Last week has been an important week for SmartHippo.com the first-ever website that uses the power of community to help consumers find the best mortgage rates and save money launched its beta version back in September 2007. Not only they introduced their new CEO Lori Collins, who was one of SH's founding Advisory Board members as well as the former GM at LendingTree, but they also announced the launch of HipoListo.es, their new Joint-Venture with Financialred in Spain.
"The web finance space is in its infancy in Spain and we believe we have an opportunity to rapidly establish HipoListo as the dominant player in a market of 50 million consumers" said Jesus Perez, Chief Strategy Officer of FinancialRed. "By leveraging the SmartHippo platform we were able to significantly reduce our time to market."
I believe the HipoListo Team hans't started blogging yet. It is interesting to see two different approaches to Social Media and Advocacy which in Spain reflects the local market adoption of twitter: SmartHippo is focused on twitter, whereas HipoListo is focused on Facebook.
It is a Small Small World I love the Social Media / Online Inovation space in the Financial Services industry. It is such a small world. I met George through Jim, I first got in touch with Jesus when he was working at BBVA and I was Senior Innovation Manager at Lloyds TSB, and while I was in NYC three weeks ago to cover Finovate 2009, I met with one of Jesus' colleagues, José Ruiz Cristina - Chief Strategy Officer at Financialred and Avi Karnani the Co-Founder of Thrive and now VP Strategic Innovation at LendingTree, Lori's former employer. I LOVE my job!
SmartHippo is not the only innovative startup in online finance which recently launched outside the US: in the last 12 months Wesabe partnered with the Telegraph in the UK and SmartyPig partnered with ANZ in Australia.
Here I am, blogging, in Paris, in the reception of the hotel after a short night sleep. Before heading off to the EFMA event on Social Media, I wanted to make sure to relay a couple of news and mention my excellent dinner yesterday.
Innovation dinner Yesterday, I had a great time catching up with a few fellow innovators in banking and online finance.
We shared our views on many topics such as innovation (disruptive vs incremental), social media (education, key challenges, success criteria, engagement model, tactical vs strategic), twitter, facebook, personal finance management, social lending, and mobile banking.
Wesabe launches personal finance platform for credit unions and banks Source:Debbie Pfeifer @ Wesabe
Social personal finance website Wesabe today announced the launch of
Wesabe SpringBoardTM, a web-services-based version of its award-winning
money management tools and community features for banks and credit
unions.
Marc Hedlund, CEO of Wesabe: "With the recent upheaval in the banking industry and
the economy, we've been hearing from more and more financial
institutions who want to better connect with their members and help
them through these uncertain times". SpringBoard quickly arms financial institutions with our proven
personal finance tools, the latest community features, and a vast
database of collective consumer wisdom. In addition to enhancing
existing customer relationships, SpringBoard also helps credit unions
and banks attract and service new members, including disenfranchised
customers who don't feel secure in their current institution, as well
as a new generation of web-savvy users."
This move had to be expected. Now Wesabe positions itself more as an enabler than a disruptor. (we talked about this common dilemna for startups in the online finance space quite extensively last night before dinner with Frederic and Jean-Christophe)
I have mixed feelings about this move though. I personnally believe that Wesabe's strategy and USP are not clear anymore. Now, they are kind of competing directly with the likes of Yodlee and Jwaala. And I am sure everybody is expecting a response from Mint.com soon.
Entropia Universe gets real world banking licence Source:finextra.co.uk
'The company behind Entropia Universe - an online role-playing game that has a cash economy - has been granted a real world banking licence by Swedish regulators, enabling it to set up a virtual central bank.'
What a great line up: Michael Ferrari (smartypig.com), Aaron Patzer (Mint.com), Nichelle Stephens (KeepingNickels), Murali Subbarao (Billeo).
I initially got in touch with Michael when I was working in Innovation at Lloyds TSB, I had the pleasure to interview both Aaron (twice) and Murali at a couple of Finovate events in the US. I look forward to catching up with them, and meeting with Nichelle, in San Francisco at FinovateStartup09.
