As you all know, Friday has become known as Bank Failure Friday.  While I was getting ready to leave for the weekend, I got the news that my employer, First Federal, had acquired Cape Fear Bank of Wilmington, NC.

Over the coming weeks, I’m sure that we will be in a controlled state of chaos, putting these two bank systems together.  While I am sad that circumstances forced the closure of Cape Fear Bank, I am excited to be working with a new group of coworkers.

Hopefully this transition will go smoothly and we can grow and become an even better bank.  So, to the Cape Fear Bank family, I say, “Welcome to First Federal”.

First Federal has now added their social media links to their Contact Us Page.  So far, the Twitter account has mostly been used to announce workshops that the bank has sponsored.

First Federal Contact Us

Here are the links to their sites:

Twitter: @firstfederal

Facebook: First Federal FB

YouTube: First Federal Online

Well, it’s that time of year again.  You know, when we are bombarded with articles of how much time is wasted in the workplace because of March Madness.  Those wonderful tales of how much productivity will fall until April.  Statistics of how bandwidth will be brought to a crawl because of employees watching live streams of the games.  And let’s not forget the $8 billion that will be lost over the coming weeks.

Now, I admit that I love March Madness.  It’s pretty hard not to when you grew up in ACC country.  Like most people at my company, I’ll be checking up on the scores as much as possible.  But will my productivity fall off?  Maybe a little, but I doubt it.  With everything going on, March Madness will bring some normalcy back to the workplace, push the economy woes to the side just a little.

One thing I’ve always wondered was, if businesses know that March Madness will cause a distraction, why don’t they embrace it and turn it into an advantage?  Now would be a great time to run that “Madness” product special.  Perhaps you could run a March sales contest for your employees.  Or maybe you could have a “Madness Customer Appreciation Day” where they are invited to wear their team colors and win a prize or get a special promotion.

The point is, March Madness comes every year.  Fighting it will not change that fact.  By taking advantage of this time, you can promote and grow your business.  Right now, any advantage you can get needs be seized.  Otherwise, next year you could be watching those games from home, and not by choice. Oh yeah, GO SCSU Bulldogs!!!

Thanks to my nephew Darris for letting me use his basketball picture.

Well, First Federal is starting to tip its toe into the pool of social media. After securing our Twitter account last year, I began having occasional lunch meetings with our webmaster and our contact in Marketing, @tompolk.  We’ve been discussing some strategies and have looked at what other banks and credit unions are doing.

Needless to say, with everything happening in our industry, tools that can provide free marketing are starting to look pretty good.  Also, permission marketing seems to be a better way to connect with our customers and market.  It doesn’t hurt that one of our local competitors is also embracing the web in their business strategy.

With that said, I’d like to invite you all to follow us on the following sites:

Twitter: @firstfederal

Facebook: First Federal FB

YouTube: First Federal Online

Also, you can follow me on Twitter at @gpasley.

Lately there has been a lot of angst about banks not lending their new found TARP funds.  Admittedly, I haven’t really been paying close attention to who these loans are supposed to go to.  But I’ve heard discussions about increasing the amount of consumer loans.

Now maybe it’s just me, but it seems that most people have drastically cut back on their spending habits; even more so when it comes to big ticket items.  I mean, the Super Bowl was at the beginning of the month, so there’s no reason to go out and buy that 72 inch plasma now.

Most people are worried about keeping their jobs and homes.  They aren’t going to take out an EAL or ACR just to spend it.  They’re going to hold on to it for emergencies, not go on a spending spree.   What banks have been seeing is a lot of refinancing.  I imagine that people are using the cash they receive to pay off bills or put into savings.

So if consumers aren’t spending money, who is?  My guess is the thousands of small and medium businesses out there.  SMBs don’t necessarily need a million dollars to execute their business plan.  Actually, loans for less than $50K can do wonders for them.  Also, if you look at the news, the big companies seem to be having layoffs while the SMBs are hiring.

Maybe we need to do all we can to help out small business so that they can keep hiring and producing, which will help put money back into the economy.  Making loans just for EALs and refinancing just allows people to have a cushion.  Lending to profitable businesses will have an exponential effect on all of us.  It will certainly help more in the long term.

A few weeks ago The Bank Channel posted an article about banks getting their internet banking in order.  In the article they broke down the various barriers that banks face in upgrading their current offering.  While the list they had was thorough, there was only one problem, it didn’t include “know-how”.

