Good morning! Gearing up for the two-day typing marathon that is Finovate. We’re at a huge venue this year (same as last year, apparently – someone else from Glenbrook was here then), a cavernous exhibition hall that has plenty of room for the 1200+ attendees; I can remember when there were 250 attendees. Congrats to Jim & Eric!

Presentation Hall (looking toward front)

Starting to fill up (looking toward the back)

Here’s the line up:

Jump ahead by Session:

Session #1
Session #2
Session #3
Session #4
Session #5
Session #6
Session #7
Session #8
Best of Show

SESSION #1

Dwolla [Best of Show winner!]

• Allow anyone with an internet connection to access their funds and send them to anyone else without the recipient paying interchange, or other fees
• Real time alternative to ACH, which is batch files “blah, blah, blah and a whole bunch of s#&t” (classic Ben Milne)
• Dowlla.com as a consumer portal – verify that Ben is Ben, has sufficient funds, move to recipient in real time
• Announcing fisync.dwolla.com  is where FIs can find the real-time API for banks in order to validate accounts, determine – FREE to banks
• Transaciton cost will never be more than it is for ACH
• Wraps up with 2 min to spare…

WaltzOn

• 13 cents out of every dollar spent by US consumers goes toward energy expense
• WaltzOn is a personal energy management platform that enables people to save energy and save money
• Enter zip code, size of home, and some other basic info, get
• Secure, safe links into 100+ energy utilities nationwide to download energy consumption and bill data
• Benchmark against similar sized homes in your area
• Identify opportunities to save money: replace appliances with energy efficient models, add insulation,
• Provide consolidated picture for homeowners that rely on two different utilities (e.g. one for gas, one for electricity)
• Monitors auto fuel usage, too and suggest means of spending less on gas too – e.g. suggest that consumer can save $1700 each year on gas by replacing older cars with  new green models
• Developed the technology for a PBS series titled Earth, the Operators Manual
• Also have a solar energy product – ShouldIGoSolar.com
• Bridge gap between what consumers should do and want to do with what they will do
• Launching today: WaltzOn Connect an opportunity for third parties – e.g. banks – to integrate with WaltzOn

Taulia

• Get small businesses paid earlier, and make large businesses more profitable
• Example: Max is a supplier to Coca-Cola (a Taulia customer), Max goes to Taulia free vendor portal, enters his invoice info and submits to his customer. Taulia integrates into Coca-Cola AP platform (which happens to be SAP — love the SAP screen shots, a stark contrast to all of the friendly user interfaces at Finovate!)
• Facilitate Coca-Cola approval of the pending invoice, within its traditional AP workflow,
• Once buyer has approved the invoice for payment, Max the supplier can elect to be paid earlier, for a discount, of course
• For every billion that Coca-Cola spends, they can save up to a $1 million through dynamic discounting
• Announcing Taulia Early Payment Network, launching with SAP, OB10, [two more I missed], BillFlo, etc.
• Max and other suppliers can take an early pay discount, regardless of whether the buyer pays early. Taulia enable third party lenders to access past invoice and payment data to make underwriting decision. [This takes the PrimeRevenue model and potentially expands it to a broader range of suppliers, beyond those that serve the Fortune 500.]
• From the perspective of this B2B payment geek, this is pretty impressive!

BancBox

• Backend provider that enables business and developers to collect, store, and send funds – APIs, sandbox, etc.
• Example TweedlePay application, developed for Twitter
• Offer items for sale via Twitter, upload image or link, send to Twitter
• Followers can buy, using TweedlePay buy page
• Multiple payment methods, TweedlePay wallet, Credit Card that has already been linked to the account or a new one
• Ability to collect funds, store funds, then can push funds to a bank account, toward credit card balance,
• Demo this live application created within just a few days, to show easy it is
• Million transactions per month, a billion of transactions in last 12 months, storing a billion [did he really say a billion?] customer funds

Affinity Solutions

• Match retailer POS and loyalty data with FI data to provide more effective promotions; patent – pending
• Issuer based rewards get access to retailer coupon promotions
• Will attract larger retailers, for example offer for Barnes and Noble, target consumers that are heavy Amazon shoppers (know this from FI card transaction data)
• Long term relationship with First Data, enables Affinity to load the offer onto consumers credit card
• When consumer swipes at POS, offer within auth stream to give discount at point of interaction, coupon was applied in real time and invoice messaging reinforces savings
• Real time, in the cloud
• 700,000 merchant locations will be enabled to accept coupons in the cloud in the next 60 days

Social Money (formerly SmartyPig)

• New white label solution that will be launched this summer with ICICI in India
• Gold Saver application demo’d – integrated with online banking. Can be renamed, re-skinned to match online banking branding
• Gold Saver shows up in account listing, alongside checking, saving, credit cards
• Consumer creates individual goals (downpayment for car, kitchen remodel)
• Has social networking interfaces (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) to share goals with friends for motivation; consumer can manage level of sharing (share actions toward goals on Facebook, or not)
• Can gift to other people’s public savings goals
• FI understands what consumers future plans are and can target relevant products
• Consumer can edit goals, and withdrawal funds from savings goal to a specific product – e.g. to an Amazon e-Card for a flat screen TV
• Customer engagement opportunity for FI

Expensify

• Expense reports that don’t suck — a Finovate veteran, return year after year and demo new features
• Have means to capture transaction data from receipts, have realized that expense reports are actually itinerary
• Announcing full trip tracking and itinerary processing — they seem to be taking on a lot of TripIt functionality — know you have an upcoming flight, let you know if its on time and which terminal/gate. (Just admitted that this is a reaction to Concur acquisition on TripIt)
• Streamline travel and expense management for business travelers
• Satisfy IRS regulations for purchases under $75 based on credit card data that is downloaded, remind you to get receipts and scan them for transactions over $75
• Prompt you to finalize at the end of your trip, easy since it is so convenient to capture expenses as you are on the go
• Trip tracking is a relatively small feature, but to do it within the context of expense tracking, then easy adoption
• No change of behavior, no extra cost, no advertising in your inbox — just a new convenient feature

BillGuard [Best of Show winner!]

• Eight months ago launched at Finovate in NY – applies anti-virus to your bills
• Checks your bill for bad charges: deceptive charges, billing errors, fraud that your bank may have missed
• Have identified one bad transaction for every four statements analyzed
• Saved consumers 635K during beta period
• Crowdsource the identification of bad transactions – users can flag them (just like in email)
• Two of top 10 card issuing banks are going into Pilot this summer; prominent investors
• User feedback – it’s as hard to dispute a charge as it is to identify a bad charge. So, today, announcing ability to easily dispute charges from online banking
• Add a social layer on top of transactions the “wikipedia of transactions” online, where consumers can type in merchant info and research whether there have been past. Click on dispute charge and fill out form, the submit report. BillGuard will contact merchant and allow them to resolve issue with the consumer directly (rather than through FI). Provides tracking and follow up of each individual dispute.
• It’s exciting that anyone can be a merchant (thanks to Square, etc.) but that means that there is increasing opportunity for fraudulent or inappropriate transactions. BillGuard is here to help.