Mint.com adds One Millionth User Mint became the fastest-growing personal finance software ever, reaching 1 million users in just 18 months.
A quote from Aaron: "Our mission has always been to help people save and do more with their money. Our rapid growth demonstrates that an unprecedented number of people are finding real value in what we offer. And this is just the beginning. We will continue to enhance our service while expanding in new directions. In dialog with our users, it’s clear that there are still significant ways in which we can help Americans better understand their finances, and make better-informed decisions, with our innovative approach to personal financial management.” I invite you to read the excellent post "Three Principles of Personal Finance: All You Need to Know for Financial Success" Aaron wrote a few days before his consultation with the National Economic Council at the White House.
Smartypig Teams Up with Money Management Sites SmartyPig, the leader in the social banking space, today announced the launch of its OFX Solution, enabling customers to add their SmartyPig accounts into their preferred money management sites. The integration syncs SmartyPig accounts directly into online account aggregators, including: Buxfer, Microsoft Money, Mint.com, MoneyStrands, Thrive, Wesabe and Yodlee. Geezeo and Rudder are coming soon.
A quote from Michael: “At SmartyPig we recognize how important it is to securely manage your finances, set goals and help change the credit card mindset of ‘buy now, pay later,’ that has contributed to the current downturn. Being able to see all your accounts in one place is a critical step in taking control of your finances. We selected an OFX solution because it’s the most widely adopted open standard for exchanging financial information between consumers and financial services, and we aimed to grant this ability to the largest possible number of customers.”
Please find below the social media news in banking / financial services on Wednesday 4 March 2009.
Digital Cream 2009 I have just come back from Digital Cream, the digital marketing event organized by econsultancy. I moderated one of the social media roundtables with a key focus on monetization. It was a great session with digital marketing professionals from a wide range of industries and companies such as Clinique, Diabetes UK, Institute of Directors, O2, PhotoBox, Thomas Cook.
Companies acknowledge the importance of social media, and most of them have created an internal social media working group with participants for various parts of their organization. Education, lack of strategy and lack of resources remain the key challenges for most digital marketeers.
Citi Partners MySpace Source: Finextra.com "Citi has teamed up with MySpace to launch a credit card that lets customers earn reward points for acts of financial and social responsibility. (...) The points can be used for rewards and experiences from MySpace, such as music downloads, VIP concert tickets, private concerts and trips to movie premiere screenings."
This is another example of Citi's commitment to innovation. It is a creative way to tap into social networking and the sizable MySpace community. It is just a commercial deal, with virtually no technology work involved from Citi.
Excellent! But I am curious to see how Citi will promote their initiative (on MySpace and on their website) and see how successful their initiative will be six months down the road.
Please note that back in December 2008 Citi launched a social networking site, ClearAfterHours, to promote their contactless payment card Citi Clear Card. Also, I invite you to watch my video interview with Steve Kietz, CEO of MobileMoneyVentures LLC, the JV between Citi and SK Telecom.
Westpac pulls out of Second Life Source: TheBankChannel.com "Westpac has revealed that changing business conditions and poor adoption forced it to abandon or shelve some of its highest-profile Enterprise 2.0 projects. The bank has abandoned the Second Life presence it used for employee induction, has re-evaluated the use of blogs within the company and has pulled back on desktop video. (...) But it has seen its share of project failures too, Backley reminded the audience. Such as its early leap into blogs. Bank management at the time was too risk averse and the technology too new, he said. Parts of the organisation were too scared to put comments in because they didn't know what the consequences were," he said. (...) But he said its Second Life trial had forged ahead, initially - "It worked. We had great feedback." The project was abandoned once its project sponsor moved to a new job."
I am not surprised Westpac gave up on Second Life / virtual worlds and internal blogging. The reasons behind those "failures": PEOPLE - the social media champion moved on, and the lack of education.
Learn - Listen - Participate - Engage - Measure Does it mean banks shouldn't leverage social media? Not at all! Banks must: a) work with a subject matter expert, b) educate/train their employees and their senior management, c) start where it makes sens.
Virtual worlds for banks: focus on recruitment & education As far as I am concerned, banks should use virtual worlds mainly for recruitment and financial education.