There are 16,000+ banks and credit unions in the US.  I’d be surprised if more than 1% built their own IB system.  Also, going by what I’ve seen, most banks and credit unions don’t have much of a technical staff.  At most, a majority that do have technical people on staff have people that handle their core system and/or their servers and desktops.  Some may actually have a webmaster on staff.  I seriously doubt most have a software development team.

My current employer is one example of a bank that does have an in-house team.  Our E-Commerce department was formed from a software company subsidiary that was dissolved.  If not for owning that company, we wouldn’t have the expertise in-house to develop web applications.

As for developing an IB system, we have kicked that idea around.  But to be honest, we’re all working on so many other things that we don’t have the time to sit down and develop an IB system.  It was decided that the current vendors are “good enough”.  The same thing goes for new PFM systems.

One good thing about have web experience in-house is that we know, smell and can see “BS”.  Vendors’ excuses of how impossible a feature/function is to implement gets them an email of the pseudo-code of how to do it.  FYI, vendors don’t like it when you send them pseudo-code.

Now, because most banks and credit unions don’t have web developers, they are locked in to whatever their chosen vendor offers.  The best that they can do is make recommendations for features.  Ultimately, they are beholden to their vendor; and vendors know that banks don’t want to go through a lengthy conversion process.  As time goes on, it only becomes harder.   Changing your IB provider is now just as hard as changing your core because single sign-on is gaining in use.  Now if you change IB vendors, you have to make sure remote deposit capture, mobile banking, payroll systems, and PFM still works correctly.

One thing that I’ve seen is, it is really hard to develop these complex systems without a dedicated staff.  Sure, we could write the best IB and PFM system in the market, but we can’t dedicate our small staff to support these projects.  There is a reason that the majority of banks and credit unions buy their software.  In the greater scheme, an IB or PFM system is no different than the online account opening, online mortgage or commercial loan software.  In the end, all you can do is purchase the software that will best fill your needs and stay on the vendor to implement the features your customers want.

Well, what a year 2008 was.  Right now, a lot of people are wishing they could just do the ol’ three-finger salute on the whole banking industry.  Between the sub prime crisis, close to 30 bank failures and Big Daddy Madoff, it’s no wonder.  Getting back to basics is what is needed to turn everything around in 2009.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what this year brings.  For one, I believe SMS will emerge as the standard in mobile banking.  Last year, a lot of banks started researching this channel.  This year, we will begin to see a lot of rollouts.  In our market, we’ve already seen a few banks launch a mobile banking product.   I’m sure there will be even more announcements by the end of the year.

Seeing how the receivers of TARP funds use their new capital will be interesting also.  I suspect that a few banks will use their excess cash to pick up a competitor or two.  Also, will we lose one of the big three this year?  Citi is looking kind of shaky right now.  Bank of America still has to integrate Merrill Lynch.  If the next fallout happens in credit cards, both could be in even more trouble.

All in all, I’m excited about what this year may bring.  With a new administration, I expect to see some major changes.  Here’s to brave and exciting New Year.

Earlier this week, local bloggers/tweeters were invited to Coco’s Cafe, in Mt. Pleasant, for a food tasting event.  This was all setup by Lyn Mettler of Step Ahead Web Strategies.  I’d never heard of Coco’s and had never eaten at a French restaurant.  I must say, the food was great, especially the desserts.  Normally, I feel chocolate and mint are a bad combination, but Coco’s has definitely changed my opinion in that regard.

By inviting local bloggers, I’m sure Lyn hoped that we would blog about our experience.  From what I saw that evening, I’m sure most did.  There were a couple of people that even posted pictures on www.brightkite.com.

This get-together made me think about how banks could do something similar.  Commercial customers are more profitable, on average.  Arranging bank sponsored get-togethers would be beneficial to both the bank and their customers.  Normally, bank customers are invited to events that showcase the bank’s products.  Events that showcase the customers would be a welcome change.

Commercial customers offer a diverse line of products and services.  Getting a group of them together would be a win for them and the bank.  With the economy in the dumps, any way that could help drive new business to commercial customers would be greatly appreciated.

Imagine it, the bank invites restaurants and caterers so that they can provide and showcase their food.  Other companies could give five minute presentations about what they offer. Afterwards, more networking could be done.  The bank would be seen as a partner, not just a money lender.  In this economic crunch, banks need to do everything they can to get more customers on their side.  This would definitely be a step in the right direction.