Actiance

• Helps organizations manage compliance against a wide range of social media channels
• FIs are challenged when it comes to social media due to regulatory environment and compliance
• Engage product allows a regulated user to aggregate content, connections from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter on one interface. Comment and engage from one platform, dashboard tracks reach, also see results of team-mates (competitive spirt, gamefication). Promotes most popular content, and enables collaboration with peers. Suggests content, but also fosters authentic voice [wasn’t quite clear on this part…]
• Also allows user to promote key followers dynamically (e.g. on a day like Finovate, promote different followers than on a usual day.
• Everything is archived for regulatory review

Phew, that’s the end of the first session. Off to find some coffee!

SESSION #2

Personal Capital [Best of Show winner!]

• Bill Harris’ latest – addressing consumer frustration due to fragmentation of our financial life. Personal Capital offers one place to see it all, do it all
• Last Fall at Finovate demo’d website and iPad app, today launching iPhone app from remote access
• All your accounts – banks, brokerage, credit cards – all together in one interface. Search for payment and transaction data, track cash flow, drill down to spending by category
• Long term investments, too: entire portfolio in the app, monitor holistically, by individual account by asset class by brokerage, etc.
• Do you know your asset allocation? Most people don’t yet it is the most important indicator of financial success. By taking consolidated view Personal Capital can see your true asset allocation, and market exposure. Even unpacking the components of ETFs
• Now you can send money — easily. From any account, at any financial institution, to any person, biller, or other account, regardless of financial institution. From any linked account, demo select Fidelity, select destination eTrade, and amount $10,000. That easy. Whether you are boarding a plane, or getting your hair cut in Palo Alto. Nice to be able to take action from within PFM.
• Easy enrollment, just take a picture of a check and Personal Capital does the rest.
• Available today at iTunes
• [Last Fall, Bill Harris got gonged, bet his colleague Jim he’d finish within time today, and on stage he paid up $100 via Personal Capital, naturally.]
• [No mention of Personal Capital’s network of financial advisors…]

BankersLab

• Human knowledge and interaction is critical to banking – this demo addresses human capital
• Raise the bar of banking personnel by putting them in a bank version of a flight simulator called “Credit Lab” to train credit professionals at FIs
• Four modules – with various scenarios that personnel have to work through. Help them to anticipate issues, and be proactive.
• Track metrics and performance, and monitor cost associated with servicing customers (e.g. email, vs phone call, vs in person meeting) to measure profitability of individual portfolio accounts.
• This feels very niche-y

edo Interactive

• More offers…
• Last Finovate, edo demo’d real time redemption and crediting back to savers account. Today, taking point of differentation – speed – and targeted offers
• Launching GeoCommerce offers today. Mobile, multi-channel solution combining real time purchase promotion and location.
• Example: at the mall on Market Street in SF. Buying jeans at Nordstrom. Swipe card at POS, make purchase. Even before leaving store, receive confirmation from bank “congrats, you just saved $15 at Nordstrom” and now we’re offering you $5 off of a $15 purchase at Bistro Burger which happens to be in the same mall at Nordstrom. Then, when paying for burger. Get a third offer, this one from Haagen-Daz for some discounted ice cream.
• Whole experience, curated by my bank.
• Best quote: “While others are focused on checking in, we’re focused on checking out” No QR codes, no tweeting, no need to launch app. How? Come to the booth for a demo… if you have a card, a banking relationship, and a phone you can save, get an email or txt offer, and save again.
• [See related story at TechCrunch today.]

IP Commerce

• Flexible development platform PaaS 2.o (Platform as a Service) — need today for SaaS based, mobile/location based, and multi-channel
• Commerce has become increasingly nuanced, app developers have to accomodate multiple people pitching in for a purchase, the need to aggregate funds until a trigger or threshold, or the means to
• Need heavy lifting in the cloud to make that work
• Not always convenient to have both parties in the transaction sign up for a specific service
• Launching multiparty payments solution and associated APIs
• Demo’ing a fundraising event, have to collect funds from event participants in advance, pay vendors, and then take remaining funds and transfer to scholarship fund. Application manager can get funded too, via Splits.
• Administrative console “Campaign Manager” allows software company, retailer, or merchant to define how they want to use multiparty capabilities. Name the campaign, set dates, set transaction thresholds, set rules for disbursing funds. Use console to track progress real time as funds flow through.
• Complex workflows are very hard to manage within an application, IPCommerce handles multiple funding sources and disbursement options.
• [I suspect there is much more to this than can be easily demo’d. The Twitter followers are mistakenly interpreting IPCommerce as a marketing platform, based on the demo’s “campaign” terminology.]

iQuantifi [Best of Show winner!]

• On a mission to revolutionize the way individuals make financial decisions. Budgeting is not enough!
• 11 patent-pending technologies, to take PFM to the next level. Automated and personalized personal financial management. Quantifies goals. For do-it-yourselfers who do not work with an advisor.
• Example: John and Linda, daughter Grace. They complete brief profile, and iQuantifi suggests goals: pay down debt, save for education, plan to purchase a new car
• Vs. other solutions that assume user knows what their goals should be, how much they will need to achieve their goals
• User selects goals, then answer a few more questions
• iQuantifi applies logic and determines what they need to do each month/year in order to reach goals, and projects when goals will be accomplished
• User can then apply “what if” scenarios – simply drag buy new car further out on time line, plan recalculates, and debt gets paid off a lot sooner. Reprioritizes and recalculates in real time. Forecasts changes in situation.
• Generates action list
• Then presents offers from financial institutions that are relevant to goals

Silver Tail Systems

• New feature from veteran Finovate presenter Silver Tail. Addresses increasing threat from “parameter injection” malware
• Monitor activity on a website and detect attacks.
• Demo demonstrates a modified FI login page, that has been manipulated by malware on the infected PC that requests more than user name and password. Instead asks for additional fields such as one time password (e.g. RSA token) and mother’s maiden name. Once consumer has entered the additional security credentials she or he moves on to regular banking website pages. The malware has harvested the info it wanted.
• But this is all happening on the consumer’s PC, so how does the FI know?
• Silver Tail Systems monitors all the clicks on website to identify how the bank website is presented, and when unusual activity occurs
• Alert engine will alert FI bank security personnel proactively, so that they don’t have to monitor

PaySimple

• Simply and empower small businesses. Make biz processes
• Cash flow is the top biz challenge for small businesses, yet 2/3 still use paper and manual processes
• bill, collect, and manage payments
• Sold directly to small businesses, and via partnerships with AmEx, Chase, Western Union, etc.
• New solution called “Camp” to enable smaller FIs to easily and quickly white label PaySimple, enter your URL, your logo, your color scheme. Elect to white label just invoicing capability or the whole PaySimple suite.
• Typical user logs in 20x a month – strengthen relationship; boon for FIs that may want to cross-sell, add fee based revenue.
• Dashboard shows common activities: e.g. Settlement Summary (fund arriving), Current Payments (predict future cash flows), Invoice Activity (AR aging). Small biz can upload customers and use PaySimple as mini-CRM. Can send reminders re: payments, send messages, etc.
• Mobile app – one-third of small biz users access features via mobile. They tend to do a lot more via mobile than payments. Dashboard echoes capability on website. Can view customer history, and dial directly from the app.

