Fidor AG Aims to Bring Fun to Brokerage with their New Service iBrokr.com (Currently in Private Beta)

I met Matthias Kroener, Founder at Fidor Bank AG, for the first time in Paris at the EFMA event on Social Media earlier this year. I invite you to check my post on Ficoba and my wrap up of the event.
 
Referring to my wrap up of Finovate 2009, Matthias told me he wanted to prove bankers wrong and demonstrate Financial Services companies could be fun and have real fans such as Apple or Amazon. Bring it on Matthias, the industry needs new and fresh approaches to banking such as Ficoba, Mint, UBank or SmartyPig!
 
I look forward to catching up with him next month in Zurich at SOMESSO, "Corporate Social Media in the Finance Sector", where we are both speaking.

I recommended Matthias who I believe will be a perfect fit with his vision and his presentation skills.

Interview with Matthias (March 2009)

About iBrokr.com
Last week Matthias contacted me to make me aware of their new service, iBrokr.com. Please find below more info Matthias sent me over earlier today:

"As mentioned in my email from last week, this is a platform, that:
- combines the behavioural patterns of stock trading with "thrill" and "fun"
- enables users to participate at the stock exchanges with a minimum investment of 1 euro… (that is real micro banking)
- allows you to "just do it with toy money" on www.brokr.de
- minimum transaction fees
- no admin hurdle, easy registration
- internationaly scalelable
- no back office admin (therefor, this is not to replace a traditional broker)
- high educational standard (e. g. limited investments for untrained users etc.)
- sometimes high risk, but also high return
- no investment-banking-black box in the products and applications, therefor very transparent.

A combination of FUN and BROKERAGE."

Small Private Beta Test
They started their Private Beta and invited just 30 people to contribute. I just had a quick call with Matthias who told me that I was the only blogger to be invited to share his feedback at that stage. Das ist Wunderbar! 

I can't tell you much more info at that stage, but the service is currently divided into three main sections: 1x2 Financials, Best Performer, and Easytrader.

Please find below some of the first screenshots (please note that the interface may still changed following the comments gathered during the Private Beta Test)
 
Stay tuned on Visible Banking for an update later this year!

Please note that later today Matthias will give a presentation at the exclusive Techcrunch Munich event. The title: “With traditional banking dying, and community banking up, what does this mean for the startup economy”. Congrats Matthias!
 
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage - Finovate09
* Coverage - Finovate07 & FinovateStartup08
* Visible Banking Services
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Finance
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch (710 accounts tracked in 38 countries)