Ken Lewis says that “two of the struggling Detroit automakers should combine and prove to the government they are worthy of a $25 billion rescue package.“  It’s statements like that, that make me worry about Bank of America pulling through this financial crisis.  Mr. Lewis is proposing that two failing companies combine so that they can be an even bigger failing company?  I am unable to comprehend how this is a good thing.  US automakers have been in trouble for years.  There’s a reason that foreign cars are the best sellers in this country.

I’m sure most people know that US automakers have fallen woefully behind.  A bailout isn’t going to help very much, it will just slow down the inevitable.  Some fundamental changes have to be made in the US auto industry.  Megan McArdle gives a very good explanation of one problem that the auto industry needs to overcome in order to survive.  Chris Yeh has another perspective on helping banks but letting automakers fail.  Perhaps failing may be the best thing for the auto industry.  Certainly, funding a failing industry that is unwilling to change should not be an option.

Speaking of funding failing companies, I’ve seen news blurbs about financial companies, such as GMAC, wanting to convert to banks.  One thing that some of these companies have asked for is to be considered for part of the bailout package if they buy a struggling bank.  In case you missed that, let me repeat.  By buying a struggling bank or converting, certain financial companies want a piece of the bailout package.

Personally, if someone brought that proposal to me, I’d have them unceremoniously kicked out of the front door.  People are already leery about the bailout package in general.  Now these other companies want us to fund their poor investment choices or give them a handout because they want to become a bank?  If they want to buy a poorly leveraged company, that’s their choice.  But expecting US taxpayers to kick in is just wrong.

Frankly, just bringing that proposal to the table makes me leery of their business sense.  Also, if you’ve decided to apply to become a bank after TARP was announced, you should be automatically excluded from receiving those funds.  It’ll be interesting to see how all this plays out.

Well, BarCampBankCharleston is over.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get the expected turnout.  John Buchanan and Tom Polk, from First Federal, along with George Kelley, from ClairMail, were able to make the event.  I knew that attendance would be low because of traveling budgets being cut in the last few months.  The intense rain we had here at the end of the week didn’t help matters either.

Because there was only four of us, we pretty much talked about projects that our bank was looking at.  We also discussed some things that we heard other financial institutions were doing.  Recent bank closures was another topic discussed.  After a couple of hours, we decided to move our get together to Buffalo Wild Wings and partake in some wings and college football.

Although I was disappointed with the low turnout, I still think the BarCampBank concept is something we need.  Hopefully, I can participate in BarCampBankSF2 in April and really see how BarCampBank works.  Perhaps we’ll try this again in Charleston next year.  One thing that I know we need to do is get the word out sooner.  This way people can save the date and plan accordingly.

We also need to take a grass roots approach.  From what I’ve seen, not too many bankers in South Carolina know anything about BarCampBank.  Getting the word out to local bankers and explaining the concept will be better in the long run.  It’s not all about talking about using Twitter and Facebook in your bank.  Now, more than ever, we need to come together and help each other restore confidence in our industry.  Sharing ideas and collaborating is the best way to do that.

Hopefully, we can get a huge turnout the next go round.  Until then, see you at the next BarCampBank.

Recently, I needed to transfer some money into my cousin’s account.  Because we both have a Bank of America account, I stopped by a local branch.  After being directed to a teller window, I noticed a debit card reader.  The teller asked me to swipe my card and punch in my pin so that she could pull up my account information.  After my transfer was completed, I asked how long had they been using card readers.  She replied that it had only been a couple of months.

I thought the use of card readers was pretty cool because it avoids the whole “may I see your license please” whenever an unfamiliar customer comes into the branch.  Also, the tellers don’t have to look up an account number.  Using the card reader brings up the customer information for them.  I assume this makes the transactions faster but I can’t be certain.

It does make me think that maybe Bank of America is doing okay.  They are still investing in technology and improving their processes.  Now if they would just get that mobile banking application so that I could wave my phone instead of using my debit card.

Picture by Auntie P

There’s word of mouth marketing, and then there’s word of mouth marketing. These pictures of a kitted up Crown Victoria were sent to me. For some reason, I don’t think Bank of America has sponsored this car. But hey, is there a such thing as bad publicity?

BofA car

Money in headlight

Money in night deposit

Card in Grill

Pictures from CarDomain

Washington Mutual, IndyMac, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.  Those are just the high profile failures this year.  As of Sunday, Wachovia had started preliminary talks with Citigroup and Wells Fargo about a possible merger. As time goes on, the banks that bet on the subprime market keep looking a bit more shaky then previously thought.

