Visa has also been very active in the world of mobile commerce and mobile banking, striking a number of acquisitions and collaboration agreements with companies all around the globe.  In addition, they will launch a mobile wallet at some point this fall that will rival Google Wallet’s offer.



Visa’s mandate, as explained by Carleligh Jaques – Head of Corporate Development and M&A, Visa – at Web 2.0 Expo NY 2011, is to convert cash and check transactions to electronic transactions and to do it in a safe, secure and seamless manner across all environments:  brick-and-mortar establishments, e-commerce, digital commerce, mobile commerce…  They want to provide tools and capabilities to consumers, merchants and banks that will deliver clear benefits to everyone while helping Visa generate new revenue streams and strengthen its position as a facilitator of electronic funds transfers.  

Although Visa sees itself as a technology company, electronic funds transfers is Visa’s core business and this will not change overnight.  Their strengths are:

a) The size and efficiency of their existing network (VisaNet).

b) Their strong ties with consumers, banks and merchants: 2 billion cards outstanding, agreements with 13 thousand financial institutions and 30 million merchants.

Let's first discuss the Visa Wallet solution, which should be released this fall in the US and Canada, and next week, analyse Visa's key acquisitions, investments and partnerships.

Visa Wallet

The service is built on the VisaNet processing network, existing credit / debit / prepaid / commercial product platforms and new capabilities from its acquired companies.  The plan is for Visa Wallet to go live in the US and Canada during fall of this year – almost at the same time as Google Wallet.

Visa is very aware of the barriers of adoption for this technology and, as Steve Perry, commercial director for Visa Europe, explains:  ‘If the digital wallet isn’t as sexy as my current wallet, then it won’t take off’.  This is probably the reason why they have taken quite a different approach to other incumbents and gone with a solution very similar to that of Google:  An open wallet that will allow users to include all types of credit / debit / pre-paid cards - Visa/Mastercard/AmEx/others -, as well as all kinds of loyalty and rewards cards and even, possibly, different forms of ID such as driver license information.  Bill Gajda, global head for Visa Mobile, said he doesn't necessarily view Google as a competitor but, after analysing both companies' strategies, the similarities are quite striking.  

Visa Wallet's key characteristics:

1)  Click-to-buy: Consumers will be able to make purchases online by simply entering an email address, alias or online ID and a password, instead of a billing address, account number and expiration date. In addition, Visa says it is "exploring dynamic authentication technologies that will bring added layers of security to online purchases.

2) Cross-channel payments: The wallet will be able to store multiple Visa and non-Visa payments accounts and it will be possible to use it in mobile, ecommerce, social network and retail point-of-sale environments.  The plan is to also include the capability to look at spending across all cards and maybe even to perform some basic banking transactions, although this would require agreements with banks and financial intermediaries.

3) Preference management: A menu will enable consumers to set preferences for how their wallet will work, allowing them to customize and control the features of their personal wallet. This will allow them to choose privacy setting options and designate which the default account will be at particular types of merchant or for particular purchase amounts.

4) Merchant offers: Consumers will be able to personalise their shopping experience by opting-in to receive money-saving discounts or promotions from participating merchants.

You can watch a short video where Jim McCarthy, Visa Head of Product Development, describes Visa's vision for the digital wallet.

Main differences between Google's and Visa's approach:

1)  Visa will charge a fee to the retailer for each client that pays using its solution while Google will not.  This means that, most likely, merchants will favor Google's solution but the consumer will have the final say based on the benefits and convenience of each of the solutions.  The difference in approach is probably due to the different business models:  Google doesn't charge for its services and generates revenue via advertising; Visa has always charged for its services and has done so on a transaction-by-transaction basis.  Both companies are transferring their traditional 'modus-operandi' to this new service.

2)  Visa plans to leverage its financial reputation initially marketing the digital wallet service through banks. A participating bank could offer the digital wallet application - with all or some of its capabilities - as part of their online banking service.  By marketing the service first to online banking customers or directly through its own Visa Web site to online users, Gadja believes the company will have a chance to build an audience before NFC technology becomes more widely available:  'Banks will be an important distribution channel for the digital wallets, [...] So that's why we will first target these online customers by providing one-click shopping. And then we'll promote NFC.'

Who will consumers trust?

The Retrevo Pulse, a research firm that tracks trends and consumer demand in real-time, has just finished a poll around mobile payments including more than 1,000 US consumer of varying ages and backgrounds.  The key question was:  Who would you like to be the provider of your digital wallet? 