Linkable Networks

• Present offers “in the wild” outside the bank environment. Enable offers that consumers see every day – newspaper, TV, etc. – and . Example, newspaper insert with coupons. 4.6 billion dollars in coupons, two-thirds of which are SKU level. Thus far, SKU level capability not available for FI and card promotion.
• Scan QR code, loads mobile web (or App) and “clips” the coupon. Have a suite of APIs so that partners can ingest coupon into their app or website.
• Also present “linked offers” for additional savings and previously redeemed apps.
• Opt In to terms and conditions for individual promotions, as well as when consumer registers for the service. If consumer is not registered, they can be registered the first time the
• Integrate with social networks to share via Facebook and Twitter
• [I know you are thinking that there isn’t that much demand for old-school couponing. I thought so too, until I read this NYTimes article.]

Mitek Systems

• Partner with Chase, among other FIs who license Mitek mobile remote deposit solution. Consumers are actually switching banks to get the mobile deposit feature. [As a happy USAA customer, I’ve been using it for years!]
• Announcing today: mobile check cashing to reload a prepaid card
• Prepaid is the fastest growing segment in the payments
• Target 60 million underbanked or unbanked consumers who rely on prepaid solutions
• What’s worse than making a deposit at the bank? Cashing a check. Solves problems for consumers (convenience) as well as FIs and other partners (lower cost, reduced churn).
• Read drivers license for validation, login in via two-factor authentication, integrate with partners so that consumer knows existing balance, enter check amount, phone app prompts to take picture of front of check, then back of check, then show old balance, check amount, and new balance. Click confirm, get thumbs up.
• Now we’re doing the whole thing again in Spanish. I love that they are doing the demo with consumer checks that have goof images on them (in this case cute bear cubs)
• [I first worked with Mitek back in the late 9os – pre Check21! – when I was working with a big West Coast bank on image POD solutions so that they could scan business deposits received at rural branches, locate high dollar checks, then send courier to pick those up (skipping other branches), and get them to POD in time to make 9pm charter flight to NY for check clearing. Those were prehistoric times for check processing!]

SESSION #3

Dynamics

• Solving card infrastructure problem – creating adaptability and flexibility on top of the traditional card processing rails.
• Open loyalty program platform allowing merchants, developers, fundraisers, etc. to access transactions occurring all around us.
• Applications on the go, accessible via two buttons on the card.  Press button on card to earn rewards associated iwth one program or another. E.g. earn points toward video game credit, or donate credits toward favorite charity. Dark Horse Comics offering comics exclusively through Dynamics platform. Earn one page at at time, then receive commemorative collectors copy once you’ve
• Scavenger Shop, Facebook game, create a nationwide treasure hunt, that gameifies everyday payments.
• Virtual game cards, accumulating credit to use in your favorite game.
• E.g. Toys for Tots, add $1
• Random prizes, 1 entry for each $1 spent,
• All real time, instant; online bill statement, phone, etc.
• APIs that allow merchant to easily create promotions.
• [Another demo where I would have appreciated another 20 minutes. There’s obviously a fair amount going on here.]

Bill.com

• I am loving the Dickens references in the Bill.com to Ebenezer Scrooge the commercial banker, and Bill Cratchit the small business owner, and his Humbug Coal company.
• Business payments integrated with online banking, offering small businesses a comprehensive view of incoming and outcoming payments, and the associated documents (invoices, contracts, past payments, notes)
• Supplier can view invoices on portal and pay now, or pay later via credit card or ACH
• Supplier gets paid 2-3 x faster, with built in fraud controls
• Home page/dashboard shows cash position, to dos,
• Allows collaboration between small business employees to review and approve invoices for payment, or approve outgoing payments (either online or via mobile)
• All transactions automatically synced with accounting software [for more on this capability, refer to my recent blog post reflecting on Small Biz Banking developments I saw at the NACHA conference last week, here]

Kabbage

• Fundraising for small businesses, making underwriting decisions based on a unconventional range of data sources. Data is key, allow merchant to track transactions and activity on a variety of platforms (e.g. Etsy, PayPal, etc.).
• Leveraging Bill.com (last dem0) and showing how small business owner can push transactional data from Bill.com to Kabbage, and based on history and future cash flows, can push Kabbage score higher, and obtain even more funding
• Can send relevant info (e.g. tax documentation) to Kabbage via email to (a lot like submitting your hotel and flight confirmations to TripIt by sending to plans@tripit.com). Data is analyzed in real time and underwriting is adjusted accordingly.

TASCET

• AML compliance is ever evolving. how to FIs keep up? Reads lengthly sentence (87 words) from FinCen regulation. Completely boggling.
• FI can authenticate and verify. How do they do so without identifying person first.
• Fraudsters create synthentic identities in order to prepetuate fraud.
• Tascet accesses transactional and account data from state gov, FIs, healthcare, etc.
• Not a data mining company, do not share data with marketers, etc., but
• Biometic recognition – two finger prints, face scan, and enter basic info, do a look up against data set, and create a financial record number – ICONN – associated with that person. That digital ID can be used to verify individual to make a withdrawal without drivers license or debit card, or verify identify despite
• FI can access using their regular software or tablet
• Biometrics are just a tool. Attempting to build consumer friendly, easy to use for FI.

Cachet

• Tablets are exploding. Small businesses are using them more and more.
• Remote deposit capture solution for small businesses to manage their deposits from wherever they happen to be.
• Example: Cachet Construction [they just donned bright yellow construction hats; cute]. Guy pretending to be out in the field at a construction site takes a picture of check (prompted to capture all four corners, etc), then back of check, confirm and submit. Meanwhile the office manager can view incoming check deposits on his tablet (if he is traveling). Can see deposits from various sites, via different employees as well as deposits that were made by the office clerk using a more traditional desktop scanner. Can view check amount and compare against transactional history, to see why a client payment may be short.
• Also demo’ing administrative screens, to add users and set permissions.
• Allows FIs to strengthen relationship with small biz customers.

Nomis Solutions

• Better living through math, and pricing science
• The Nomis non-linear price optimization product, allows FIs to optimize interest rates and fees for a wide range of products (mortgage, credit cards, etc.)
• Structured process for setting fees on a given product + transaction combination.
• Status quo is for the banker to use spreadsheets of data from various legacy systems, perform analytics and come to a pricing decision. Could take hours (or even days). Use Nomis to make decisions, and model various what if scenarios
• [Whoa, we’re in serious geeky territory here.]
• Take a money market account and start doing what ifs, e.g. what if I increase the beta? What happens to my revenue over time. Or instead of looking at one product at a time, optimization algorithm can look at wide range of customers, products, transactions. Takes just a few minutes (within the demo) and recommends a set of price (interest rate) increases – where FI can be more agressive.
• Nomis score assigns price sensitivity to each consumer, can measure by region or territory.
• Deployed in the market today, customers have optimized $450B in transactions, made $150 million [I think he said $1 million?] in incremental profit.