A while ago, I joked about Bank of America failing.  Now, it’s not so funny.  I’m not totally convinced that they’re out of the woods yet.  A few months ago, Ken Lewis was being condemned about his purchase of Countrywide.  Now that he’s bought Merrill Lynch, some people are calling this purchase a smart move.  Maybe I missed something, but didn’t Merrill Lynch lose money in the subprime mortgage market also?  I fail to see how buying an investment house that has more subprime mortgages on the books is a good thing.

Maybe Bank of America thinks they can get some help from this “bailout plan” the government is proposing.  I hope Mr. Lewis knows that there is a clause of “no executive windfalls” included in the bill.

All these failures have lead to a lot of discussion on blogs and Twitter.  One major topic was, should the government even bail out these companies?  The smaller banks were closed and their assets transfered to other institutions.  Right now, it’s looking as if you’re a big bank, the government will step in and save you, if you tell them you’re in trouble early enough.

Unfair? Perhaps.  I have mixed opinions on the topic, but I do feel the government needs to make drastic changes in the banking industry.  One area is fixing the repealing of the Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933).  Glass-Steagall was set up to avoid the very thing we’re going through now.  Commercial banks owning investment banks seems to be a big conflict of interest.  It’s very similar to the proverbial “fox guarding the hen house.”

Bank of America is within a breath of the 10% US deposit threshold.  With them now owning Merrill Lynch and also holding a significant number of subprime mortgages, what would be the effect of almost 10% of all US deposits suddenly going in conservatorship?  Too big to fail?  I wouldn’t bet on it.

This brings up the second area we need to look at; lowering the maximum percentage of US deposits.  When that 10% threshold was set, I’m sure the lawmakers couldn’t imagine the amount of wealth we currently have.  Maybe 10% just seemed like a nice, round, low number.  But if Wachovia is merged with another big bank, this new bank, Bank of America and JP Morgan will control 30% of all US deposits.  Does the knowledge of 3 banks controlling almost one third of the nation’s household deposits make you a little nervous?

Repealing Glass-Steagall has allowed banks to be directly over our savings, mortgages, pensions and retirement accounts.  Yes, offering banking, investment and insurance services can be beneficial to our customers.  But lately, we’ve seemed to lose focus on how to best serve our customers.  We all need to take a serious look at ourselves and figure out how to get out of this mess that we helped create.  I think the last thing we want is a government controlled “Bank of U.S.”

Photo by Paolo Margari

A while back, Seth Godin had a post about the Dip in the publishing industry.  He talked about how the publishing industry was still basing their cost calculations completely around the use of paper.  One example he gave was how Amazon was charged the same for ebooks and paper books by publishers.

Now, of course if you’re getting a book in electronic format, there is no paper involved at all.  Guess this is why some authors are self-publishing ebooks, which have a lower cost, but higher profit margins.  Seth made the point that a lot of people have built their lives around the use of trees in this industry.  “As a result, the industry is over.”

Reading the article made me think about the banking industry.  What is the “tree” in our industry?  Moving to electronic channels is better for the industry as a whole.  Typically, the banking industry has embraced technology.  We’re always looking for ways to make processes more efficient and less costly.

Peer-to-peer lending and mobile payments can even be seen as a plus.  Yes, the industry may get into the game late, but once we figure out how to make a buck, we’ll jump right in.  The one thing I came up with was…fees.

Well actually, I mean the “you screwed up, so we’re going to charge you” fees.  These are mainly those wonderful overdraft protection, non-sufficient funds and foreign ATM fees.  People are really starting to voice their displeasure with these fees.  Customers are especially ticked when they are charged a NSF because of how their bank processes their deposits and withdrawals.

I know I was pretty pissed off when Bank of America charged me a fee for moving money from my savings account to my checking account to cover a check.  Before calling the bank, I first read the details of my account type.  Once I saw that a fee could be assessed, I vowed to never be in that situation again.

Now being a programmer, I know that it’s trivial for the bank to transfer that money for me.  But charging me $25 to move money from one of my accounts to another?  That seems like a high price to pay for a courtesy.

Interestingly enough, there is a new channel coming that will force banks to change their fee policy.  Mobile banking.  Most banks that have mobile banking have rolled out the mobile web.  In the future, I see them moving to SMS alerts.

Visa is already deploying a SMS alert pilot with a few credit card companies.  As the larger banks come on board (and believe me, a few of the big ones have already started down this road), the smaller banks and credit unions will have to follow suit.  Once their customers have a constant update of their balances, do you think the NSF fee income will begin to drop?  Especially when they can transfer money in their accounts by using their phone?