In the study, smartphone owners tended to lean toward their phone operating system with 61% of iPhone owners prefering Apple as their provider and 46% of Androd owners prefering the Google Wallet.  The most interesting finding though was that all providers closely associated with credit cards and cell phones ranked consistently below Google and Apple when looking across all smartphone owners.  For example, MasterCard/Visa/AmEx (32%), AT&T/Verizon/Others (26%).

Visa in Europe:

After the US, Europe is Visa’s second largest market.  The European version of Visa Wallet will launch in August / September of 2012.  No specific explanation has been given for the delay with respect to the US / Canadian wallets but it is probably tied to the fact that Visa wants to make it available across all of Europe and not just the Eurozone, which means they will need to support a number of currencies and comply with a myriad of different legislations.

In the meantime, as announced by Visa Europe CEO Peter Ayliffe at the EFMA conference in Paris, Visa will launch in Europe a mobile person-to-person payment system developed in partnership with Monitise. Visa Mobile Person-to-Person allows registered users to transfer funds to any Visa cardholder in Europe from their mobile phone. The app makes it easy to send money to an address book contact, to a mobile phone number, or to a specific Visa card number – whether or not the recipient is registered with the service.  Launching this service will allow Visa to gain mind-share with consumers in preparation for next year’s launch.

Visa's involvement in other Wallets:

Although we have focused on Visa Wallet in this article, the company is hedging its bets and is also participating in the payment solutions designed by Google and Isis.  The same way that it wants Visa Wallet to be open to all competitors to build the most convenient solution for its clients, it wants to be available across all possible channels to provide convenience to those same clients irrespective of their choice of wallet.  This is an extremely smart move from Visa.

Conclusion

Although we still need to review Visa's key acquisitions, investment and partnerships - which have been fundamental in their ability to build a digital wallet - just based on what we have discussed, it is fair to say that Visa is not resting on its laurels when it comes to mobile commerce and that it is ready to compete with all players, new and established, across all areas and markets. 

There are three types of clouds:

1)  Public Cloud – This is the type of cloud that has been discussed in previous blogs.  In general, when we discuss the cloud, we are discussing a public cloud. 
Applications and computer power located somewhere on the Internet.  The user does not own the infrastructure, doesn’t know where the software or processes are running and accesses it via an Internet connection. 
Most consumer software resides on the public cloud – Facebook, Google Apps are just two examples.

2)  Private Cloud – Some practitioners will say this is an oxymoron since the cloud cannot, conceptually, be a private service.  In this case, there is no public operator and everything – hardware and software – is provided by the user. 
It may sound little different from a conventional data center, where your servers and apps are hosted in your own servers, whether or not they are on your premises and whether they are ran by you or by a specialist provider.
Having said this, it can be argued that there are some very relevant differences, the main being:

a.  ‘Virtualised’ infrastructure
b.  Special-purpose software that allows IT users to treat the infrastructure as a centralized pool of computing resources
c.  Automation, meaning the tasks can be handled without the intervention of an IT department
d.  Ability to measure and monitor resource allocation

3)  Hybrid Cloud – As the name suggest, this model attempts to extract the best of both worlds.   An organization could choose to run some applications on the public cloud while leaving some others, maybe the ones dealing with the most sensitive information or the ones that require very fast and bandwidth hungry access to data, within a private cloud.
Both clouds can be easily connected and even ran by the same provider, keeping things as simple as possible.

In our next blog, we will discuss the pros and cons of each model, so that we can better gauge what will suit our needs best

Today’s post is the second blog of this series on AmEx.  Last week we reviewed their most relevant acquisitions and investments.  This week we will close this topic by focusing on key partnerships and looking at the company's future.




Partnerships: 

1) FourSquare – In June of this year, FourSquare and AmEx launched a US-based partnership for discounts when AmEx customers checked-in with FourSquare at select merchants.

The official name of the services is American Express Specials – which runs on AmEx Smart Offer APIs.  To access it, card members must link their cards to their Foursquare accounts.  After checking in to a participating store, the Special can be loaded onto their AmEx cards – at no cost to the consumer.  When the card is used to make the purchase, the offer is automatically applied – no need to present the offer at checkout – and a credit included in the following statement.

Although it is not clear the cost to the retailer, AmEx’s objective is to raise revenues by increasing card usage and not by charging the retailer.  For large retailers, the agreements are not public but for participating small retailers, it seems that there is no charge.  All the while, participating retailers will gain access to a wealth of customer data that will allow them to analyze the effectiveness of their offers on traffic and loyalty.

