Fintech Labs Insights
Techniques, Trends & Examples
Banking, Trust & Black Swans
As usual, I've been listening to my favorite podcasts (Finovate of course, go Greg!, Breaking Banks, Jim Marous, 11:FS, and Bank On It to name a few) and there has been much talk about the covid crisis and what it means for digital banking and the fintech challengers....
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First Look: LA-Based Neobank HMBradley Braves the Pandemic with March 30 Launch
The latest USA challenger bank, with the odd, albeit memorable name, HMBradley, launched the first phase of its banking product line March 30. The Sant Monica, CA-based neobank offers a high-yield consumer checking account with a unique twist: tiered rates depending...
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Fintech’s Third Crisis is Tipping Point to a Digital-Only Future
In my 25 years in the fintech space, I've had the misfortune to experience three massive ecosystem shocks. And they seem to be getting worse each time: Dot-com crash (and 9/11) Financial crisis Coronavirus crisis The three downturns are very different, but all are...
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Top U.S. Digital Banks for Small Businesses
The first pure-play digital bank Security First Network Bank (SFNB) launched in 1995, just a year after Amazon.com. But unlike ecommerce, digital-only banking was slow to catch on. The legacy players held onto their market share by providing digital services that were...
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Student Banking UX: BankMobile Passport Program Encourages Digital Banking + Academic Achievement
Consumers love games of chance, discounts, and limited-time promos (e.g., Black Friday). Financial institutions are in an enviable position to profit from this consumer behavior by gamifying debit/credit cards and mobile app usage. While MasterCard and Visa have run...
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Checking Profits: Snagging the Paycheck Direct Deposit
There is little dispute that the primary financial relationship follows the paycheck. If you can snag the weekly/biweekly direct deposit, you have a very sticky customer. You have to really let them down to lose them at that point. Traditionally, banks have dangled...
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Wells Fargo’s Greenhouse has UX issues to overcome ahead of national rollout
Wells Fargo announced its Greenhouse mobile bank/app in late 2017 (press release). The bank began limited trials a year later and is expected to make it available nationwide by the end of this year. It's similar to Chase's ill-fated Finn, in that it's trying to be a...
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UX Tips: U.S. Bank Offers Option to Show Password at Login
For much of the Internet era, users had no way to check their password data entry before hitting login. A few companies, notably Apple, were the exception. Fast-forward to 2019. Many secure sites now offer an option to see your password before logging in. It's an...
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How Should Banks Respond to Facebook’s Libra Coin?
I've read as much as I can take for now about Facebook's Libra crypto coin and Calibra digital wallet announcement. Most observers are skeptical given the many hurdles. But analysts like the upside if Facebook successfully gains adoption among its 2.7 billion users....
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Investment CX: Kindur Simplifies Retirement Income by Converting 401(k) into “Paychecks”
Kindur has been in the fintech news lately, first when it raised $10M in December (led by Anthemis) and then more recently when it launched its investment management service. One of the best profiles was on a recent episode of The Bank On It podcast which interviewed...
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Banking CX: Keep Calm and Bank On
No one visits a banking site for entertainment. Users are either there to make sure nothing bad has happened or that bad thing already occured and they need help fast. It's a digital banking fact: Every login is accompanied with some level of anxiety. That's why it's...
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Student Loan Repayments as a Service
Yesterday, one of my favorite recent YC grads (Summer 2018) Goodly, announced its $1.6 million seed round with participation from Norwest Venture Partners (which has historically been affiliated with Wells Fargo, which acquired its parent bank back in the 1990s). And...
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American Express 2.0? First Look at Brex, Fintech’s Youngest Unicorn
Most banks wouldn't hire a 22-year college dropout to be a teller, let alone give them product responsibility. Yet, a pair of 22-year-olds have built a brand worth more than $1 billion. Even more amazing, it's not a consumer or social play, it's good old B2B and in...
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Credit UX: Starter Loans from Self Lender
Since the financial crisis in 2008, it's been much harder for U.S. youth to obtain a credit card. So most rely on debit cards for spending. However, debit cards don't help in establishing credit for the estimated 45 million American adults without a credit score (see...
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Pricing UX: Down with Fees, Up with Subscriptions
Most consumer banking research finds that "high fees" are one of three or four primary reasons to close an account. But what does that mean? Is it transaction fees at the ATM? Monthly checking account fees? Or penalty fees from overdrafting? I suspect it's often the...
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