One of our VPs mentioned this already.  But I see mobile banking becoming a must have channel.  It won’t be just for the 20-35 year olds either.  There are plenty of small businesses and commercial customers that would love to have these constant updates.  The 36-50 year old demographic would be pretty open to alerts also.

So the question becomes, what will you do when you’re getting 10-25% of your current fee income?  Adding these new electronic services can be pretty expensive.  Mobile banking isn’t cheap.  Banks and credit unions are now seeing just how expensive offering free bill can be.

I’ve always wondered why customers aren’t charged for “premium” services.  For example, commercial customers are charged for extra services.  In some cases, they can earn “credits” to offset those fees.  Why can’t that be done on the retail side?  For instance, if you offer free bill pay, why not charge if the customer does less than two bill pays a month?

I know Bank of America set the industry on its head when they began offering free bill pay, but it is becoming an expensive service across the industry.  I know our bill pay costs have been brought up a few times in meetings.  Offering free services reminds me of new entrepreneurs pricing their goods/services.  There’s a saying that there is always someone more willing than you to go out of business by lowing their price.

Most business owners don’t try to compete with Wal-Mart on price.  They use value-added services that Wal-Mart can’t provide.  Smaller FIs can’t always compete with the big boys by also offering free services.  Their economies of scale will beat you in the long run.  But you can compete by using value-added services.

So many FIs claim “they have better service” than the big FIs.  The time is coming where you just may have to prove it.  Planting that seed now will help in the long run.  One of my colleagues mentioned that he brought up charging customers for mobile banking.  His CEO didn’t agree and “kicked him out of the office.”  So far, no one in the US is charging for mobile banking. Currently, banks in Australia and South Africa (the poster child for value-added fees) are charging for mobile banking.  Banks in England have seen the writing on the wall and are beginning to charge also.  Who will be first in the US?

Regardless of who blinks first, one thing is certain.  With rising costs in electronic channels and the new services being added, we are quickly approaching an impasse.  That “bad fee” tree is beginning to look like firewood.

While building a list of people to contact for BarCampBankCharleston, I came across a new service offered by Charleston Area FCU, one of our local credit unions.  Credit union members of any CU can now use SMS on their mobile phones to find the nearest ATM.  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Send a text to MYCOOP (692667) from any mobile phone. In the body of the
text, enter an address (with city, state), zip code or intersection (with city,
state).

2. In less than a minute, the service will reply with the nearest CO-OP Network
surcharge-free to that location.

3. If you want additional ATM locations, simply reply MORE to the message and
additional surcharge-free ATM location will be sent to your mobile device.

MYCOOP is a new enhancement to our ATM Locator that enables you to
find any of the 25,000 surcharge-free ATMs via a text message from your mobile
phone. Only standard text messaging rates apply.

- Charleston Area FCU

Twitter has been getting a lot of press lately.  As more and more people hear about it, they tend to drift between what Morriss Partee calls the 4 Phases of Twitter.

One side effect is that as Twitter gains in popularity, Twitter names are being snatched up.  Have you secured your brand on Twitter?  There have already been instances of people posing as employees of big companies and famous people.  One example is Exxon Mobil.  Another is marketing guru Seth Godin.

By at least reserving your company and/or product name, you can preserve how your brand is perceived on the web.  Even if you don’t see the significance of Twitter, it only takes about 2 minutes to sign up and it’s free.  As an example, my employer obtained www.firstfederal.com about 10 years ago.  Do you know how many First Federal banks there are in the United States?  Chances are you know of one within 100 miles of you and it has nothing to do with us.

Now, your name may not be as generic as ours, but it’s just as important that you act sooner rather than later.  Banks and credit unions are already being regularly discussed on Twitter.  By reserving your brand, you can at least be somewhat ready when your name starts flying around the Twitterverse.  Oh, and twitter.com/firstfederal has already been taken.

Click here to view a list of companies that are already on Twitter.

Image by Yiying Lu

I hate Walmart.  Actually, I hate waiting in line at Walmart.  Nothing frustrates me more than seeing half the lines open, the “10 Items or Less” lines being ten people deep and the other lines with people doing their monthly Walmart shopping while I hold five items.  The self-checkout lines are empty because they either aren’t working or it’s just too complicated to figure out.

Why can’t the big box retailers have a better checkout system?  With the Apple Store opening here, I was reminded of how Apple handles checkouts.  The employees carry those neat wireless devices with a card reader so that the process is quick and painless.  The big box retailers have almost everything in place to offer a similar experience.