2)  Facebook – In July AmEx unveiled a social media platform called ‘Link, Like, Love’ that gives card members personalized deals on Facebook based on their social graphs – cardholder’s and friends’ likes and interests.  To sign up, just download the ‘Link, Like, Love’ app on
AmEx Facebook page (it is not available in the App Store) and link your AmEx card to your Facebook account.  If you see a deal that you like, just tap the button by the offer and the special will be loaded directly to your AmEx card.  Just like in the case of AmEx and FourSquare, coupons are free and no printouts are necessary.

With this service, AmEx seems to have found a way to capitalize on the famous ‘Like’ and ‘Check-In’ buttons. Basically, you will only be presented with offers that are relevant to you by including specials on topics or locations that you, or your friends, have ‘Liked’ or where you have ‘Checked-In’.  For example, if you recently ‘Checked-In’ at a participating grocery store, you will be presented with a coupon for that specific retailer.  If you recently ‘Liked’ a musician’s fan page, you may be presented with a discount on concert tickets or on music downloads of that specific artist.

There are clear benefits for consumers.  What about retailers?  Large retailers will work directly with AmEx to include and promote their deals but, for small businesses, AmEx has launched a program within this platform called ‘Go Social’ that allows them to create and distribute coupons on a number of social networks.  Businesses can sign up via Facebook to be included on deals in Facebook, FourSquare and other social sites. This is a great way to gain visibility while accessing customer analytics.

3)  SCVNGR (stands for Scavenger) – SCVNGR is a location-based gaming application that allows you to perform challenges in exchange for deals.  For example, if you check into ‘Bostonian Burrito’ and you choose the ‘Tin Foil Origami’ challenge (i.e. build an origami bird with the tin foil wrapping your burrito), you can then take a picture of your origami and, since you have passed your challenge, claim a ‘Mini Burrito’.  It is meant to be an entertaining and engaging way of acquiring rewards. 

SCVNGR also offers a slightly different experience via their LevelUp application where you register to get your personal QR code that you use to pay and save at local businesses in your town.  Each day, they feature a new merchant and add credit to you QR code.  Your charges and rewards will be saved via this code.  AmEx has partnered with SCVNGR to offer discounts on Levi’s stores in Boston and Philadelphia.  This is a very small partnership since it is one retailer in two cities (SF was featured for one week) but it is another way for AmEx to test the waters. 

4)  Vente Privée – It is a French-owned flash sales site with about 13 million members and more than $1 billion in European sales.  As Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Vente Privée’s founder, explained during an interview with Business Insider, the company is about creating great event sales that bring traffic to stores.  It is about offering something really special that will keep businesses and consumers coming back to them over the long term.

Gobry regards the US deals market as particularly mature, crowded and challenging although he believes that Vente Privée’s offering is very different to that of Gilt, Amazon, Groupon or Facebook.  For this reason he had always envisioned going into this market with a partner and, from his perspective, whom best than a customer-centric and excellence-centric entity such as AmEx?

This partnership is very different to those setup with FourSquare, Facebook or SCVNGR and shows AmEx willingness to experiment and to make long-term bets with all types of partners.

5) Mobile Partners – AmEx has also worked with iOS, Android and other providers of mobile operating systems to develop and deploy applications.  For example, earlier in the year AmEx launched its iPhone and iPod Touch applications and just a few days ago, it launched its iPad app.  This last one has received a particularly warm welcome since very few financial institutions have, at this point in time, iPad apps – although most have iPod, iPhone and Android apps.  As result, in a very short space of time, American Express app has become the third most popular free app on the iPad, right behind Bank of America and Citibank.

AmEx Future

AmEx 90 million card members worldwide, its history of excellence and the new acquisitions, partnerships and product launches discussed, give the company an ideal platform to become a key player in this space.  Specifically, AmEx unique makeup as a card issuer, merchant acquirer and payment network has allowed the company to develop direct links with consumers and merchants alike – most credit card companies do not have direct links to merchants because they work with acquiring banks.

These direct relationships allow AmEx to be:

1)  Agile and fast in striking deals with all players
2)  Extremely valuable at extracting consumer information and helping retailers analyze the effectiveness on the deals
3)  Easy to work with since it is simple for them to implement the deals without direct support from the retailer’s staff, avoiding training and other costs.