Experian

• Experian business services, new product for small businesses “Business IQ Express”
• Manage business relationships: evaluate, monitor, and collections tools to resolve unpaid invoices
• Info on 99% of customers in the US, for demo query a construction firm. Worked with small businesses to understand what they key criteria when evaluating prospective trading partner. Basic info, risk rating (high/med/low to make it accessible for small biz user), can enter star rating and comments, crowd-sourcing further nuanced feedback. Legal background, financial info and suggested credit terms. Can also drill down to principals of the business, and request permission to view their consumer credit report (yikes).
• Can add to portfolio of biz partners and receive alerts when things change with that business. When events have made that business more risky or stronger.
• If your customer has an unpaid invoice, can use Experian to find alternative contact info. Also use Experian templates to create professional collections letters. Then track history of collections effort. If all else fails, provide access to commercial collections agencies that can help.
• Acces to portfolio via “business card carousel” with snapshot of key attributes: risk rating, community rations, alerts, and legal activities [sort of like flipping through album covers in iTunes, but not as slick]. Can drill down for more info. Also can view portfolio wide metrics.
• Coaches corner to offer advice.
• Enables small businesses to compete more effectively against their larger competitors.
• [Why isn’t this payment enabled?]

Break time… ice cream 

SESSION #4

SaveUp

• More PFM…
• Up until now, PFM about aggregating, tracking transaction data
• Now, SaveUp enables consumers to be rewarded for accomplish in their financial goals
• Sign up rate is 44% when referred from FI site; intentionally simple, intentionally “more fun” – easy to link accounts (first external user of Intuit’s data platform) average SaveUp user links to 6-7 accounts
• Use credits earned to win sponsored prizes, from Virgin American, Banana Republic, etc. or even a $50,000 grant to start your business, or enter a jackpot for $2 million. Weekly drawings for prizes that the user community suggests and vote on.
• Can also do instant prizes (scratcher style)
• SaveUp learns more about consumer as they interact with the site. 30% of users are on site daily, 60% weekly
• High level view of financial position – savings and debt.
• Delivery positive financial info – e.g. video about how to get an autoloan. If you select that video, will offer suggestions for financial products, based on prizes users
• Bank of the West is a partner, and a number of Credit Unions are implementing
• Financial education “ad units” link back to participating FI
• Help American’s develop positive financial behaviors

TIO Networks

• 14 year old, based in Vancouver, BC processes over $1 billion in bill payments, 1.5 million transactions per month
• Network over over 60,000 walk up retail locations and kiosks, partnership with First Data, support ADP and WalMart, etc. etc.
• Mobile payment application is private labeled by California’s largest utility, PG&E. Today, launching Tio branded mobile app…
• From homescreen view tiled logos of name brand billers, linked to 10,000 billers
• Manage biller catalog, funds transfer, PCI compliance, and support in English and Spanish
• Select biller, select bill to pay, use existing credit card, or enter a new one. Sign on phone. Email receipt to yourself. Consumer earns rewards on credit card transactions. [Not explicit, but presume the consumer pays a fee.]
• What if my bill is due today? Can pay today and account will be paid today, eliminating getting cut off. Obviously a fee for expedited bill pay.
• Can also use autopay feature to set up automatic payments to avoid last minute payments, and get a reminder before each transactions. Waiting for approval from iTunes right now.
• Tio user base is cash-centric, paying in kiosks. Can use Tio mobile wallet to to initiate not only bill pays, but also P2P transfers

ProfitStars

• Budget Manager addresses the budgeting spreadsheet villain [appreciate the narrative as the afternoon drags on]
• Decentralized budgeting solution that makes it easy for front line managers and budget administrators
• No need to huddle over spreadsheets with complex formulas [and inexperienced non-financial users messing them up]
• Allow access to individual users, who have access to specific lines of business. Can have reviewers, that can review input across various lines of business or departments.
• Budget Manager user can use forecasting tools to apply growth percentages and other assumptions; all activity is tracked, and all assumptions are called out.
• Can view by chart of account, or by department, or some combination (e.g. salary line, for whole region, broken down by field office)
• No linked spreadsheets, no formulas to get messed up
• Can link to other systems (e.g. HR for salary info), maintains logical ties between various account lines (e.g. payroll tax tied to salaries)
• Reviewers and budget administrators can use dashboard and reports (perforated, custom, and ad hoc)
• Appears to be just for bankers [but has broader application]

mSHIFT

• Mobile banking 2.0 — connecting community bankers to local retailers.
• Mother’s Day theme for this demo… nice. We’re sending a mother’s day gift card.
• On mobile app can see list of merchant’s that are offering promotions, Mom likes wine, so choosing a wine merchant that is offering a promo $100 worth of wine, for $60.
• Select recipient (using phone address book), add note, then send gift card. Phone is already registered with bank account, so just enter a PIN.
• Wine and Dine the merchant receives $60 via ACH (real time from checking account to GL, then from GL to merchant account)
• Recipient sees branded message, addressed to them directly with custom message from sender. Has barcode.
• At POS, recipient presents mobile gift card.
• Retailer gets recipient contact info, asks consumer to opt in at check out.
• Afterwards, gift card is updated. Amount deducted and new bar code created.

eDeposit

• Based in Wilmington, DE with patented technology. I think this is a launch, not a product feature.
• How to businesses ensure they get paid in sensitive situations? Money order, escrow accounts, etc.
• What’s different about eDeposit? Use a buyer escrow model.
• Funds are placed on deposit, then put “on hold” for a specific purpose, and can’t be used for something else.
• Better than cash. No chargebacks, no returns.
• Establish account online
• Example #1: renting an apartment from Donald Trump (he needs a wig), both parties have eDeposit accounts, Donald Trump places a request, consumer can review request, verify amount, and authorize in real time. Received immediately, and Donald hands over the keys to the apartment. Can also do a future request for rent payment.
• Example #2: Beer distributor, driver unloads cases, but store needs more than originally ordered. Uses iPad to initiate payment request for incremental cases (NASCAR race this weekend) and convenience store clerk can send funds right then. Driver can leave product confidently.
• Could be done face to face, using mobile or via the telephone.
• Real time, good funds “show me the money”

Concur

• Making it personal “How many traveled here?” and “how many of you are looking forward to getting back to the office and doing your expense report?”
• Demo’ing Smart Expense product, integrated with TripIt. Huge following, based on itinerary tracking, then flight tracking, then promotional offers, and now expense management. There are 18 million Tripit users. Concur processed half a billion expense line items in the last year.
• Your expense report can create itself, resolving the problem of expense report procrastination [this one is for me!]
• Showing TripIt itinerary on iPhone, tap one button to turn itinerary into an expense report. All associated credit card transactions are added. But perhaps, you drove from office to the airport. Enter where you drove from and destination, Google Maps calculates mileage, and determines the mileage reimbursement.
• Whether you work for a Fortune 500 or are a sole proprietor, you don’t want to deal with paper receipts and excel to create expense reports.
• Demo, on the web. Log in to Smart Expense on the web. Take pictures of cash receipts (e.g. Taxi) and then drag them into the appropriate trip.
• One button to email to your boss for approval.
• It’s free.