I have noticed that they have price scanners mounted for anyone to use.  It would be great if I could scan my item and then wave my customer loyalty card to add the item to my “shopping cart”.  Once I had walked around the store and finished scanning my items, I could then wave my phone or contactless card to pay.  Finally, they could email the receipt to me and send a confirmation SMS so I could get past that pesky greeter.  Having a receipt printer on the scanner wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

With all the hustle and bustle, I didn’t realize that I’ve been blogging for a year now.  I must admit that so far, it’s been a lot of fun.  I’ve been able to connect with a lot of people and been introduced to a lot of ideas and technologies.

Thanks to all that have continued to be avid readers and share their ideas.  Looking over my blog stats, the most popular posts have dealt with mobile banking and Walmart’s MoneyCard.  I’d just like to take a moment to discuss those two topics.

How to Get a No-Fee Walmart MoneyCard

By far, this has been the most popular post.  It kind of makes me wonder why banks/credit unions don’t offer a similar product.  I don’t know the exact number of Walmart cardholders, but from the complaints I’ve heard from our customers, I think customers would love a card like this.  Eventually, overdraft fees will become a very sensitive topic.  You can already find some very public posts about how banks are handling their overdraft fees.

As people become more educated about fees, this particular fee income could dry up.  Why not offer pre-paid cards to your customers?  This could open up that unbanked/underbanked market that we all hear about.

Mobile Banking

Why the iPhone Doesn’t Matter For Mobile Banking has gotten a lot of hits.  With the release of the iPhone 3G, there have been a slew of articles concerning the iPhone and mobile banking.  A few of the popular ones are by Ron Shevlin, Morriss Partee, Jim Bruene and Mark Schwanhausser.

Me, I think mobile banking will become a vital channel.  Here in SC, we have a lot more rural customers with poor internet connections.  These same customers tend to have cell phones, which opens a new channel.  After reviewing surveys and actually talking to customers, I feel this is a channel that we can’t ignore.  Yes, there is no ROI at the moment, but the same could be said for online banking ten years ago.

As for the iPhone’s impact, I still think it won’t drive mobile banking, for most of the industry anyways.  According to our web stats, BlackBerry users still access our site more the iPhone users, though the iPhone is gaining.  But most BlackBerry users got their phone through their company.  iPhone users tend to be on the leading edge of technology.

The typical cell phone owner is not going to get a high end phone with a data plan.  Once the price of data plans drop, then we’ll see an increase mobile web users.  Until then, adoption of mobile banking through the mobile web will be slow. 

To put it in perspective, Mark mentions that Jack Henry’s goDough is at 65 banks and has a total of 6,559 users.  That’s about 100 users per bank.  Bank of America now has 1 million mobile web users.  I wish BB&T would release their numbers since they offer SMS alerts.  I know they have way more than 6500 users.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they sign up that many per week, with no major advertisements.

Over the last year, it’s been fun watching the banking industry evolve.  I look forward to many more and I’m glad you’ve decided to join me.  Here’s to many more.

37signals, the people of Ruby On Rails fame, has a post about how they built buzz.  What caught my attention was their old 37Better Project.  Through this site, they built mockups of popular web applications.  One of these was online banking.

I don’t know about you, but it seems that the only thing that has changed in online banking in the last ten years is newer features in cash management.  37signals did a mockup that was “slap ya head” insightful.  Out of all the online banking vendors, how is it that no one picked up on these design features?  The biggest complaint I’ve heard is some features being too complicated to perform.  People just want a simple way to perform their most basic functions.

Admit it, with all this Web 2.0 hype, online banking is still entrenched in Web 1.0, with no end in sight.  37signals’ design doesn’t even use all that “AJAX” stuff.  It’s just a clean design that tells you what you need to know and gives you quick access to what you need.  Hopefully the “experts” will start to think about what they actually hate about online banking and work to make the experience better.

Here are the links to 37signals’ 37BetterBank page and their My Account page.

It seems like the technology in ATMs has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 10 years.  Deposits without envelopes, stamp purchases, and keypad randomizers are just a few of the enhancements.  Now there is talk of using cell phones to perform cardless transactions.

The way this works is, a customer’s associate can enter a cell phone number into the ATM.  The ATM then calls the number.  Once the customer answers the phone, they then authorize the transaction and a voice match is done to authenticate the customer.

So now, I guess parents will be able to authorize those late night ATM withdrawals for their college kids.  Here’s the link to the patent.