Author: Jim Bruene

Banking, Trust & Black Swans

Posted by Jim Bruene | May 6, 2020 | Featured Startups, Watch Startups

As usual, I’ve been listening to my favorite podcasts (Finovate of course, go Greg!,...

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First Look: LA-Based Neobank HMBradley Braves the Pandemic with March 30 Launch

Posted by Jim Bruene | Apr 22, 2020 | Challenger Banks, Checking & Transaction Accounts, Featured Startups, New Products, Savings, Startups

The latest USA challenger bank, with the odd, albeit memorable name, HMBradley, launched the first...

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Fintech’s Third Crisis is Tipping Point to a Digital-Only Future

Posted by Jim Bruene | Apr 16, 2020 | Featured Startups

In my 25 years in the fintech space, I’ve had the misfortune to experience three massive...

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Student Banking UX: BankMobile Passport Program Encourages Digital Banking + Academic Achievement

Posted by Jim Bruene | Dec 3, 2019 | Featured Startups, New Products, Youth finances

Consumers love games of chance, discounts, and limited-time promos (e.g., Black Friday). Financial...

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Checking Profits: Snagging the Paycheck Direct Deposit

Posted by Jim Bruene | Aug 30, 2019 | Featured Startups, New Products

There is little dispute that the primary financial relationship follows the paycheck. If you can...

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Wells Fargo’s Greenhouse has UX issues to overcome ahead of national rollout

Posted by Jim Bruene | Jul 30, 2019 | Case Studies, Featured Startups, New Products

Wells Fargo announced its Greenhouse mobile bank/app in late 2017 (press release). The bank began...

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UX Tips: U.S. Bank Offers Option to Show Password at Login

Posted by Jim Bruene | Jul 15, 2019 | Featured Startups

For much of the Internet era, users had no way to check their password data entry before hitting...

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How Should Banks Respond to Facebook’s Libra Coin?

Posted by Jim Bruene | Jun 20, 2019 | Featured Startups

I’ve read as much as I can take for now about Facebook’s Libra crypto coin and Calibra...

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Investment CX: Kindur Simplifies Retirement Income by Converting 401(k) into “Paychecks”

Posted by Jim Bruene | May 21, 2019 | Featured Startups, Investing, New Products

Kindur has been in the fintech news lately, first when it raised $10M in December (led by...

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Banking CX: Keep Calm and Bank On

Posted by Jim Bruene | May 20, 2019 | Featured Startups, Marketing & Sales

No one visits a banking site for entertainment. Users are either there to make sure nothing bad...

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Student Loan Repayments as a Service

Posted by Jim Bruene | Apr 4, 2019 | Featured Startups, New Products, Youth finances

Yesterday, one of my favorite recent YC grads (Summer 2018) Goodly, announced its $1.6 million...

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American Express 2.0? First Look at Brex, Fintech’s Youngest Unicorn

Posted by Jim Bruene | Mar 14, 2019 | Featured Startups, New Products, Payments, Startups

Most banks wouldn’t hire a 22-year college dropout to be a teller, let alone give them...

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