Finovate returned this week to where it all started back in 2007 – New York. For those who haven’t been before, each Finovate event follows the same format: Presenters have seven minutes to introduce their company and demonstrate their product live. No slides are allowed (though one company decided to flaunt this rule today), and if you go over the seven minutes, the “bell of shame” is rung and your onstage microphone and lights are faded. (You’re also in good company.)
On the first day of FinovateFall 2018, seven of the 40 demoing companies were subjected to the full force of this rule, and given that Finovate’s record is seven from 80, the event is on track to exceed this!
Here’s what the first-day demonstrations told us:
We could dramatically improve the customer experience for onboarding and origination
Many companies (some large multinationals, others startups) demonstrated either end-to-end solutions or features aimed at optimizing online customer adoption of financial products.
From these presentations, it’s clear the industry believes that opportunities lie in offering financial institutions cloud-based/SaaS propositions that permit their clients to easily tailor and automate their offerings. These are enabled by:
- Low code – making it seamless for clients to change content without the need for coding or release cycles.
- Dynamic workflows – the ability to set sophisticated business rules and processes.
- Business intelligence – leveraging the power of data and analytics to experience and maximize adoption.
Luckily for ieDigital, we either have (or are close to addressing) all these features within our onboarding and origination solution, Interact Acquire.
Fintech companies continue to address needs in cybersecurity
PasswordPing, for example, helps its clients draw from a cloud database of billions of exposed login credentials collected from the internet and dark web, to stop an FI customer or employee from using compromised credentials, and helps them harden their password. Simple, yet effective.
Fintech companies want to help us get rid of coins
Fresh from the news that the UK government is consulting on scrapping the use of 1p and 2p coins, Bucket showed us how to lighten the load in our pockets.
By integrating into point of sales systems, it enables consumers to digitally deposit the coin value of their change by asking to “Bucket the change”. They are given a QR code on their receipt, which they scan to add into a ‘piggy bank’ account. Once the Bucket account reaches $50 of accumulated ‘change’, the customer can cash out to a prepaid card, gift card, or donate it to a charity of their choice.
We love this, and look forward to day two of FinovateFall 2018, where we’ll take to the stage ourselves to demo Money Fitness, a concept that can help credit unions and their members make the most of everyday technology, helping people spend and save better, while helping the CUs build better relationships.
Hope you enjoy the demo – let’s try to beat that bell!
