as affordable as possible recognizing that travel and conference budgets are under constraints. You still have nine days left to snag super-early-bird tickets for $695. Current Online Banking Report subscribers, including anyone in the same company as an existing subscriber, can grab tickets for even less, just $445 each until Jan. 31 (note 3).

Attendees may register here. More information on the event is here.

FinTech companies interested in participating/demoing should email Eric Mattson .

FinovateStartup 2008 presenters (videos of all 2008 demos are here)

Notes:
1. See our post, "Why financial technology still matters," here.
2. The venue is about two miles south of the San Francisco financial district.
3. If you don't know if your company subscribes to Online Banking Report, email info@netbanker.com to find out. If qualified, we'll email your subscriber discount code to you.

We know 2009 promises to be a challenge, but if history is any judge, more lasting innovations will be put in place next year than any year this century. Necessity truly is the mother of invention, especially for startups. 

Next year, we will again showcase the best and brightest ideas at our Finovate conferences:

Finovate Startup:
San Francisco - 28 April 2009
The conference features the launch of new companies in financial tech, as well as young companies launching major new products and features. Last year, we had 40 startups participate (see first screenshot below), and this year we expect even more (see demos from 2008).

Finovate 2009: 
New York City - 29 Sept. 2009
We head to NYC for the third year in a row to showcase the best of 2009 in the online and mobile space. Company size is irrelevant; it's all about what's new and what's hot (see demos from 2008, 2007).

Attend a Finovate conference in 2009
About 700 of the most innovative execs in banking, finance and technology attended a Finovate event in 2008. The events are fast-paced, just a single day, and allow you to network with the presenting execs along with the decision makers in the audience. Both attendees and presenters love the format.

If you want to join the excitement, you can sign up up now at deeply discounted prices. Tickets are transferable, and refundable, so the risk is low. If you want to bring your entire team, email Eric Mattson, eric@netbanker.com, for a team price.  

Present in 2009: FinTech startups
If you have a young company involved in the online or mobile finance area, there is no reason not to be at FinovateStartup. This year, we are opening the floor to any qualifying startup. So, for the price of a single ticket, you are ensured a table at the event to show off your company and a chance to demo on stage (see previous FinovateStartup demos). 

The earlier you apply, the more benefits you receive. Please check out the Presenters page or email to eric@netbanker.com.

Present in 2009: other FinTech companies
At Finovate2009 in NYC, we'll put the best two dozen ideas on stage regardless of the size or location of the company. Last year, we had popular demos from large companies including Intuit and CheckFree/Fiserv as well as startups, Mint, Credit Karma, NeoSaej and others (see previous demos from Oct. 2008 and Oct. 2007).

If you have a dynamite new product and are interested in launching it at Finovate NYC, please email eric@netbanker.com or check out the presenters page.

Press
Last year, more than 50 financial, technology and personal finance press and analysts attended the Finovate conferences. If you'd like a press pass for either event, please email me at jim@netbanker.com.

Presenters at FinovateStartup 2008

Presenters at Finovate 2008

BAI's Retail Delivery Conference is an annual rite for bank tech geeks from around the world. Although attendance was down 20% or so from last year, causing some grousing on the trade-show floor, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here's my personal list of highlights from the show (see note 1). 

The Netbanker awards:

• Most audacious business plan: Alt-payment startups Moneta and sister company Acculynk which are looking to disrupt online payments at the point of sale
• Most likely to succeed: mobile anything 
• Biggest "wow" factor: Cardless ATMs by Wincor Nixdorf  
• Best demo of something that actually exists: Bank of Montreal's demo of its new branch locator using Microsoft Virtual Earth (shown at the Microsoft's booth)
• Coolest solution looking for a problem: Microsoft Surface
• Product most likely to be used in our company: Bankserv remote deposit integrated with QuickBooks 
• Product least likely to be used in our company: Wii banking from Wincor Nixdorf (but it's very cool)
• Best presentation: Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Growing Up Digital 
• Best buzzword comeback: Push banking (mobile apps, widgets, alerts)
• Best trade floor freebie: Free espresso from ClairMail 
• Best financial screenshot during a keynote: PayPal CEO Scott Thompson showed PayPal Mobile from Chase Bank, a pilot program running on several college campuses (Ohio State), where Paypal Mobile is bundled with banking services from Chase Bank
• Worst financial screenshot during a keynote: Don Tapscott used Zopa USA as an example of a promising new Web 2.0 financial company (Zopa pulled out of the U.S. market last month)
• Biggest jinx: Second Curve Capital CEO Tom Brown, who Tuesday afternoon explained why he is so bullish on bank stocks; the NASDAQ bank stock index proceeded to drop 200 points (10%) over the next two days (note 2)
• Most amazing stat: In his keynote, CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann said ING Direct (USA) had originated more than 100,000 mortgages worth $36 billion, and initiated foreclosures only 15 times
• Best time: Dinner with Trey Reeme and the gang from TDECU who are not only some of the nicest people you could ever meet, but also provided absolutely stimulating conversation and some great laughs

Best of show: Drum roll please. After dozens of amazing conversations over three days, the company that most intrigued me is alt-payments startup Moneta (note 3). 