It is also a win from a consumer’s perspective since AmEx seems to be very focused on developing a great customer experience across all channels.  As Julie Fajgembaum – VP of Brand, Marketing and Social Media for AmEx – explained, their focus is on being where their customers are, irrespective of platform or device, in the way that is most relevant to the user.

All in all, a great initial proposition that can be expanded and make AmEx a serious contender in the mobile commerce and mobile banking spaces.

Reference: 

GigaOm Pro Long Views:  ‘How American Express could be a monster in the local-deals market’, contributed by Ryan Kim on August 1st, 2011. http://pro.gigaom.com/2011/08/how-american-express-could-be-a-monster-in-the-local-deals-market/

The term cloud computing is widely used in computing today.  This blog sets out to try and answer two fundamental questions:

·  What is Cloud Computing?
·  What are Cloud Services?

Whether you realize it or not, you’re almost certainly already using cloud-based services in the form of Gmail, Google Docs, Office Web Apps, Facebook, Twitter, iCloud (coming shortly) and DropBox.  These are applications that run on the ‘Internet’ or, we could say, on the ‘Cloud’. 

They are all different applications with different purposes but they all have in common that they are not running on you PC, laptop or tablet.  You access them on-line (although they may have off-line versions that synch-up as soon as you are back on-line, like Gmail and Google Docs) from any location and computer; you do not worry about updates or upgrades; you do not worry about viruses or security; you do not worry about disk-space.  They are in the Cloud and somebody else is responsible for all those things.

Although this definition is not completely accurate, as a first approach we could say that cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet).

Many authors have specifically outlined the parallel that can be drawn with the electricity grid, wherein end-users consume power without needing to understand the component devices or infrastructure required to provide the service.  The evolution has taken place over 100 years where we have gone from each company / household having its own source of electricity, to local / regional companies providing it to a small area, to national / international companies providing it across a nation or an entire continent.  This evolution is similar to the changes we are seeing in computing and applications but at a much faster pace.

Now, think about this same concept applied to a company, whether big or small.  All the applications that the corporation uses – CRM, ERP, accounting, finance, logistics… - can move from local hard-drives, on-premise servers and data centers, where they reside today, to the cloud.  The company doesn’t have to invest in buying, maintaining and improving its servers and database infrastructure, it uses a global infrastructure provided by a specialist and shared with many other companies in a secure manner. 

Before we go any further, it is important that we understand the distinction between ‘Cloud Computing’ and ‘Cloud Services’.   IDC describes them as:

Cloud Services – Consumer and Business products, services and solutions that are delivered and consumed in real-time over the internet.

Cloud Computing – Is the IT environment that enables the development, delivery and consumption of cloud services.

That is, the applications that you use that reside in the cloud are cloud services.  The people that developed those applications did so using cloud computing tools.

Cloud Services

So, what are the key attributes of a cloud service?  IDC provides a handy checklist to determine whether or not something should be called a ‘cloud service’.  Some of the key points are:

·  Third-party provider – It is a commercial offering
·  Location agnostic – The service could be running anywhere in the cloud
·  Accessed via the Internet – Probably via a web browser but it could also be via a ‘gadget’ you have downloaded on your laptop / tablet.  This is the case, for example, for Twitter.
·  Minimal/no IT skills required to implement – You, or your company, use it as a utility but are not responsible for it.  You have instant – or very quick – access to it from day one
·  Pricing – Consumer apps are often free.  Corporate offerings have clear, usage-based pricing
·  Shared resources – A single service will be shared by many customers while allowing for different tailoring for each of them

You will also hear cloud services being called Software as a Service.  We will focus on this concept in a future blog.

Cloud Computing

But then, what is cloud computing?  It is the IT foundation for cloud services and consists of a growing list of technologies and IT offerings that enable cloud services.  It includes:

Cloud Platform Services – Also known as Platform as a Service (PaaS).  It delivers a computing platform and/or solution stack as a service.  It facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.

Cloud Infrastructure Services – Also known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).  It delivers computer infrastructure – often platform virtualization – along with storage and networking capabilities.

Servers – It is the hardware (multi-core processors) and software (cloud-specific operating systems) products that are at the foundation of cloud services.

On top of these layers Software and Applications are built.  The overall These layers are built on top of each other with the complete stack looking like the diagram above.

These are not easy concepts and, although they needed to be introduced here, we will go into more detail in a later blog.

Next week we will introduce the concepts of Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud.