NICE Systems

• Mobile Reach solution, facilitates customer interaction within the mobile
• Seemless cusotmer service, whether in person at teller or online, or now via mobile
• Go to bank mobile app, verify have sufficient funds, enter recipient name, select funding account. Hmmm trying to send money to France and I have a SWIFT code. Not sure how to enter it, since it is asking for a US RTN code.
• Do you need assistance to complete payee bank info fields? You can initiate a call to the bank 800#, request a call back, visit closest branch (app indicates that it is two blocks away). For demo purposes, call 800#
• Customer service rep can interact with consumer in real time, send info about new feature that allows cross-border payment, but need some ID to sign you up, so consumer goes ahead and takes picture of ID while still on the phone. In real time, agent sees the photo in his/her desktop, and help to complete transaction. Consumer reads off the SWIFT code and the transaction goes through.
• Immediately presented a survey to provide feedback on customer service experience.
• Agent and consumer collaborating to achieve customer’s goals.

Okay, wrap for the day… off to socialize and network. We’ll be back tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM.

Ps. Shout out to all the Twitter folks who are sending the appreciative messages, it’s easier to type knowing you are all out there reading.

SESSION #5

Wipit

• Cash matters. A significant number of Americans are underbanks or unbanked. Wipit is a simple, quick mobile payment capabilityt for the cash-preferred
• Virtual, regulated stored value account accessible via mobile or Internet
• Can use geolocation capabilities of mobile to find reload location near by: e.g. prepaid wireless store, convenience store, check cashing location (10,000 so far, expanding to 100,000 by end of the year). ePay Worldwide providing POS integration.
• User experience: “Hey, salesclerk, I want to add $40 to my Wipit account, my phone number is (###) ###-####”
• Demo;ing web purchase, using Wipit as a acceptance mark on the site. Redirect to Wipit, then redirect back to the merchant [we know how merchants feel about redirect…]
• Cash preferred can shop online in a convenient, easy manner
• Merchants gain access to cash preferred who so far have
• Prepaid cards and smart phone adoption are driving web purchasing by the cash-preferred
• Next use case demo: (powered by Ria Financial), search through biller directory, select utility, enter payment amount, email address, account number at utility [seems like a lot of data entry for a mobile UI]
• Working on mobile check cashing and International P2P transfers

BehavioSec [Best of Show winner!]

• Behavioral biometrics company from Sweden, demo’ing technology that has been used in Europe
• Can identify users by how they interact with their PC and mobile, literally how the swipe, use their mouse, etc. are unique and can be used to be distinguished between people
• Part of a multifaceted risk management approach, incorporating layers of monitoring and detection.
• No extra hardware, no training of the user, no training of front line staff
• In Scandinavia every single bank has adopted for website and mobile platform, some adoption in UK and rest of Europe.
• Demo’ing in mobile – transparent, hidden element of app. Recording how user interacts with phone,. E.g. speed between touching “keys” and other screen elements on iPhone. As they type, build up a pattern, of the users rhythm. Assign a score. At 50% not quite sure, higher scores, quite confident, below that not so sure it is the users.
• Now showing the web application that allows FI administrator to monitor activity. And if it is not the user it purports to be, match against historical data to identify other users that it might be (known fraudsters)
• Now showing gesture monitoring – e.g. pressure, speed, and smoothness of movements on touchscreen

Keynote DeviceAnywhere

• Testing is a challenge for engineers and technologists who are under pressure to get to market as fast as possible
• For years Device Anywhere has been helping developers test a variety of mobile platforms
• Demo’ing development of a mobile banking script that allows bank to bank transfer, then test it on both iPhone and Android. Prompting to enter test values then runs sequence. Inspect each individual bit of code, step by step of the transaction process. Then run through the whole test script sequence. Once all code and test values are entered, then run the automated test script against other phone models on different platforms. Virtual devices are hosted in data center, run code against it.
• Generates report summarizing any issues, and documenting success.

Flint Mobile

• Starts off with a dig against the incumbents: “All of us have been hearing a lot about squares and triangles” – holding up colored cardboard pieces “Squares and Triangles don’t make the world go round”
• Easy mobile app to accept credit cards and help businesses identify new customers through social marketing.
• Ideally for on the go service businesses – contractors,
• Instead of using a dongle, use camera on the phone to take picture of the credit card, and focus on just the embossed card numbers, ot the whole card. Then promoted to enter the card verification info and customers email for receipt. Hand phone to the customer to sign for the charge. [Doesn’t this trigger CNP Interchange rates?]
• Receipts can be customized, even offer a promotion on the receipt. Customer is prompted to enter review or promote use on Facebook, etc. (integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, ).
• Merchant dashboard allows simultaneous monitoring of both social marketing and
• Innovation pricing – passing Durbin benefit on to merchants: 1.9% + 20 cents for debit and 2.95% + 20 cents for credit

Cardlytics

• Most importnat thing for targeting marketing is scale. Makes it attractive for banks, makes it attractive to retailers.
• Demo’ing analytic dashboard to show merchant how many people clicked on offer, how many enrolled, and how many actually redeem. Measure incremental data.
• Mapping capability shows clusters of target customers in your area, and which ones are actually clicking on offer, and redeeming offers. Can use map to map activity by store location.
• Now showing iPad interface that allows merchant to m
• Add’l benefits: efficient, safe data storage behind bank firewall,
• Sales reps in 30 markets, 90 local sales reps.
• Now looking at iPhone interface, showing Credit Union mobile banking app “offers” tab, with mix of local and national merchants. Can click on a specific offer to get map showing location of the small business.

Transparency Labs

• Delivering “transparency dividend” — 99% of American’s never read the fine print.
• This has something to do with retirement accounts, but I am not entirely sure what.
• Simply outlining the supposed opportunity landscape, no product demo.
• [This is excruciating]

MoneyDesktop [Best of Show winner!]

• Goal is to not to solve inconvenience problems here and there. Instead, focusing on loan volume.
• Promise of PFM is imminent. Crazy for users to not have a complete and up do date picture of financial situation. Adoption historically modest, but growing now.
• The FI that controls the consumers financial hub, has an opportunity to increase share of consumer wallet, loan portfolio, etc.
• New iPad app, demonstrating “new approach to account aggregation”
• Money Desktop FIs achieving 65% adoption of PFM (vs. 10% industry rates)
• Signed 270+ FIs so far (in two years)
• Announcing today that Visa has selected MoneyDesktop to provide PFM for its prepaid card program.
• Seemlessly linking deals to PFM – daily deals, flash deals
• Nice user interace with pictures of the deals, flop through easily. Four quick steps: 1. Select, 2. enter card, 3. Pay at POS, 4. Get instant notification of credit toward deal [he didn’t say explicitly, but I presume that the consumer gets statement credit]
• Get even more off, by sharing the deal (and virally share the PFM application). Use deal as a driver of PFM adoption.