Notes:
1. I visited with only a couple dozen of the 300 or so companies in Orlando, so comments here are not meant to be an overview, just the highlights of my experience. As usual, I spent most of my time looking for new ideas and ended up spending half my time talking to mobile providers.
2. To his credit, Mr. Brown did not say bank stocks had bottomed; in fact, he said they could very well go lower. But by this time next year, he expects a substantial turnaround. It was a great presentation.
3. Moneta didn't have a booth, but board member and investor Ashish Bahl was in attendance and briefed me on his firm. We'll provide more details on the company later. 

I attended my second BarCampBank Saturday in Vancouver BC. I was part of the first North American camp in Seattle last July (coverage here).

For me, this one was more interesting. There were more people (50-60 compared to 30-40 in Seattle) and more financial institutions represented, including both credit unions and banks. HSBC Direct even helped sponsor the event.

First a note of thanks to organizers William Azaroff of Vancity; Tim McAlpine, creator of Common Wealth CU's Young and Free program and  founder of Currency Marketing; and Gene Blishen, CEO of Mt. Lehman Credit Union who has the coolest graphics in the whole world (see inset). 

If you want to see session notes, check out the weekend entries at William's blog. He did an amazing job facilitating the sessions and live blogging. You can also watch archived video streams of five of the sessions, courtesy of Brent Dixon, posted at his Open Source CU blog (turn on the embedded player and click the "on demand" button in the lower bar). 

Here's what I highlighted in my notebook: 

• Mobile could be more game-changing than we give it credit for. The ability to communicate in real-time as consumers engage in shopping, bill payment, and so on is so powerful, it's difficult to grasp the long-term implications. 
  
• Social media tools like Twitter could be used to harness customers' reactions in real time, a virtual sentiment meter as one of the campers said (was that you Brent?) Why not have a "what are you thinking" box displayed after customers login. The responses could be aggregated and trended to see how the bank is performing over time.
  They could also be broadcast to all customers to build community.
  
• Even in this progressive group, only two of the financial institutions are blogging: Vancity's ChangeEverything which is really more of a platform for social change than a true broadcast-type blog and Verity Credit Union (note 1). Reasons for not blogging seemed to be some variation of "lack of resources." It's hard to argue with that. But basic blogs such as UW Credit Union or Piedmont Credit Union, both of which I think are very effective, can be put together in just a few hours per week.
  
• Financial literacy, or lack thereof, was a common theme and there seemed to be a consensus that the industry should help schools and parents do a better job preparing youth to handle money and debt. This is what iThyrv, which debuted at TechCrunch50 last week, is using as their primary market-entry strategy (previous post here). Andrew Taylor, Jwaala CEO, participating remotely via the live webcast, threw out the the idea of a financial literacy score similar to FICO. Again, that's part of the iThryv model. It's a good idea if it were to catch on, although that seems like a long shot.  

Note:
1. Many (most?) of the credit union representatives had personal blogs.

In addition to the 51 companies chosen in advance to demo at TechCrunch's annual conference, 120 more companies (note 1) are in the DemoPit. The DemoPit is an area outside the main hall where the companies that didn't make the final cut to be on stage have a table where they can showcase their companies to attendees. And one lucky company, the one that collects the most tokens from attendees, will appear as company number 52 on stage in the last session tomorrow.

There were several financial services companies in the DemoPit Monday including Billeo, Expensify, and LoanKrunch. Today, there was just one, Rate Surfer from My Best Interest. Although the service will not go live until its debut at Finovate next month, the company today showed it to the public for the first time. It also added a downloadable demo program to its website if you want a sneak peek (note 2).

What it does
Rate Surfer is a credit card manager. It uses account-aggregation technology to import balance and rate data from all your credit cards. It then uses that data to help users initiate and track credit card balance transfers across their credit cards. Although not without rough edges still to work out, it could potentially save users hundreds of dollars in interest every year by helping them take advantage of transfer opportunities.

