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Day-one demos from Finovate gave a lot of airtime to personal financial management app refinements, such as collaboration and data visualization. Here's a look at five.
September 11 -
Our model must change to reduce embedded friction, whether in the form of fees or complicated processes. We must keep up with the simplicity, usability and transparency customers now demand.
July 23 -
Straightening out bad actors is fine, but it wont resolve the inconsistencies and consumer confusion about overdraft protection cited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
June 14
For
Many of the pitched products are undoubtedly pretty. (Behold: some
Still, I can't help thinking the money management moment has passed and that, moving forward, engagement banking a
This might reflect my lifelong aversion to charts and graphs. Or it could be related to a suspicion that many financial firms want to "engage" with me simply to obtain information marketable to a third party. Facebook, which uses personal information to sell targeted ads, was name-dropped during more than one demo session at the conference.
(An aside: The notion of Facebook as an inspiration for new banking models terrifies me. While younger demographics respond to social media, there are
More likely, my call for a "less-is-more" strategy could be a natural outgrowth of my philosophy regarding technology. I expect it to do things for me as soon as I need them done. Push the button, check gets cashed. Click the mouse, save a penny. Tweet a hashtag, lower the balance on your credit card statement.
This is why
Tandem's pitch illustrates how customers sometimes prefer less interaction. Also, the app performs a service that customers would conceivably not just adopt, but actually
Don't take my word for it. I'm hardly the only person who opts for
In his
Judging from what I saw at Finovate, startups seem to have a lock on the gee-wiz tech side of engagement. Instead of looking to partner with PFM providers or improve their PFM tools which can only generate revenue if customers use them banks should focus on developing products and services that make accountholders' lives easier. This would be a departure from many existing bank business models, which draw revenue from
As such, I encourage aspiring innovators to focus on the overlooked aspects of engagement banking: functionality, control and customization. Want me to engage with your financial firm? Don't
Jeanine Skowronski is the deputy editor of BankThink. You can contact her at