Bazaarvoice

• Mission is to generate customer word of mouth, and ‘inject” into
• Working with 500 brands, including largest FIs
• Demo: Sam is a saver, he has his tax return, wants to do something with it. There is user generated content within an ad, click through, and landing page features user reviews. Consumer relates to other consumers, feels comfortable more likely to open an account.
• After opening account, receives and email prompting him to review his bank. And also provide key motivation data to FI that can be used for future marketing efforts.
• Posted to website, Facebook, etc. but NOT YET, first goes through rigorous automatic and human review. Ensure that regulations are followed, that content has been fully moderated.
• FI marketing manager logs in to Bazaarvoice dashboard to view key sentiment expressed around product, can see highlights and lowlights, and easily focus on opportunities.
• Can review actual text of reviews, can segment feedback according to bank defined segmentation. Really slick UI graphically showing feedback by target segment.
• Import CRM and market segmentation data to cross-tab and then develop campaigns to cross-sell
• Can also address comments related to known issue. E.g. bank website had an issue with pending transactions, search and locate feedback specific to that issue. Respond and moderated response is
• All content injected into mobile and iPad platforms, not just website.
• [My key take away from this is to never believe any reviews of products hosted by my bank, knowing that they’ve all been moderated.]

Kuspit

• Very few Mexicans have brokerage accounts — untapped market
• Colorful graphics demonstrating individual consumer portfolio against entire Mexican market. Individual portfolios are represented by briefcase graphics, plotted against one another on a comparative chart.
• Can create a dummy portfolio to learn and see what would happen under what if scenarios.
• Click on graphical representation of portfolio, presented with usual asset tracking capabilities, with drill down.
• Heavy emphasis on education. Consumer has to do learning module with video and text, following by basic test to ensure that the consumer understands. Then the consumer is allowed to invest using that product. (e.g. have to do the EFT module, before executing a trade.) Can use real or dummy portfolio to do trades, after having done education modules.
• Has Twitter and Facebook integration to allow users to share their financial education progress.
• Can track portfolio of other people, those that have similar risk profiles for instance, and see what they are doing. Learn from them.

SESSION #6

Giftly

• Reinventing the gift card. This year approx 3 billion gift cards, worth over a billion dollars. But the form factor is outdated  plastic and impersonal.
• Giftly is the social gift card: fun, interactive.
• Replace gift card with credit card + smart phone.
• App allows you to send and redeem gifts. Has a gift reminder and notification feature, pulling info from Facebook, etc.  or you can add events
• Suggests gifts, e.g. cucpcake, concert ticket “ironic” t-shirt,
• Can see gifts that you have given or received, with personalized notes and photos
• Can see when your friends have checked in someplace, and send them a gift. Demo buying friend a coffee when he is in a cafe, in real time. Here, coffee’s
• Can initiate a SMS message to send the gift, with link on how to use the gift. It’s that easy.
• Gift from your friend, not a merchant.
• If you receive a Giftly, funds are credited to credit card. And when you receive a gift, you are prompted to send a thank you note. [Nice; I like reinforcing good manners]
• Giftly is the iTunes of gift cards.
• [Speaking of gifts, you do know Mother’s Day is Sunday, don’t you?]

Portfolio Football

• 60% of the population are football fans [but not this blogger]
• Transform financial planning and portfolio management through gamefication, teach Americans to manage finances using familiar
• Relate financial postion into a scoreboard dashboard
• Game starts when you enter the workforce and ends when you retire. Get a comprehensive personal report, that summarizes game plan and does some sensitivity analysis.
• 30 million people play fantasy sports, average player is a 36 year old male with income of 60K-100K/year
• Select assets like you would select players for your virtual sports team. Uses sports metaphors throughout.
• Also planning to roll out a feature called “find a coach” to match consumers with financial advisors
• [I may not be a football fan or fantasy sports player, but I can see that this might work]

Wall Street Survivor

• if education is broken, financial education is shattered. We’re here to teach people fundamental financial concepts, and empower main street investors. Kahn Academy [I am a huge fan] is addressing education, Wall Street Survivor is targeting financial education.
• First every full mentored, social platform for financial education.
• Demo’ing portfolio basics module. Hover over terms to get more information. Throughout, there is interactivity through comments. As you progress you earn credits to spend in virtual portfolio in “Stock Market Simulator”
• Demo’ing training interface for making trades. Clean, intuitive UI; steps user through the process. Can share progress/actions on Twitter or Facebook. Making suggestions, guide through research on individual stocks. Test user at the end, and if you get wrong answer, another teaching opportunity. Gain badges and rewards as you progress. Each module is called a mission.
• Goal is to create a generation of well informed investors.
• Offering branded experience to prospective partners.

Virtual Piggy

• Younger generation today, have grown up in the Internet. 11 year olds are online, socializing and playing games. They want to buy, too.
• For example, done chores and have earned money. Want to buy something online. Have to be 18 or older to make a purchase. (Of course, this is not true in the offline retail world.)
• Created technology called Virtual Piggy that allows parent to setup an account, with rules that govern which merchants the child can buy from and set thresholds on purchase value. Parent’s can also help child to set a savings goal and rather than spend, set aside funds. Can also give to charities.
• Virtual Piggy have curated a set of child-friendly merchants.
• COPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) makes it hard for merchants to transact with young people, Virtual Piggy helps to facilitate transaction with parental control. Purchase through Virtual Piggy integration, allows transaction but merchant does not learn details about child; reveal ZIP code so that shipping calculated accurately. [I am not sure how the order gets fulfilled?]
• Friendly dashboard so that child (and parents) can track progress toward goals, wishlist, etc. Social graph capabilities allows parents to share wishlist with friends and family (like a bridal registry).

CSI globalVCard

• CSI focused on corporate payment solutions for businesses, e.g. fuel products, AP, etc.
• Now offering secure, single use MasterCard numbers for online transactions. [Using MasterCard InControl features.]
• Primary focus is to facilitate use of secure “quick card” for single use masterCard on mobile or iPad. Rules limit card use for specific merchant categories, spending limits, etc.
• Use case: Insurance adjustor out in the field, needs to make a transaction. Demo’ing iPad interface. Set dollar amount, various usage scenarios (tied to MCC does), enter card holder name and expiration (time frame during which it can be used). Then send an image of the card via email to employee in the field (or to an insurance customer directly?). Two methods of sending. Via email, or secure sending” where recipient gets secure, one-time use URL to access card image.
• Administrator can also immediately shut off a card. Can also create multiple cards.
• Available in all the app stores. Selling to corporates, but MasterCard issuers can access.
• Today using in B2B environment, but interested in working with an issuer on consumer use cases.