Main Rate Surfer page from its demo software (9 Sep 2008) 

Notes:
1. There are 120 total companies, but each gets just a 12-hour day in the DemoPit, so there are 40 companies each day. Although, the Monday companies were given an extra day due to a wifi outage that plagued the hall much of Monday. In addition to these companies, there were 33 exhibitor tables and 22 TechCrunch alumni with tables, including Cake Financial and last year's winner Mint.

2. It's a 67MB download.

Two huge tech conferences opened today in California with 124 companies launching new products this week in front of a combined audience of more than 2,500 (see note 1). At DEMOfall in San Diego, 72 companies are launching new products today and tomorrow. In San Francisco, 52 companies launch at TechCrunch50 today through Wednesday.

Eight of the 124 companies are related to financial services:

• DEMOfall: Rudder, GreenSherpa, BizEquity (Advanta)
• Techcrunch50: iThryv (below), StockMood, PersonalRIA, exchangeP, and Emerginvest

We'll cover several of these companies, plus several in the TechCrunch50 DemoPit, starting with iThryv.

iThryv kicks of TechCrunch50
I made it down from Seattle this morning just in time to catch the first demo. I'm glad I got up early because it just so happened to be the only personal finance/banking-related finalist. Oklahoma City-based Shryk kicked off TechCrunch50 (note 2) by unveiling its online banking platform aimed at the 12- to 20-year-old crowd. The new service is called iThryv and it will be marketed directly to banks and credit unions who will customize and brand it for their own customer base.

iThryv will be integrated directly to the bank, or its core processor, so that real-time banking data can be displayed in various widgets. In addition to account info, iThryv also includes the following modules and features:

• Goal-oriented savings, including rewards for reaching milestones
• A spending & savings score that does for savings what a credit score does for loans
• Make $ area where budding entrepreneurs can learn more about starting a business
• Learn area for financial education

The company has a two-fold approach to getting iThryv into the market:

• Licensing the platform to banks for a fixed fee plus per-user fees
• Giving the platform to schools to incorporate into their curriculum

According to the founders, the service is currently being considered by several financial institutions, but it is not yet available online.

iThryv homepage (8 Sep 2008)

 iThryv savings score graphed (8 Sep 2008)

iThryv "Make $" tab (8 Sep 2008)

Notes:
1. TechCrunch reported approximately 1,700 attendees; DEMOfall, 800.

2. iThryv was originally scheduled to present third, but were moved up to first when Ashton Kutcher was late for his scheduled demo of his startup, Blah Girls.

After looking at more than 100 companies, we've selected 24 finalists to present at our second annual Finovate Conference Oct. 14 in New York City (registration here). Three will emerge as Finovate Best of Show companies joining  last year's winners: Mint,Mortgage Marvel from Mortgagebot, and Prosper (note 1).  

In a single action-packed day, we'll see several financial startups launch, a few major product overhauls revealed, and a pile of new features shown to the public for the first time. It could be the single biggest "news day" in the history of online finance. Besides the amazing presenter lineup, the audience will contain many well-known industry analysts, members of the press, and banking and technology execs. Here are the subjects that will be covered:

• Person-to-person lending
• Lead generation in financial services
• Personal financial management and online banking
• Mobile banking and payments
• Payments/billing
• Investing and retirement planning online
• Security technologies
• Social media and Web 2.0

Finovate 2008 Lineup (alphabetic order, note 2)
Below is a list of all 24 companies. In all, seven of the companies presented at our sold-out Finovate 2007; three are graduates from Finovate Startup last April; and 14 are new to Finovate. But all 24 will be demonstrating substantial new products and/or features. 

• BillShrink <billshrink.com>
• Boulevard R <boulevardR.com>
• CheckFree <checkfree.com>
• Check Point Software<checkpoint.com>
• Credit Karma <creditkarma.com>
• Digital Insight (Intuit) <digitalinsight.com>
• FiLife (Dow Jones/IAC) <filife.com>
• mFoundry <mfoundry.com>
• Mint <mint.com>
• MoneyAisle (NeoSaej) <moneyaisle.com>
• mShift <mshift.com>
• Inner8 <inner8.com>
• Lending Club <lendingclub.com>
• Pertuity Direct <pertuitydirect.com>
• Quicken Online (Intuit) <quicken.com>
• SmartHippo <smarthippo.com>
• Sybase 365 <sybase.com/365>
• Vidoop <vidoop.com>
• Wesabe <wesabe.com>
• WeSeed <weseed.com>
• Yodlee <yodlee.com>

• Galaxy (Fiserv) <galaxyplus.com>
• Rate Surfer (My Best Interest) <ratesurfer.com>
• Thrive <justthrive.com>

About Finovate 2008

• Date: Oct. 14, 2008
• Place: New York, NY (Crowne Plaza Times Square)
• Cost: $995 through Sep. 30
• Agenda: 12 demos in the morning (7 minutes each, NO POWERPOINT),
  12 in the afternoon; each session followed by two hours of networking to meet with presenters for one-on-one discussions
• Producer: Online Financial Innovations, publisher of Online Banking Report and Netbanker
• Website: finovate.com
• For videos of the sold-out Finovate 2007, click here

Press: Members of the media should contact Jim Bruene, jim@netbanker.com to secure a press pass.