Back in February 2008, ING pulled out of Second Life officially because of the merger with postbank (but the business sponsor moved on too).
But banks are not done with virtual worlds yet. Last year, ABN Amro appointed a head of 3D experience, Wells Fargo's StageCoach Island is still going strong, and last week BNP Paribas launched Ace Manager an online game for students based on a virtual world.
I have always been reluctant to use Facebook for a business purpose. Mainly because I was concerned with the concept of "friends" and the limited privacy options. But I must admit that it is a great tool to keep in touch with people, from close friends to business contacts, and I am sure that at least 90 million of people would agree with me.
And at the end of the day, you decide what you want to share on your profile. Be smart!
Provide some exclusive content & give more exposure to my fans When I decided to create a page for Visible Banking, I had a goal, a purpose: I want to demonstrate what you should do on Facebook. I saw too many companies "on Facebook" or claiming to be on Facebook. Again, like any other social media project, what is your goal? Does it make sens? And if you do it, do it right or at least try your best, connect with people.
Another issue on Facebook is "the brand ownership" or the alteration/dilution of your brand. Anybody can create a page, a product, or a service using your company name. Mark, could you ask one of your colleagues to comment this post and tell us how you plan to address this issue?
I don't want the Visible Banking Page to be a mere copy and paste of Visible-Banking.com..
As far as I am concerned, there is no point creating and maintaining your own page if nobody but you contribute!
My goals: Reward my Fans & Create some Buzz I was touched that after less than 48h, and just a few invitations sent, 12 people became fans of my page. For the soft launch of the page, I contacted a small group of people made of fellow bankers, industry experts and prominent bloggers.
I believe the success of any Social Media initiative is linked with your ability to engage with your community and urge them to contribute. It is critical to REWARD your members, your fans. Rewarding could mean many things such as producing exclusive content, or giving visibiliy / exposure to your contributors. I intend to do both on the Visible Banking Page.
Please find below the names and a short description of my first 10 "Founding Fans" sorted by chronological order: 1.Chris Skinner, Owner at Balatro (UK): Chris is one of the most famous "banking technologists" in the uk. Chris is extremely well connected, respected and disruptive. I invite you to check the Facebook Group he created to market its successful Financial Services Club. Chris is an active blogger on several websites such as finextra and swfitcommunity. I invite you to check my video interview with him.
4.Allese Thomson, Marketing Coordinator at Wesabe (USA): Allese works with Debbie and Gabe in the dynamic Marketing team at Wesabe. Allese has a lot of excellent ideas, and I am confident she will be instrumental in the next (expected) redesign of Wesabe's interface. I am so pleased she started blogging too. Congrats!
5.Morriss Partee, Chief Experience Officer at EverythingCU.com (USA): Morriss contacted me almost a year ago, after watching the video I shot with William Azaroff. Morriss created one of the most active forums for the exchange of ideas in the Credit Union arena.
Posted items I will use this application to flag the most interesting news in the online finance space. This will be exclusive to the Facebook Page. Bloggers, please do not hesitate to add a link to your posts related to the topics I cover on Visible-Banking.com.
Reviews I would really appreciate if you could spend two or three minutes to leave a comment/review about the page. The idea is to explain how useful the Visible Banking Page is for you.
Please note that I am not expecting a Linkedin like type of endorsement. Endorsements are more than welcome though: please visit my Linkedin profile.
Discussion Board Most of the Facebook pages I visited which have a discussion board hardly have any activities from the readers/fans. I don't want to start dozens of discussions if nobody participates. I would rather keep the list of topics short, and see some regular activity. Please express yourself! And if you fee like starting a discussion on the page, please follow up and invite any of your contacts which may want to participate.
Tim (Tim Collins, SVP Experential Marketing at Wells Fargo), what a pleasure to have you as first contributor. It demonstrates again your proactivity, your understanding of Social Media, and it means a lot to me. Thanks.
Notes I plan to use the Notes application to add the rss feed to my blog. I have a question for the Facebook Team: would it be possible to use a rss feed from the Page wall or the Posted items application. For the moment, I believe the Notes application is the only application which offers you to subscribe to its feed... Am I correct?