CoverHound

• [This is a launch demo]
• New way for consumers to shop for insurance. Multiple, instant quotes from top providers. Starting with auto insurance, will roll out home, renters, etc.
• Aslo launching an insurance storefront that FIs can incorporate on their website. Generate non-interest income (claim banks make up to 40% of non-interest income via insurance). But it is expensive to start your own insurance agency, providing a turnkey solution to offer insurance to CU members, etc.
• Easy! Create a page  on your site, insert one line of code. Clean interface, relevant
• Consumer can also connect via Facebook, pre-fill application data based on Facebook profile. Need only a minimal amount of info to provide rates (age, gender, marital status, occupation location, commute distance between home and office, etc.). Have to enter whether phone is owned or leased. Then takes about a minute. Not just estimates! Data passed via API to insurance partners. They are developing custom quotes in real time. Present quotes for minimun, basic, superior, or deluxe coverage. Recommend best level of coverage for consumer situation. Clearly spell out what is and is not covered, and associated cost. Once consumer selects, linked to licensed insurance expert (not paid on commission) to walk through application process.
• Claim differentiation vs. Progressive and others that use state file rates and develop an estimate. Accurate rate reflects better on FI

Swipely

• Finovate alum, last Fall launched turn key loyalty program for smal businesses. using credit and debit that consumers already carry.
  Today, what’s new… expanding. Merchant network expanded to Boston, DC, San Francisco, and New York. A couple
• NEw tools for merchants: powerful analytics, custom campaigns, connect to payment networks for merchant
• Showing merchant account statement and says “this is what the merchant thinks the network is” – a paper statement. (Online merchants get all kinds of data analytics). Data is obfuscated. ISOs and acquirers competing for merchant accounts by price, rather than by sharing valuable insight from transactional data.
• Smaller, micro merchants can rely on Square et al to provide analytics. What about larger merchants?
• Swipely provides rich analytics based on transactional data, identify repeat customers – regardless of whether or not they have enrolled in a loyalty program. Allow benchmarking of sales data against similar merchants. Run analytics on what if scenarios, e.g. what if I got back x% of my lost customers? Then easily generate campaigns, send email, with offer if you come back, – claim 30% success rate. Can do last customer, time of day, etc.
• Creating payment marketing.

On Deck Capital

• Using big data to make better credit decisioning for small businesses
• AEO provides capital and resources for underserved entrepreneurs. If one in three small businesses hired just one more employee, we’d reach full employment. Bring CRA compliant working capital loans to small businesses, through a network of nonprofit community organizations throughout the country.
• Example. James has a restaurant, goes to AEO website, then from there to co-branded AEO-OnDeck website. Lending process is explained, he then gets started. Applies online and gets funding!
• Going to apply and obtain funding within the next 4 minutes…
• OnDeck credit model integrates with banks, credit bureaus, social data, public records, and approve 40% more customers than the typical bank credit model. Download  bank account history and analyze cash flow data in real time. Graphical interface allows nonprofit funder to see business
• Guidance and support for small business owners, not just capital. Revenue growth is4x greater for those small biz that get guidance as well as capital.
• James got approved for $35,000 he elects to only borrow $20,000. Next page matches James to local lender, he gets capital in 24 hours.
• AEO and On Deck are collaborating on a number of products and services for smaller businesses.
• Map showing loans that have been made by OnDeck all over the country.
• [This one made me feel good – I am a softy for small business support]

DeviceFidelity

• Mobile POS capability that supports swipe, chip and PIN and NFC
• Tap regular smart phone against POS device. Created a micro-SD that includes an NFC chip. Put microSD chip into a case for the iPhone that is running appropriate app that can access the chip, read balance, and make transactions.
• Application has features that allow the consumer to manage transactions – e.g. balance, transaction history, locater that shows retail locations that accept MasterCard PayPass NFC at POS, various settings to pin-protect aceces to wallet and/or transactions.
• How to fund account? ACH deposit,
• Money transfer via various mechanism – caught PayPal logo on one button, didn’t see others.
• Offer a full white label platform for issuers and big box retailers

SESSION #7

ZipZap

• ZipZap is a global cash transaction network; more than half of the worlds population is under or
• Russian and Brazil more than 85% of online transactions are cash
• 700,000 locations, and growing rapidly
• Here to announce a new feature: cascading payment application, using cash
• Demo: online game, consumer wants to purchase, attempts and credit card is declined. Merchant encourages to try again. Leads to frustration. Instead, offer that customer can pay with cash instead. Redirect to ZipZap, offered three locations nearby to pay cash. Even if only a small subset of customers choose to do so, big payback for merchant as would have been a lost sale.
• Payment slip is generated and is emailed to cell phone or can be printed from a local printer.
• Partner with MoneyGram, Wal-Mart, CVS, 7-Eleven, etc. Instructions on the payment slip for the store clerk.
• Merchant knows in real time that the payment has been made; some clients have expiration dates on cash payment (as short as 4 hrs, for clients like airlines)
• Now domo’ing Brazilian solution, which generates a Boleto which is the dominant form of online payment in Brazil. Also have 240,000 kiosks across Russia where consumers enter rubles to fund an eWallet.
• Simple user interface, for customers around the world. Helps merchants achieve incremental sales to customers that prefer to pay cash, one integration that masks local payment complexity.
• [For more about payments in other countries, check out Glenbrook’s eCommerce Country Reports, here]

Applause Learning

• Create products based on a non-traditional education model. Best learning comes from experience.
• Coindexter Club – teaches financial literacy to children. Encourages responsible behavior.
• Child creates an avatar, and explore a virtual economy, a city called Econopolis. Interact, earn virtual money by doing real tasks. E.g. make lemonade, wash dishes. Activities reinforce lessons – Squeeze Lemonade Factory requires budgeting, for instance. Save, spend, or invest earnings. Encouraged to safe. Get rewards for doing so, and earn interest. Status in club is tied to savings balance. Can invest in the virtual stock exchange, introducing concepts of risk and reward. Can also invest in gear, to do their tasks more effectively.
• Banks and credit unions can license Coindexter Club. A virtual branch with the FIs’ name and logo is incorporated into the game. Participants that register in a given geographic area are introduced to bank in their area. (Licensing is exlusive by territory.)
• Constantly adding new features, tasks, etc.

Blaze Mobile

• [could not attend]

inStream Solutions

• inStream addresses issues for wealth management
• Need proactive planning rather than reactive approach, coordinate related services, help advisors be more specific, utilize collective talent and experience of team.
• CRM for wealth management. Can reassign task to an associate.
• Calculate a success probability for each individual client portfolio based on real time market factors; set thresholds so that inStream can alert advisor when individual client portfolios need attention.  Easy
• Allow advisors to provide value on a daily basis [or at least weekly — I’d be irritated to hear from my advisor every day!]
• Launched service in November, up to 800 firms, managing over $200 billion in assets.

Clover Network

• The problem with POS systems today are closed. Goal is to rip open the POS market, providing access
• Announcing Clover POS, and open POS system, enabling innovation
• Partners can offer Clover to merchants, allowing them to easily incorporate new products and solutions that offer analytics, mobile payment.
• Features: register, invoicing, customer management, scheduling, inventory, reporting, accounting, and setup. Customer CRM is available to other application elements, e.g. invoicing. Tie customer payment info into CRM so that when customer receives invoice link via POS, can reply to approve payment via card on file. If integrated with accounting and reporting capabilities, they are all updated with the transaction info.
• [I am a little unclear whether they are selling apps or they are providing other developers — many of the companies here at Finovate — access to merchants.]

