Banking News
Finovate 2009 Demoing Company Lineup Complete
Today, we’re revealing another handful of the leading fintech companies that will demo their latest and greatest innovations at Finovate 2009 on September 29 in the heart of NYC. The quality and diversity of the ideas that will be demoed on stage is very high this year and we’re incredibly excited to showcase all the chosen companies to you.
The additional companies are:
These four companies join 26 we’ve already announced (list below) as well as two great startups still in “stealth” mode that will debut at the event.
These companies will be showcased to an audience of senior financial/banking/credit union executives, influential press, industry analysts, venture capitalists, bloggers, tech companies and entrepreneurs.
A few of the organizations already committed to attend include: Bank of America, Citibank, WSJ, Microsoft, HSBC, Wells Fargo, American Express, Dow Jones, the Financial Times, E*Trade Financial, SunTrust, ANZ, Capitol One, Financial Insights, Discover, Sybase, Cardinal Venture Capital, Intuit, Consumer Reports, DataMonitor, Canaan Partners, The Economist, BusinessWeek, and Aite Group.
We’d love to have you join us at the fall event and watch the future of finance/banking unfold onstage. If you register before the end of August you’ll save $100 via the early-bird ticket discount.
P.S. Online Banking Report subscribers save even more on tickets to all our events PLUS they obviously get 12 months of great research.
Finovate 2009 Demoing Companies Revealed
September 29th, 2009 is going to be a memorable day in the history of financial technology. Why? Because on that Tuesday, dozens of leading fintech companies will take the stage in NYC at Finovate 2009 to debut and demo their latest and greatest product innovations. The quality of the ideas that will be demoed on stage is very high this year and we’re incredibly excited to showcase them to you.
The demoing companies selected (that we can reveal so far) are:
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These companies will be showcased to an audience of senior financial/banking/credit union executives, influential press, industry analysts, venture capitalists, bloggers, tech companies and entrepreneurs.
A few of the organizations already committed to attend include: Bank of America, Citibank, WSJ, Microsoft, HSBC, Wells Fargo, American Express, Dow Jones, the Financial Times, E*Trade Financial, SunTrust, ANZ, Capitol One, Financial Insights, Discover, Sybase, Cardinal Venture Capital, Intuit, Consumer Reports, DataMonitor, Canaan Partners, The Economist, BusinessWeek, and Aite Group.
We’d love to have you join us at the fall event and watch the future of finance/banking unfold onstage. If you register today you’ll save $200 via the very-early bird ticket discount. Please note that those prices expire on Friday August 7th at midnight.
Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union is First to Add Free FICO Credit Scores to Online Banking
In what I hope is the beginning of a trend, Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union (PSECU) is offering free FICO credit scores to its online banking customers. The CU says more than 200,000 members are eligible to receive free scores.
Although, Wamu and HSBC (note 1) both offer free scores for their respective credit card customers, PSECU is the first financial institution to offer scores to checking account customers within the online banking area.
There is no charge for the service, but members must enroll to participate. A new score will be posted online each month in the online banking area. Members also have the option to receive alerts when their scores are updated.
The service is powered by Fair Isaac’s MyFICO service. According its press released today, the company is talking with other financial institutions about participating in the Scores on Statements program. Currently, 1.5 million consumers have access to free credit scores through the service.
Bottom line: Without knowing the financial arrangements, it’s impossible to estimate the ROI. But credit scores have real value to consumers and any financial institution providing them for free is likely to improve its standing. It’s also possible that a free credit score service could be a profit center if fee-based credit report monitoring options are marketed to enrollees of the free service (note 2).
EFT Network Inc. Launches Remote Deposit Capture via Fax
Remote deposit capture (RDC) via mobile phone has to be the coolest way to make paper checks disappear from your office and reappear in your account. But from a usability standpoint, it leaves something to be desired, limiting its appeal to geeks with a check to deposit every once in a while.
Businesses with several checks or more every week need something more convenient and easy to use. Proprietary scanners connecting to PC-based software apps work well, but require installation and training, not to mention $30+ per month in service fees.