Note:
1. Winners are selected by audience vote.
2. The list does not include two stealth startups and one company to be named later.

What's all this about BarCampBanks? From a North American premiere in Seattle almost a year ago, we've witnessed two more in the last few months, and eight more are either scheduled, or in the planning process.

Well, maybe not exactly "planned." BarCampBanks emerge more than they are planned.

What's a BarCampBank?
It emerged from the BarCamp movement, which according to barcamp.org, is defined as...

...an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.

It started as a technology summit, an un-conference where developers and technology geeks could share exploits, connect, and find like-minded companions to extol the virtue of open-source and emerging technologies over pizza and wine.

And then someone decided that this forum would be a perfect place to talk about banking and finance. Weird. And yet it works.

It started in Seattle
I was fortunate to learn about BarCampBankSeattle, the first North American BarCampBank soon after it was announced by the prescient organizer Jesse Robbins. I can't quite call it a decision to attend - it was more a compulsion. Somehow I knew I had to be there.

Probably some of you reading this will feel that way, too. And if so, I urge you to get yourself to one of the BarCampBanks spawning like saplings everywhere bank-geeks gather. The conversations initiated, the innovations surfaced, and the relationships developed at these organic and loose events are truly inspirational and energizing. It really is something to be experienced, and at a cost of $20-35, it's a fraction of the cost of a typical talking-head conference.

After BarCampBankSeattle in July of 2007, there was a long dry BCB spell, which wasn't broken until the last few months when BarCampBankSanFrancisco and BarCampBankNewEngland emerged. Some dedicated BCB-heads even attended both in a cross-country banking-frenzy (you know who you are, my friends).

Coming soon, in Dallas
If you've read this far and feel the need to dive in right away, your first opportunity is BarCampBankDallas planned by my co-participant in Seattle, Brad Garland. It'll take place 21-22 June at the American Bank of Texas Building in Frisco, Texas. Brad is excited about the attendees who have signed up on the wiki (each BarCampBank hosts) where people can add what they wish to contribute to make the event their own. They have people coming from in and out of the country, from banks, credit unions, and even companies like Microsoft. It should be a great conversation.

BarCamping in London
If you'll be in London this summer, you can check out BarCampBankLondon on 5 July at Sun Microsystems' offices on King William Street. London is being planned by the great blogger James Gardner, the head of innovation at Lloyds TSB. In his entry on the event's wiki, James mentions that he is interested in talking "about innovation programmes and the economic reasons why *not* to give them too much money." Intriguing.

July in Charleston
After London, look out for BarCampBankCharleston, taking place on 26-27 July at the First Federal Corporate Center in North Charleston. George Pasley is organizing, and it should prove to be a great, inaugural Southern event.

BarCampBankBC, just too many Bs and Cs
If you're on the West Coast and want to save the planet from the carbon emissions of travel to London or Charleston, come to BarCampBankBC, 20-21 September, at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in downtown Vancouver (originally called BarCampBankVancouver, who could then resist the acronym BCBBC?). I am organizing this event, along with Gene Blishen and Tim McAlpine. I am humbled and excited by the diversity of the attendee list so far.

Coming to Charlotte?
But what if you work at Bank of America or Wachovia? With the credit crunch, you may not be able to get your supervisors to pony up cash for an event with the flaky name of BarCampBank. Well, fear not, BarCampBankCharlotte is in the concept stage, and you can help make it a reality. Click through to the wiki and lend Josh Street a hand in organizing.

Stay tuned for more BarCampBanks
The other two in the nascent stage are another BarCampBankSanFrancisco, hoping to coincide with MacWorld in January 2009; BarCampBankMadison, being planned by Christopher Morris from the National Credit Union Foundation; and BarCampBankChicago, 16 July, in conjunction with the FDIC's Interagency Minority Depository Institutions National Conference. 

With all the changes happening in our industry, the focus on relentless innovation, and so much uncertainty about the economy, it's a good thing that there will soon be a BarCampBank near you.