Serverside Group

• Pioneer opportunity for banks to offer consumers the means to personalize their payment card.
• ING, Barclays, Wells Fargo, various credit unions: 54 million custom designed cards, 250 banks, in 29 countries.
• Acquired by Gemalto
• 30% update in transaction swipes using personalized cards, increases activation
• Now: allowing banks to interface with their customers in social networks, such as Facebook and Pinterest
• Banks are incredibly conservative, and hesitant about social media.
• Facebook is largest photosharing website, makes sense to engage customers there and prompt personalized
• Facebook app for FIs – consumer can select from within the photos they have shared on Facebook to put on their personalized credit card. Capture enough info to determine whether a new or existing customer of the
• Need to do checks on picture, to ensure that meets rules of the card networks (human beings review each image).
• Use social graph to encourage friends to make their own personalized card.
• Can create competitions allowing Facebook users to vote on prospective card designs and share them
• Analytics to show who is sharing, who is driving new customers to the FI, so that FI can in turn reward the consumer

Pindrop Security

• “We stop phone fraud!” 1 in every 2,500 calls are fraudulent. VOIP allows bad people to spoof caller ID, etc.
• FI customer service reps are asking customers a lot of annoying questions to ensure they are who they say they are. Creates customer frustration.
• Fingerprint audio calls, and profile known fraudersters. Monitoring close to 300,000 phone numbers.
• Phone reputation service product, use as sanity check on incoming calls and phone numbers provided during new account setup
• Apparently fraudsters have moved to prefixes associated with Tillamook County in Oregon (they were using numbers from somewhere in the midwest).
• Use public data to verify numbers, determine whether it is plausible (if not on the known fraudster list)
• Can also pinpoint specific devices, based on various attributes. Recognize that one device is being used to dial from literally hundreds of numbers.

SESSION #8

[Whoops! Too much networking — I was late to this last session. Apologies to Future Advisor.]

FutureAdvisor

• Investment portfolio dashboard with recommendation engine
• Fire your financial advisor!
• Opens up EFTs to do more accurate asset allocation [similar to Personal Capital]
• Free, no minimums
• Slick UI with clean graphics
• Annoucing premium (paid) model with access to advisors

SoMoLend [Best of Show winner!]

• People investing in people – crowdfunding small businesses via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• SBA loan application via SoMoLend, underwritten using patent-pending algorithm that takes into account social graph and past payment history
• Initial customer have provided info about who can see their info – e.g. business plan, financial records, individual friends
• Involved in Jobs Act taskforce
• FIs can manage existing loan portfolio, or review prospective borrowers. Relationship is between bank and their customer. SoMoLend is not party to the transaction, but does facilitate ACH payments.
• Launched Beta version in Ohio, announcing nationwide launch today.
• [I realize it is embarrassingly girlie, but the CEO of SoMoLend was wearing the most fantastic pair of red shoes onstage. She was also one of the most polished, natural, effective presenters. Impressed.]
• Follow up — It will be awhile before Finovate posts today’s demo videos, in the meantime you can check out this longer video of Candace Klein presenting at Startup 2012 last week. They won.]

Klarna

• Taking all the risk for merchants
• 14,000 merchants use Klarna today, including “Amazons of Europe” as well as niche merchants; driving $2 billion in annual volume
• Clothing merchants like it because consumers like the ability to order, try things on, then only pay for things that fit.
• Turns the web into your local, friendly merchant. Get what you want, have purchases on your tab, and pay later.
• 40-50% of share of check out for participating merchants
• Pay all at once or in installments (2/3 20-30% of payments volume is via installments)
• Sub 1% in losses, allows Klarna to absorb risk. Risk model evaluates purchase in real time. Merchant is paid directly by Klarna. Klarna collects from the consumer.
• [See Glenbrook’s early take – May 2010 – on Klarna here]

Thomson Reuters

• Distribution of market data to third parties that are developing brand new financial services and apps
• Books and records, market data, transactions – how do you take heterogeneous market data and bring together in a meaningful way
• How to manifest in a meaningful way
• How to do innovation despite 18 month IT queue
• Reuters financial data AppStore with individual modules – for technical analysis, for instance, or portfolio watch list, market stats,
• Get live HTML5 widgets, test against Thompson Reuters test back office (they provide back office for a number of leading brokers), Can transform and customize based on parameters. Widgets hosted by Thomson Reuters website.
• And finally transaction integration, so that orders can be incorporated.
• Literally cut and paste code [like I do when I add features to this blog] and the widgets are interoperable. Can customize dates and time, language (including Asian characters), number formats, etc.
• [It is absurdly easy to be a developer now!]

Access Development

• Power Deals is a microredemption engine
• Drive member usage and loyalty, yet keeping costs down
• Demo typical loyalty reward redemption site – travel, gifts, electronics, etc.
• Select a local or national merchant, offer for $25 off of a $75 purchase. All for 250 loyalty points.
• Enables consumers to get rewards for smaller increments. Consumers are spending less, have fewer points
• Each household has access to 18 rewards programs, of which # are active (and the define active as 1 transaction per year), differentiate by offering microredemption solutions.
• 300,000 merchants live today; 100,000 in mobile network

DCisions

• Benchmark risk and allocation using Investor Bee
• Sharing data on over a half-million portfolios so that consumers can see what is really going on with similar portfolios
• Everything can be whitelabeled by FI partners
• Compare risk, compare yourself, compare investments
• Rather than rely on the opinion of who ever is selling investment products
• Benchmark average return, across medium, medium-high, and high risk funds, taking into account fees
• Determine whether fund adds value in return for the risk
• Can drill down on individual funds to see highlights, then dill down even further to get details and see graphs of individual fund vs. average of all funds with similar risk portfolio
• Financial Times called the product “revolutionary” [will dig up link]
• Build trust amongst customers, provide value

Balance Street

• Balance sheet uses technology to disrupt the debt settlement and collections business
• $1.6 billion in fees , 181,000 complaints to the FCC (that’s just debt settlement) “The debt recovery process is clearly broken”
• Consumers pay on average 20% of the debt to have case manually processed
• Collections industry buy debt for pennies on the dollars, then harass consumers
• New regulations make the creditor much more culpable
• Balance street takes the money saved and redistributes it to the consumer and creditor, and charges a modest transaction fee to the creditor. Helps with regulatory oversight.
• Demo shows choices to the consumer to address debt, offers from lenders at various price points
• Helps consumer to save funds to pay off debt, set up own FDIC insured escrow account. Assures creditor that funds are available when
• For the creditors, rather than manual (paper) and phone interaction with consumers and debt settlement companies, use tools to review prospective debters
• [dong – they ran out of time]

Wow. Off to network some more and visit with some of the presenters at their booths. Will post best of show results and a few observations later.

Thanks for reading.

[Note to presenters — feel free to clarify/respond to my coverage in the comments section below. Or reach out directly to schedule a briefing with the Glenbrook team.]

BEST OF SHOW

And the Finovate Best of Show winners are…

• BehavioSec: Glenbrook Finovate coverage, website
• BillGuard: Glenbrook Finovate coverage, website
• Dwolla: Glenbrook Finocate coverage, website
• iQuantify: Glenbrook Finovate coverage, website
• MoneyDesktop: Glenbrook Finovate coverage, website
• Personal Capital: Glenbrook Finovate coverage, website
• SoMoLend: Glenbrook Finovate coverage, website

Congratulations to the best in show companies! Thank you to all of the presenters, and to Jim and Eric for hosting another fantastic event.

More Coverage:

• Finovate blog – Somehow the Finovate team managed to incorporate pictures of the demos into their live coverage. Impressive.
• Lots of real time (occasionally snarky) coverage on Twitter using the #finovate hashtag