Events I would like to flag all the most valuable and innovative online finance events worldwide. I won't succeed all by myself, your help will be precious. I am particularly interested in your contributions in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.
Please flag any events, register your interest, share your comments, or capture the questions you would like to ask to the speakers or the exhibitors. Moreover, If you know anyone interested to attend, sponsor, participate or cover the events, please direct them to the page!
Videos For a start, I uploaded a sample of my best videos. In the future, I plan to upload some exclusive videos.
Please share any video of innovative online services, any interviews with an entrepreneur or a banker who is a champion for social media. I would like to make a statement witht this page: "You want to find out more about social media in banking, check Visible-Banking.com and the Visible Banking Page on Facebook".
Photos Same idea. I really urge you to add any pictures related to web 2.0, social media in banking, and online finance. Bankers: add a logo / some screenshots of your PFM tool or any of your innovative online services. Entrepreneurs: add a logo of your company.
I am back! Some of you probably wondered what happened to me. "Has he stopped?", "has he moved on?", "was he bored?"... No, no and... no!
Creating my blog back in February 2007 was definitely one of the most gratifying things I have done in my life so far.
Visible-Banking.com enables me to share my passion for social media, my vision for the banking industry, and my expertise. I believe there hasn't been a week without meeting fantastic people, and discovering innovative products & services in the online finance space. I am consistently developing credibility and a trusted, international, network of contacts in the banking industry. I have the opportunity to spend some time with entrepreneurs and true visionnaries. I am regularly invited to speak at leading financial services events in the US (a country that I love), in the UK, and in Europe. What a great experience!
Stay tuned! But for me blogging "goes with the flow". Sometimes, I need a break to concentrate on various other projects or activities. I used my recent break to do some research, and I have now a long list of topics I want to cover in my blog. I am also keen to shoot a couple of entertaining videos. I plan to launch a n ambitious competition soon: stay tuned!
My goal from now on is to post at least a couple of articles every week.
Subscribe to the most insightful blogs Even though I haven't posted much in the last 8 weeks, I have always kept myself uptodate thanks to my fellow bloggers.
Start blogging today! I feel fortunate, and I would like to encourage everybody to start working on their
online visibility and their personal brand. Don't wait, start now! The world is your oyster. Do better than me, quicker, but please keep me posted. I would be pleased to shoot a video interview
with you to convince more and more people and spread the word.
It could be intimidating when you think about it: dozen, hundreds, then thousands of people (some of them experts) read your posts and can share their comments, good or bad. But think about it: if they take the time to leave a comment, even a bad one, it is mission accomplished. You have started the discussion, and they are interested enough to take the time to express themselves. And free time is precious. Congrats.
Special note Last but not least, it is critical to find some motivation and inspiration when you blog. A special thanks to Miss T, my dear friend from Wesabe. A, I am so glad you started blogging at last. Your two posts are very well written, and you already have more comments than I had after a good dozen of posts! ;)
On Monday, I received two emails: one from ClairMail (thanks Eleni. By the way, could you please say hello to Gavin?) and one from BancVue (thanks Renee).
ClairMail's latest banking deal Please note that this news was under embargo until yesterday.
ClairMail partnered with Alerus Financial, a local and independently owned us bank, to offer Alerus customers a new mobile banking platform – Alerus Mobile Access. The service enables Alerus customers to access their accounts via text messaging or via the web on a mobile phone.
I have been in touch with Joe Salesky, ClairMail's CEO, and his team since early 2007. I usually catch up with Joe at the hottest online banking / online finance events in the US. I had the pleasure to shoot a video interview with a very inspired Joe in San Francisco at FinovateStartup 2008.
In September 2007, U.S. messaging and content delivery service provider Sybase 365 reported that: * More than a third of U.S. consumers can state their bank balance at any given time * Additionally, 42 % of American consumers can calculate their current balance total to the nearest $200 * As many as 61% of Americans admit to checking their bank balance at least every few days; 29 % check daily
BancVue's new milestone REWARDChecking is a free checking account offering a high-interest
reward rate and ATM fee refunds worldwide when consumers meet cost
saving and revenue generating electronic banking requirements.