William Azaroff has been an occasional contributor to NetBanker for the past year. His duties driving Online Strategy & Community Engagement at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union, keep him from writing as often as he'd like. He blogs at azaroff.com/blog

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 me.

Blogs:

• Young & Free from Common Wealth CU
• SourceCode from University of Wisconsin CU
• Member Connect from Piedmont CU
• The Diff from Quicken Loans

Personal finance:

• Mint
• Wesabe
• MyPortfolio from Bank of America

Investment communities

• Covestor
• Motley Fool CAPS

Lending communities (P2P lending)

• Prosper
• Loanio
• CommunityLend
• Virgin Money (US)

Mobile

• Chase Bank (text banking)
• Safepass from Bank of America

Fees:

• Tango from H&R Block 
• Quicken Online
• Identity Guard from Intersections

Lead Generation

• Credit Karma
• Quizzle from Quicken Loans
• Zopa (US)
• Mortgage Marvel from Mortgagebot
• Checking Finder from BancVue/FirstROI
• SmartHippo
• SmartyPig

Archives

• VaultStreet
• vSafe from Wells Fargo

Health Care Expense Management

• Quicken Health

Retirement Planning

• INGyournumber from ING
• Boulevard R

Mobile Payments

• Obopay

It will be interesting to look back at this post five years from now and see how many of the 40 startups presenting at our first annual FinovateStartup conference are thriving, holding on, or have moved on.

I know one thing for sure, there will be five years' worth of innovative ideas served up on April 29. I am really looking forward to it. If you can make time in your busy spring schedule, I hope you'll consider attending. You can still save a hundred bucks by registering here by Monday, March 31.

The press release follows.

------------------------------------------------------

Online Banking Report Announces Final Demo Lineup for
FinovateStartup Conference

28 March 2008

Seattle, WA: Times may be tight in the credit markets, but the financial services technology area is still hopping with startups. Forty of the most promising will gather in San Francisco April 29 to prove to an auditorium filled with bankers, VCs, tech gurus, and the press what makes each the next big thing in finance.

No slides. No speeches. No wasted time. Finovate serves up 100% demos with plenty of networking time to speak with start-up founders and execs.

The main threads will be online personal finance (5 startups), online savings/checking (3 startups), social finance/investing (7 startups), lending/credit (5 startups including 3 person-to-person lenders), comparison shopping for financial services (3 startups), security (6 startups), and mobile banking/payments (4 startups).

Several stealth companies plan to launch at the conference, and a number of startups will be introducing significant product improvements or new services. We expect to see plenty of Web 2.0, including social-media-inspired investing, widgets and Facebook apps, and next-generation financial search. It will be an amazing day.

Here’s the complete lineup by company type:

• Checking/savings: Andera, First ROI, SmartyPig
• Financial shopping/comparison: Credit Karma, FindABetterBank, SmartHippo, SimpleTuition
• Investing/asset management: Boulevard R., Cake Financial,
  CAPS (Motley Fool), SocialPicks, TradeKing, Vestopia, Zecco
• Lending/credit: Lending Club, Loanio, Prosper, Wonga
• Mobile banking/payments: Aradiom, ClairMail, Diversinet, Tyfone
• Personal financial management: Buxfer, Expensr, Jwaala, Mint, Wesabe
• Security: Authentium, Guard ID, Guardian Analytics, TrustedID, VaultStreet, Vidoop
• Other: IP Commerce, Unified Money, WorkLight and four stealth startups 

About FinovateStartup Conference

• Date: April 29, 2008
• Place: San Francisco, CA (UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center)
• Cost: $995
• Agenda: 20 demos in the morning, 20 in the afternoon; each session followed by two hours of networking to meet with the presenters in one-on-one discussions
• Website: finovatestartup.com
• For more information on last fall’s sold-out NYC event, see netbanker.com/finovate

Note: Members of the media should contact Jim Bruene, jim@netbanker.com to secure a press pass.

About Online Banking Report
Founded in 1995 by former banker Jim Bruene, Online Banking Report provides in-depth analysis, relevant data, and informed recommendations to financial services executives in 50 countries. Online Banking Report is published by Online Financial Innovations, a Seattle-based research company. For more information and free sample reports, visit onlinefinancialinnovations.com, email info@netbanker.com or call (206) 517-5021. You may also find OFI's blog on the latest in online finance & banking at netbanker.com.

Looking for a low-cost way to generate new ideas and meet like-minded financial geeks? You have three opportunities during the next four weeks:

• March 29: BarCampBankSF -- Berkeley, CA (9AM to 5PM)
• April 5: BarCampBankNE -- Manchester, NH
• April 12: BarCampMoneyNYC -- Manhattan (9AM to 5PM)

As of today, there are 34 people signed up for San Francisco, a dozen for New England, and 24 for NYC. Cost is minimal, max of $25. Register in advance on the respective websites.