What are incumbents such as American Express or Chase doing around the upcoming revolution on mobile payments, commerce and banking?  New players – such as Google, Isis, BankSimple and BankNMove – are grabbing the headlines but that doesn’t mean that the established players are sitting still.  They are also moving, albeit at a slower pace.

To have the full picture of where this sector is going, it is worthwhile reviewing the mobile strategy of some major players in the credit card and banking space.  With this purpose, we will publish a number of blogs covering the main activities and plans of the largest and best-known names in this industry.

American Express

The first two blogs on this topic will focus on American Express, a late-comer to the game that now seems to be moving faster than its competitors.  Today we will discuss their ‘Acquisitions and Investments’ with the next post focusing on their ‘Partnerships’

Acquisitions and Investments:

1)  Revolution Money – American Express bought Revolution Money located in St. Petersburg for $300 million in early 2010.  This acquisition was the foundation of AmEx Serve, a digital payment and commerce platform.  Essentially, it is an electronic wallet that can be used both online and in bricks-and-mortar stores that accept AmEx.

The idea is that once you sign up for a Serve account, you can link it to any bank account, debit or credit card to fund it.  You can then add money, send and receive money to and from anybody that has an e-mail address (and that has signed up with Serve) and manage sub-accounts – for example, your kid’s account that you can easily fund and control. 

You can also pay offline – or online – with an American Express Serve pre-paid, reloadable card that is accepted anywhere AmEx is accepted – including ATMs.  This is an extremely friendly pre-paid card for the consumer with many free services, such as:  Person-to-person money transfers, transfers to and from sub-accounts, purchasing online and in stores and funding your account from a bank account or debit card.

Why would American Express launch a pre-paid service?  According to Dan Schulman, AmEx Group President, Enterprise Growth:  ‘This card will allow us to focus on serving new demographics’.  And this is indeed true:  A new customer segment can be added to the mix with little to no added risk.  And the trend seems to be growing fast since the amount loaded on prepaid cards will reach $118.5 billion in 2012, up from $1.8 billion in 2006.

But is there any other reason for this new focus?  And why precisely now?  Given that pre-paid cards are outside the remit of new regulations around fee limits on debit cards, this business could be extremely profitable for the banks since merchants could be paying much higher transaction fees.

As it stands now, the AmEx prepaid card, which drives much of its demand, is a great deal for the consumer and for AmEx, although maybe not so much for the merchant. 

2)  Payfone Inc – Two weeks after launching Serve, AmEx participated in Payfone’s third round of funding, which raised $19 million from AmEx, Verizon Investments, Roger Communications, Opus Capital, BlackBerry Partners fund and RRE Ventures.  As part of the investment, AmEx will integrate Payfone’s mobile payments service into Serve.

Payfone allows you to send charges directly to your cell phone bill by introducing your phone number.  No text messages and no pins involved.  It is meant to be a very convenient and safer way to do mobile payments.

By checking with the carrier upfront, Payfone is supposed to be able to determine if a consumer has the funds or the credit worthiness to make a purchase, therefore dramatically reducing fraud and identity theft.

3)  Sometrics – Just last month, in September, AmEx acquired Sometrics, a virtual currency monetization platform, for $30 million. Virtual Currency has become very big on video games, where users will use their credits to pay for anything from cloths to access to the next game level.  American Express will continue the operation of Sometrics’ current business and will work with Sometrics will allow Serve customers to purchase virtual currencies via the platform. Over time, AmEx plans to integrate Serve into the payment path of the games that Sometrics supports.

Sometrics’ in-game payments platform basically powers virtual currency transactions and payments for game publishers while serving location and demographic targeted offers. The company currently supports dozens of payment options (including mobile carrier infrastructure and credit card support) and hundreds of brand engagement ads, reaching a total global audience of more than 225 million consumers in more than 200 countries. 


These are AmEx's main acquisitions around mobile commerce and mobile banking.  As mentioned above, next week we will discuss AmEx's partnerships and how they are leveraging these acquisitions to better serve customers.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft are the three biggest names in cloud computing.  Amazon pioneered the public cloud when it decided in 2002 to use its vast infrastructure to offer computing facilities to customers and launched a range of services to developers including storage and a development platform.  Now Amazon Web Services, after less than 10 years, has hundreds of thousands of customers and an annual revenue of $750 million, as estimated by analysts at UBS. 

Microsoft launched Windows Azure Platform, it’s Platforme as a Service (PaaS) product in 2010 and Microsfot Online Services, it’s Software as a Service (SaaS) product in 2011.  Google has launched a number of initiatives starting in 2006 with Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Page Creator and continuously expanding their SaaS offer through under the banner name of Google Apps.