* As of August 1, REWARDChecking accounts have eclipsed $5.5 billion in deposits nationwide and attracted more than 610,000 consumers interested in earning high-interest rewards on their checking accounts. * REWARDChecking is currently attracting a new depositor every 45.6 seconds. * Close to 400 community financial institutions are currently offering REWARDChecking accounts.
I met John Waupsh, CEO of First ROI, and Gabriel Krajicek, CEO of BancVue, in San Francisco a few months ago.
John and Gabe demoed their new online search tool, CheckingFinder.com, at FinovateStartup 2008. They did a great job: their presentation was one of the very best. They have so much energy, so much passion. And a good service. Well done guys!
I invite you to check the video interview I shot with John and Gabe at the end of such a busy day.
CheckingFinder.com, a new online search tool that allows consumers to
find, compare and sign up for REWARDChecking accounts online.
Bank of Ireland (BoI) has added a range of new functions to its
Internet banking service, 365 Online, following a EUR10 million
investment in the site.
Please find below the new features BoI added to 365online.com: * Register new beneficiaries for domestic and international payments * Make international payments to over 40 countries worldwide * Top up mobile phones * Set up, cancel and amend standing orders
I believe the international payments feature is going to be very popular.
In his press coverage Brendan Nevin, Director Strategy & Marketing, says that the main reason that customers don't use internet banking is because they think it is too complicated to use. I believe Online Security is at least as important if not more important.
And even though I welcome the fact that BoI launched two tutorials in Chinese and Polish, I doubt this will have a big impact and dramatically increase online banking usage. Unless BoI heavily market that new "feature" in branches, by direct mail and online. Providing two new interfaces in Chinese and Polish would probably be more efficient.
An industry goal: drive more customers online This initiative demonstrates how important it is for banks to urge their customer to go online and switch to the cost effective Internet Channel. Banks are prepared to spend big budgets: the more people register and use the service, the less traffic to call centers or branches. Moreover, you will drive online sales thanks to targeted advertising, shorter application processes with pre-populated forms, and better conversion rates.
Most banks in the uk are busy working on the next generation of their online banking service. Currently, most current online banking services are based on old legacy systems, rigid and not content managed. It is complicated to make any changes within the secure website. Even minor changes (like updating some static text) must be prioritized and can take up to 6, 9 or 12 months to be completed.
The leading banks are usually more ambitious and they are working on projects to make the online banking service "more web 2.0", more user centric and more interactive. Their goal is to blur the line between the public website and the secure website. Their goal is to have a flexible, content managed, platform which the customer experience, the marketing, or the sales teams can modify quickly and easily.
I believe working on the next generation of online banking is also the perfect oppotunity to provide new services requested by clients such as being able to make international payments online, change your contact details, set up the level of security on your account, or have access to better personal finance management features.
As you know, I am always very enthusiastic when a bank launches an innovative service leveraging web 2.0 features such as blogging or social networking.
In the last couple of months, I discovered and reviewed many web 2.0 initiatives such as: * Join2Grow - Fortis initiative in the social networking space (I invite you to check my interview of Catherine Ossemerct, Head of Media-Channels) * pickuradvisor - ING innovative blogging platform launched first in India then in Hong-Kong * wtfcollective.com - Today, I met with the Head of Brand at Barclaycard to talk about the blogging/social networking site they recently launched to support their new onepulse card in London. I have scheduled with him a video interview next week.
BoA launches an online community for SMB to Learn, Connect & Share In that case, BoA's goal is to create a trusted online community for SMB. It is an excellent way to try a new, and fairly inexpensive, communication channel with their key market. Moreover, it will produce great learnings for their Experiential Marketing team.
So first of all, my congratulations to Mark Hogan, President of small business banking for Bank of America, and to his team for this excellent initiative. Mark, I am very keen to get in touch with you. I would like to interview you or someone from your team asap and find out more about your initiative in the online community space.