Last year we hosted our first industry conference Finovate2007 in NYC (videos here, previous coverage here). It was such a success that not only are we repeating it this year (see note 1 below), we've added a unique new version, FinovateStartup featuring demos of new financial products and technologies from emerging companies.

FinovateStartup will be held April 29 in San Francisco. It will showcase dozens of the hottest financial technology startups – all in a single day. With a fast-paced format that mixes short demos (no PowerPoint slides allowed!) and high-quality networking, FinovateStartup gives attendees a chance to see the future of finance unfold. 

Already, a number of leading financial technology companies have already signed up to demo including: Andera, Boulevard R., Buxfer, Motley Fool CAPS, ClairMail, Credit Karma, First ROI, Jwaala, Lending Club, Mint, Prosper, SmartHippo, Unified Money, and Wesabe. We plan to add more interesting companies to this list during the next few weeks. If you know of an interesting new financial products or technologies that should be shown at this event, please drop me an email. Or if you think your company fits the bill, consult the presenter's page. 

Tickets for this exciting event are currently $745, $250 off the regular price of $995 (discount ends Feb. 29). And the first 25 NetBanker readers receive an additional $100 discount (use "netbanker25" as your discount code at registration). I strongly encourage you to register today as seating at the event is limited and the last Finovate sold out in six weeks.   

• What: A chance to see the future of finance & banking unfold at FinovateStartup
• When: April 29, 2008: 8:00am – 6:30pm. Registration and continental breakfast opens at 7am.
• Where: The beautiful new U.C. San Francisco Mission Bay Conference Center (just south of downtown San Francisco)
• Price: Only $745 if you register before March 1 (and first 25 registrants save an additional $100 with discount code "netbanker25")
• Format: Two action-packed demo/presentation sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each session contains more than a dozen of the hottest finance/technology startups giving 5-minute demos of their products (no PowerPoint allowed!) followed by several hours to talk with each of the presenters and network with other attendees. The day ends with a happy hour with an open bar and appetizers.
• Questions: Please contact us at finovate@netbanker.com or 206.517.5021.

I look forward to seeing you in April!

Note:

1. Save $250 and register today for our fall flagship Finovate 2008, October 9 in NYC. 

Last week’s Net.Finance conference entitled Online Innovations in Financial Services Marketing brought thought leaders together in New York to examine trends and breakthroughs in the world of banking.

For me, there was one clear take away: The new social tools that allow people to connect with each other online are ushering in a new economy.

We are moving into a social economy, where collaboration and participation between and among consumers will sway their choices more than marketing messages do. Those companies that enable social participation, add value to people’s lives and create authentic experiences for their customers will lead in this new economy. There were other topics discussed, but this theme kept creeping into the presentations and conversations in a way I had never before encountered. I’m going to narrow in on this one theme, which ran throughout the two days of the conference, and I apologize to those companies and speakers I’m not highlighting here.

Jurie Pieterse – ING Direct
Jurie outlined several of the key ways that ING is handling the power of its marketing and messaging to consumers by opening up its brand to customer participation. It is clear from ING’s early experimentation that it has a brand with strong emotional appeal and resonance. The bank opens the doors to people who engage with the brand to create photos, videos and prose about how their relationship with ING helps them manage their money.

Jurie explained that when they delivered the prizes in their user-generated content contests, which ranged from $1,000 to $15,000, most winners said that they entered the contests more from a sense of fun and participation than for the money. After this initial experimenting, ING will begin to examine the data to determine if these contest entrants are more loyal and profitable than less engaged customers. I would bet my Electric Orange account they are.

Chris Larsen – Prosper
It is fascinating to watch Prosper evolve their model. Chris spoke at length about the importance of social capital to improving its default rates. The idea is that people who have peer pressure built into their borrowing habits will pay back at a better rate than they do to traditional financial institutions.

Prosper has found that people who receive at least one of bid from friends or family have significantly lower default rates than those who only borrow from strangers. By leveraging this social capital, the entire community acts more honestly, even if lending to friends and family is a small part of the overall equation.

Jason Knight – Wesabe
Jason sees Wesabe as a community of interest focused on money. By allowing members to tag their financial transactions and share whatever information they choose with the greater community, they create a collective intelligence I find very exciting. I see them as the long tail of financial advice. People discuss better ways to use their money, from smarter investing habits to buying better cuts of meat. All of this collective intelligence fuels a social economy where people rule their situation by having a much healthier relationship to the way they spend their money.