Enter FAXTellerPLUS, a new solution from Hawthorn, NY-based EFT Network, that uses the common fax machine for the input mechanism. The bank runs the software on its end freeing the user to get back to their business once the fax transmits.
Today’s press release says the four banks using the system are processing “thousands of transactions per month.”
How it works:
Bank sends customers a special sleeve that holds up to 3 checks to be transmitted and includes info on the customer so deposit can be directed to the correct account.
Customer transmits the check (front and back) to the bank via standard fax machine.
Bank sends confirmation back to customer via fax or email.
Funds are deposited in customer’s account and images viewable online.
If this works as billed, it could put RDC into the hands of micro- and small-businesses as well as consumers with access to fax machines at home or work. If any readers have used or tested the system, please let me know your experience by commenting here or emailing.
Lending Club Regains Momentum, Posts 40% Gain in P2P Loan Originations Compared to Dec. 2007
If you think your 2008 was stressful, imagine having to shut down for an extended and unknown period (it turned out to be 6 months) just 10 months after launch. Then spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on SEC paperwork that your major competitor avoided (temporarily it turns out), all the while watching that same competitor take your market share while you keep your mouth shut via SEC mandate.
That was Lending Club’s year. But unlike so many horror stories of the past year, this one has a happy ending, at least so far. Not only did Lending Club reopen for business Oct. 14 at our Finovate conference (demo video here), within weeks they had already moved ahead of last year’s origination pace (note 1).
As you can see in the table below, Dec. 2008 was substantially ahead of Dec. 2007 in all measures except average loan size and approval rate, which dropped a full 2 points:
Number of applications increased by 78%
Number of approved loans increased by 43%
Dollars originated increased by 29%
Average loan size approved declined by $1,000 (9.4%)
Overall approval rate was 8.5% last month compared to just over 10% a year ago
Table: Lending Club loan origination results: Dec 2008 vs. Dec 2007
| Dec 2008 |
Dec 2007 |
Change | % Change | |
| Number of loans originated | 238 | 167 | + 71 | 43% |
| Dollars originated | $2.28 mil | $1.77 mil | + $0.5 mil | 29% |
| Number of loan applications | 2,798 | 1,575 | + 1,223 | 78% |
| Approval rate | 8.5% | 10.6% | (2.1%) | (20%) |
| Dollar value of all applications | $24.2 mil | $14.4 mil | + $9.8 mil | 68% |
| Average loan size approved | $9,600 | $10,600 | ($1,000) | (9.4%) |
| Average loan size declined | $8,600 | $9,000 | ($400) | (0.4%) |
| Site traffic (unique visitors) | 78,000 | 58,000 | 20,000 | 35% |
Source: Loan volume from Lending Club, site traffic from Compete, calculations by Online Banking Report, 8 Jan 2009
Here’s the monthly origination chart (in US Dollars) courtesy of LendingClubStats.com who compiled the figures from data provided by Lending Club.
Source: LendingClubStats.com, 8 Jan 2009
Also, site traffic is up 35% year over year according to Compete.
Source: Compete, 9 Jan 2009
Bank of America Launches a Blog Finally
What better way to start the new year than to blog about a blog. And it’s big news. Bank of America, through its Center for Future Banking (see note 1), launched a blog called The Future Banking Blog. The blog, quietly began after Thanksgiving (note 2), has averaged about 2 posts per week, about right for a banking blog (note 3).
The content so far has been wholly unrelated to Bank of America or its products. The blog is part academic, part strategic, bringing insights from the Center’s joint team of MIT academics and BofA business execs.
The design however, is pure Bank of America (see below). It uses the BofA color palette and includes a prominent powered by logo in the upper right. It’s also housed under a bank URL <futurebanking.bankofamerica.com>.
All in all it’s a good effort, positioning BofA as a thought leader in the upside-down world of commercial banking circa 2009.
Note:
1. The Center is seeking an Executive Director. The position was posted on Dec. 16, but given the holiday, it’s not too late to toss your name in the hat.
2. Hat tip to Colin Henderson at The Bankwatch for writing about it.
3. For more info on financial institution bloggin,