These three giants are up against the traditional infrastructure makers such as AT&T, EMC, HP, IBM, Oracle and Verizon.  According to data supplied by International Data Corp. and Gartner, they collectively control 95% of the corporate infrastructure market, valued at around $1.5 trillion, through their data center solutions, the option traditionally taken by corporations to cover their storage and computing needs.  At 5% for Amazon, Google and Microsoft are starting small but the growth in this segment is particularly strong.

Building, maintaining and evolving corporate infrastructure is a lucrative business for providers and an area of strategic importance for companies.  Cloud solutions are bound to greatly alter the way corporate infrastructure is built and used.  It represents a completely different approach and, just as importantly, a major cultural and behavioral change.

Because it is so important, I will be devoting a number of posts to this topic in the coming weeks.  Some of the areas that I will be covering are:

1)     What is cloud computing?  And cloud services?
2)     Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Clouds – Pros and cons of each model
3)     Cloud APIs – Software, Platform and Infrastructure as a Service
4)     Small Print – What to look for when signing up with a provider of  a new, and not yet standardized, offering

Stay tuned if you are interested in discovering and learning about the cloud.

On the heels of BankSimple and with what seems like an even more ambitious goal, Brett King, author of Banking 2.0 and founder and chairman of this new venture, publicly announced MoveNBank during Sibos Innotrive 2011 conference a couple of weeks ago.

MoveNBank was founded in July 2010, will begin to 'alpha test' its services with a select few  members of the public on October 1st and will proceed with a soft-launch on July 2012.  

What is MoveNBank?  

First of all, we need to clarify that MoveNBank is not a bank itself but rather, like BankSimple, a 'reseller' of banking services or an intermediary that stands between the bank and the consumer.  It attempts to change the experience that users have around banking but without applying for a banking license, although Mr. King has made it clear that they may, at some point, acquire a bank or build their own for purposes of scale.

MoveNBank is: 

1.    Mobile only banking, with no paper or plastic
2.    NFC-enabled app
3.    Incorporates "gamification" in UX
4.    According to (10) Startuply, "reinventing credit scores and more with an open, social transparent, and viral model" (sounds P2P lending-esque)

Points 1 and 2 are related since, in order to go paper-less and plastic-less, we need to have an alternative technology for payments.  NFC is the most obvious choice at this point in time given the number of phones expected to come out in the next few months that will include NFC chips and the current hype around different implementation of mobile wallets in the marketplace - such as Google Wallet or the ISIS project.  These two factors will help accelerate deployment of NFC-enabled POS at stores across the world - although it will probably still take some time for this technology to be truly ubiquitous.

It was really just a matter of time for NFC as a payment method to be offered directly by a bank - or, in this case, by a reseller of banking services.  A mobile wallet, as it is defined today, is meant to simplify and improve your shopping experience.  Mobile banking, as defined by MoveNBank, is meant to integrate spending and saving, improving the overall control of your finances.  Different goals, maybe suitable for different audiences?

The next two elements are particularly innovative:  Credit scores and gamification.

3. Reinventing Credit Scores

MoveNBank uses CRED as its credit score mechanism.  It recognises a person's social reputation along with their financial behaviours.  In other words, as your credit score can be used to recognised how credit worthy you are, your social credibility on Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Amazon and other services can increase trust in dealing with you.

Including a person's on-line presence in the computation of his/her credit score is an extremely innovative concept and one that could indeed help banks get a much better view and understanding of the risk and value a given customer may represent to the institution.

4. Gamification

MoveNBank is not trying to make banking a game but it is using the principles of gamification to engage customers and to help them make the right financial decisions in their everyday interactions.

King gives the following example:  'If you want someone to keep a positive balance in their savings account – then allowing them to see that balance or reminding them that a specific transaction or event will take them into negative territory, makes the spend a conscious decision. Is it gamification? It is when you ‘game’ the messaging, and make it frictionless or even fun. We’re playing with that messaging and engagement layer to influence your financial health positively'.

King goes on to say during his Sibos 2011 presentation:  '...banking is no longer a place you go, but a thing you do'.  It’s necessary for banking to be re-invented to focus upon the 'utility of banking, not the formality of banking'.

So, what are the established banks waiting for?  Why not embrace the new technology and move forward with the customers?  Today, they still 'own' them.  Tomorrow, they may play a secondary role to the experience-centric and technology-savvy new-comers.