Shari Storm – Verity Credit Union
Shari oversaw the creation of the first “bank” blog, which Verity started in 2004. She has strong information and advice to other FIs considering jumping into the world of blogging. It is clear that the blog is an excellent way to humanize the company and engage with their community in an honest and transparent way.

Thomas A. Desmond – TradeKing
I was blown away by TradeKing, a company I had not heard of before. Their marriage of social tools inseparable from their trading platform is perhaps the very best example of social media being used strategically by a company that I have seen.

They have baked community aspects into everything that happens on their site, so, if traders opt in to the community, they can learn from each other based on their actual trading results (similar to Zecco.com, below)

Asheesh Advani – Virgin Money
It took me a minute to wrap my head around Virgin Money’s model, but once I got it, I was hooked. Many people who buy houses get side loans from friends and family to make a bigger downpayment. Same with student loans, or with unsecured personal or business loans. Virgin creates a model around this kind of lending, so both sides can take advantage of the tax benefits available via a documented lending relationship. It creates excellent flexibility, because if a borrower needs to skip payments, the lender can adjust the loan accordingly. The loan can always be turned into a gift at a later date. This takes a part of the social economy which was underground and unseen, and brings it above board, recognizing it as an important part of the overall economy.

Gabriel Dalporto – Zecco.com
Zecco and TradeKing's models have many similarities (one exception being that Zecco offers 10 free trades each month). Community features are built right into the tools making it easy to track individual investors within the community. That allows the higher performers to gain a following and for newcomers to learn from the veterans. Like TradeKing, Zecco allows community menbers to see the actual trading results and portfolio holding of members (that have opted in), adding an enormous amount of credibilty to discussions about individual stocks and trading strategies.

Summary
It feels more and more to me that we’re at a turning point. I admit that these innovations are small, just barely bubbling up to the surface. But I believe these examples of companies quietly tapping into unmet needs provide a model of the future.

Anyone working at a financial institution who wants to understand the potential opportunities and threats coming our way should watch these companies and understand their models. If my experience is any indication, the social economy will begin to trickle into your FI's strategies and executive discussions and those who best understand these concepts can help inform, influence and shape the outcome.

William Azaroff is the Interactive Marketing & Channel Manager at Vancity where he develops interactive marketing initiatives, and pioneered ChangeEverything.ca, the groundbreaking change-themed online community. William builds on a decade of experience at digital agencies in Vancouver, Seattle and Los Angeles driving strategy, extending brands to the Web and building relationships for companies in several verticals, including Honda, Disney, Intuit Canada and the Government of BC. He discusses trends and noteworthy achievements in social media at his blog: azaroff.com/blog.

Next week, I'll be interviewing Virgin Money USA CEO and Founder Asheesh Advani on stage at the Online Innovations in Financial Service Marketing Conference hosted by the Net.Finance (World Business Research) folks in New York City. Our main topic will be "Why consumers aren't buying mortgages online, yet," but I'm sure we'll cover the entire person-to-person lending spectrum in our 35-minute session Thursday morning (24 Jan).

If anyone has any questions for Mr. Advani, leave them in the comments here, or email me. I'll post the response here next week.

I attended the first U.S. BarCampBank held in Seattle this past July (previous coverage here). It was an interesting day that brought together a fascinating cross section of financial providers (mostly credit unions, no banks showed up) and technologists. However, other than Jason Knight of Wesabe, it didn't have that entrepreneurial energy that I expect at the BarCampBank San Francisco (BCBSF). And for those not wanting to trek across the country, there's BarCampBank New England (BCBNE) the next weekend (more info here).

BarCampBank San Francisco

  Date: 9 AM, March 29-30, 2008

  Location: UC Berkeley's Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology

  Time: 9 AM to whenever on Saturday followed by a half-day session Sunday

  Cost: $25 (register here)

  Agenda: None (see below)

  Scheduled speakers: None (see below)

  More info:

The aim of BarCampBank is to foster innovation and the creation of new business models in the world of banking and finance. Previous BarCampBanks have been held in Seattle, as well as London and Paris.

To ensure that the event is highly relevant for all those attending, the agenda will be discussed online beforehand (http://barcamp.org/BarCampBankSF) and then set by the participants the morning of the event.

Due to the large number of financial services startups in the San Francisco Bay Area, BCBSF will have a particular focus on bringing startups and industry together. So far, participating organizations include Wesabe, Boulevard R, NetBanker, Wikinvest, EverythingCU and Cake Financial.

