Financial institutions face intense competition from non-banks like PayPal, American Express, Walmart and Quicken Loans… and a rapidly changing demographic that demands new approaches to attract and retain customers (be it individual or business). Today’s post takes a look at two financial technology companies working to keep banks relevant as customers increasingly expect a“one stop shop” in all areas of their lives.
Over on FiveThirtyEight.com
On FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver’s newly launched website at ESPN, the editorial team leverages statistical analysis to tell compelling stories about politics, science and yes, sports. While much digital ink has been spilled on this week’s NFL draft, the site’s chief economics writer, Ben Casselman, authored a piece that caught my eye. Thanks to a keynote presentation by Fox News’ Juan Williams at this January’s Acquire or Be Acquired conference, I’m far more aware of the changing demographics of the United States — and what that means for financial institutions.
Based on my conversations with Juan in the desert, I found early inspiration for today’s piece while pouring over Ben’s What Baby Boomers’ Retirement Means For the U.S. Economy. In combination with economic shifts — both domestically and globally — it is clear that changing demographics are transforming businesses. As we trend towards a younger populace, Ben writes “all else equal, fewer workers means less economic growth… If more of the population is young or old that leaves fewer working-age people to support them and contribute to the economy.” Clearly, banks need to be prepared to serve a population that will live longer. Maybe more importantly, they need to court their most valuable customers — Gen X&Y and Millennials (relationships built, “gulp” through online & mobile experiences).
Putting Checks into the Cloud
In the world of checks, VerifyValid acknowledges that “paper is simply a vessel for holding information. The real check is the data fields it contains: the check number, the amount, the routing number, the recipient, and most important of all, the authorizing action which says that the account holder agrees to pay the stated amount to the payee.” I had a chance to see Paul Doyle, the company’s Founder & CEO, inspire a crowd of CEOs and board members at The Growth Conference last week. Flying home from New Orleans, I spent some time learning how the company overcame the challenge in providing this information electronically in such a way that prevents fraud. As I see it, VerifyValid lowers an organization’s costs while increasing efficiency and financial security with every payment. IMHO, their 2 minute, 25 second video is worth a watch.
Making Money Simple, Attractive and Intelligent
Located “in the heart of Utah’s Silicon Slopes,” MoneyDesktop is redefining the way millions of people interact with their finances. As one of the fastest-growing financial technology providers, MoneyDesktop positions banks and credit unions as the financial hub of their account holders — think Mint on steroids — with its personal financial management, data-driven analytics and marketing technologies. Some 450 financial institutions rely on this software-as-a-service vendor… and I saw last night they have plans to grow significantly in the months to come. They write, and I agree, that account holders are changing. “There is an ongoing shift away from traditional brick & mortar banking (and) technology is providing better ways for account holders to interact with their money, and with financial institutions.” An interesting company delivering a very clean and user-friendly experience.
Aloha Friday!
About That Ratio 