UGC: a potential threat, but what a great opportunity for banks Usually, User Generated Content is perceived more as a high risk
(brand damage) than a great opportunity. Indeed if you do it right, you can not only win back angry customers but occasionally you will even turn them into your best brand ambassadors.
In the web 2.0 era, your client expectations have changed: they won't hesitate to express themselves online, and they want you to show that you listen to them and prove that you care. You need to respond to them.
Even very negative comments are useful as
long as you respond and explain the reasons behind your (unpopular) decisions. You may even have to admit your mistakes. People will understand. Honesty pays. You will create trusted, stronger, relationships with your clients. Please check my interview with Fergus Hampton, CEO of Millward Brown Precis.
My initial comments Today (10th October 2007), I have spent an hour on the small business online community platform. Please find below my initial comments.
This initiative sits in the social networking space. It is a good platform, BoA successfully leveraged Web 2.0
features (like blogging, tagging and rss feeds) Overall, the interface is intuitive and it has a lot to offer. There seems to be a lot of activity on the site which counts several active members. And it feels like you
are part of a community.
Can't you build your own network and contact directly other members? But in this first release even if as a registered member you can post, comment or review articles and find other members, it looks like you can't really create a network of contacts nor directly contact the other members via the platform.
For instance, I couldn't find any security settings which would let me display my details on my profile. As an anecdote, I found the profile of another banker who found a way round that limitation: instead of his website he put his email address "http://[email protected]". Clever. It shows that many members surely want to contact or be contacted by other members.
The goal is to create trusted business relationships, isn't it? It is one of the 3 pillars of the community: Connect, learn and share.
Good example of member engagement: reward your most active contributors Recruiting new members is not too difficult but engaging them, urging them to visit the site and contribute on regular basis is by experience more complicated. It is more complicated, AND it is critical. You need good UGC on your platform to sustain the growth and the quality of your member base.
To be successful, you need to reward your most active members. Members are giving away some of their spare time because they are seeking new opportunities. Give them more visibility!
On the UGC side, BoA do a good job engaging their members. They used good and proven features like questions/answers (Yahoo! Answers or Linkedin Answers, an excellent way to drive regular traffic and motivate/reward your members giving them more visibility)
a few facts and figures On Wednesday 10th October 07 at 21:30 GMT, it looked like: * 20 members were online * they have over 1080 registered members * they have over 150 threads on their forums, over 20 expert articles, over 15 Success Stories * the first profile was created on 19th July 07.
LPO / Conversion rate: the BoA logo links to their SMB Homepage. A splash page may help A discret but visible "powered by Bank of America" is displayed at the top of the screen.
By the way, in terms of branding and presence on their social networking site BoA, Fortis/Join2Grow, HSBC/yourpointofview.com and Barclaycard/wtfcollective.com have adopted very different approaches.
I like BoA's approach. The logo is present to remind you who provides this useful service, and I don't find it intrusive.
I would just challenge the link to the BoA SMB's homepage. I would be curious to find out about the journey from a community member who land on the SMB homepage. I suspect that people could easily get lost and that the conversion rate is probably low. Especially with a small number of registered members (and an even smaller number of active members).
I would probably test a splash page with for instance a few words on the online community, and maybe an option to know more about a specific product, chat online or be contacted by an advisor.
In the next couple of days, I will share with you more specific comments on the interface.
“Christophe's book is really the must-have synopsis of the current state-of-play in social media in banking. Christophe has taken a deep passion for the topic, and turned it into an account of the landscape valuable to anyone who has social media responsibilities in financial services” James Gardner, General Manager at Spigit
“Christophe is extremely well informed about the banking and financial services industries. He's at all the right conferences, and digs deep with his interviews of all the influencers and innovators. He's also a tremendously nice guy :-)” Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO at Mint Software
“Christophe seems to have his finger on the pulse of the financial services industry. Visible Banking has become "the" source of information for innovations in the financial services industry.” Tim Collins, SVP-Experiential Marketing at Wells Fargo
I invite you to check today's 
A couple of hours ago, I found out on finextra the recent announcement from Bank of America: 
A discret but visible "powered by Bank of America" is displayed at the top of the screen.
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