The event, which is organized by volunteers, welcomes participation from anyone who would like to help with event logistics or spreading the word.

You may have noticed that the blogging machine has slowed down a bit during the past few weeks (see note 1). It's not because of a lack of industry movement. Far from it. It's because we've been putting together a scorching hot conference, our first ever!

But it will all pay off on Oct. 2 when twenty of the most innovative companies in the financial, banking and lending industries gather in New York City to offer a glimpse of the future of online and mobile banking at FINOVATE 2007: DEMOing the Future of Financial Services.

Following the popular format pioneered by DEMO, FINOVATE 2007 will provide companies with a mere seven minutes to “wow!” an audience of 200 leading executives, investors, analysts, members of the press and bloggers with actual demonstrations of their latest and greatest products and services (no Powerpoint allowed!). The demos will be followed by intimate networking sessions where attendees will be granted unprecedented access to these innovative companies and their executives.

Many of the twenty presenters have mobile solutions, but five are focused entirely on the mobile space (see note 2 for the full presenter list):

ClairMail, Firethorn, mFoundry, MShift, and Monitise 

General admission tickets for the event are extremely limited (fewer than 100 remain!). And with only 44 shopping days left, you'll want to get yours today and qualify for the early-bird rate of under $500. To register, visit our registration page at finovate.com or call us at +1 (206) 517-5021. Don’t miss out on your chance to see what’s next in P2P lending, online account opening, bill payments, mobile banking, social personal finance and more!

(Member of the press or industry blogger? Email us at finovate@netbanker.com to request a press pass.)

Notes:

1. Special thanks to guest blogger Brandon McGee for keeping the spiderwebs from accumulating the last two weeks.

2. Full presenter list (in alphabetical order): Andera, Billeo Inc, CheckFree, ClairMail, Firethorn, Digital Insight (an Intuit company), Identity Theft 911, iPay Technologies, Jwaala, Lending Club, Metavante, mFoundry, Mint, Monitise, MortgageBot, MShift, Online Resources, Prosper Marketplace, and Yodlee.

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 and payments food chain including wireless carriers, device manufacturers, mobile platform vendors, text-message service providers, security companies, research companies, and 70 to 80 financial institutions of all sizes. My estimate of total attendance was 250-300.

In a show of hands, the functional disciplines of the financial institution folks split roughly 50/50 between IT and the business/marketing side.

Since I'd heard most of the vendor presentations a few months ago at the Mobile Payment Forum, the most interesting part for me was hearing the results of the BancorpSouth pilot with AT&T, Firethorn, and CheckFree. Michael Lindsey, senior vice president, electronic delivery at BancorpSouth, described the results during one of the few solo performances of the show. I will post an update on BancorpSouth tomorrow.

The major themes of the conference:

• Mobile banking has arrived.
• Mobile payments, at least in the United States, are some years away; widespread U.S. adoption needs a critical mass of contactless terminals.
• Short-term, mobile banking will be delivered through a mix of text messaging, WAP sites, and downloadable applications. Each has its own pros and cons, but ultimately consumers will vote with their wallets. On stage anyway, the vendors of the various and different models were extremely conciliatory, complementing other models and providers.
• Security of the mobile channel is generally much better than online (at least in the days before multi-factor authentication).
• The U.S. wireless carriers were generally portrayed as hindering developments, although Spencer White of AT&T did an admirable job of defending the carrier's position.

Best analogy from the podium:

• When explaining why carriers don't want open access to their phones, Tripp Rackley, CEO of Firethorn, explained how that would be like someone allowing anyone to add untested apps to your ATM machine.

Best answer to a question from the audience:

• When asked what the future mobile device might look like, Spencer White, director of mobile financial services from AT&T said, "We are looking at phones that print money." (OK, maybe you had to be there.)

Funnest presentation:

• Richard Crone, of Crone Consulting, was entertaining as always, tossing out Obopay T-shirts to members of the audience while delivering a presentation chock full of good advice for financial institutions and other mobile players.

Most discouraging stat:

• Among the dozen or so clients of Digital Insight that have launched the mShift-powered WAP site, only 0.5% of Internet banking users are using it, and even the best of the bunch is 1.5% (caveat, most of the mobile installations happened during the past month).

Most encouraging stat:

• Among BancorpSouth's pilot users that were already using online bill payment, bill payment volume INCREASED by 25%, indicating the mobile option created more engagement with transaction capabilities.

Weirdest thing we learned:

• One speaker's 14-year old daughter's non-negotiable mobile phone purchase-criteria was that the phone have a charm holder (this created a new conference metaphor with "the charm holder" being used to describe any consumer-driven feature).