USAA, already known as a leader in the social space, is taking mobile banking to another level by introducing a technology that allows its systems to recognize individual mobile phones. The technology, which is currently awaiting approval in Apple’s iTunes site, looks to simplify the log-in process. Currently, customers enter three pieces of information: username, password and PIN. The new process would only require a secure four-digit PIN.

As more and more customers trend toward mobile banking, it’s vital for financial institutions to create a more user-friendly platform for its mobile customers. As USAA is showing, you don’t need to sacrifice security or function to accomplish this. If you’re a financial institution, what are you doing to provide a positive experience for the increasing trend of mobile banking?

USAA’s application is expected to be available for Android users in April.

For the official release, please visit their Newsroom.

FiLife – a joint venture between IAC and Dow Jones – is a community that connects people with personal financial questions with experts who have the answer. Recently ranked as the #1 most innovative financial company and #27 overall by Fast Company, FiLife is providing a venue for people across a wide-array of spaces to get answers to all their financial questions – basic or complex.

In an industry that’s heavily regulated and typically conservative, FiLife offers a credible solution to the glaring absence of education and awareness within the financial industry.

“Essentially, we’re where healthcare was a few years ago. It was a taboo subject that you didn’t think about bringing up in a social setting,” Adam Wiener, general manager and executive editor, said. “There’s an obvious need for this resource, so we’re fishing where the fish are.”

Another key to FiLife’s success (they’ve gone from 14,000 monthly visitors in February 2009 to over 3 million) is the fact that they don’t necessarily have to play by the same rules and regulations that bound financial institutions. That’s not to say that FiLife houses fly by the night content. FiLife has managed to form a number of strategic relationships and the depth of their contributors provide credibility. It’s this vast array of resources that has allowed the site to become the number four personal-finance Web site according to com-Score.

“With the amount of content out there, we needed to form strategic relationships in order to give FiLife credibility,” Wiener said. “Large financial institutions have to deal with regulation and jump through hoops in order to get stuff online. We have the ability to respond quicker and to a broader range of topics.”

In a true testament to innovation, FiLife is continually looking to add value to its current community and potential participants. FiLife is committed to using their open API to allow other financial institutions and partners to utilize the incredible amount of content and resources currently on the FiLife site, and integrate into their own Web site. Additionally, FiLife is looking at creating the ability for financial institutions to pull content from FiLife and use those resources on outside destinations.

“Being interactive is why we’ve found the success we have,” Wiener said. “We’re committed to being social and utilizing the various platforms out there to continue to add value and expand our reach.”

As mentioned above, there’s a wealth of knowledge and resources out there when it comes to financial advice. Clearly, large financial institutions haven’t stepped up to the plate of financial education. FiLife is a space where people can gather and develop their own profile of personalize content. Who knows, maybe down the road talking about your finances will be as common and accepted as conversing about the weather!

The Financial Brand

Check out the article and let me know your thoughts.

Target

While this technology isn’t new, Target is the first major retailer to launch the service in all of its stores. Starbucks, 7-Eleven and J.C. Penny have the mobile scanning technology in a portion of their locations.

Currently, the traditional way to receive alerts are via e-mail or text. That’s fine, that works for some. E-mail is how I receive most of my financial alerts. However, as technology continues to evolve; I wonder how financial institutions will respond? While the financial space has seen mixed results within the social sphere (you can see my “winners” here), one use of social media that’s of little risk is….wait for it…ALERTS!

I don’t expect social alerts to overtake text and e-mail due to the simple fact that those methods provide the greatest ease of use and accessibility. Like social media in general, I think social alerts can be a complimentary use; not a replacement. As the trend of checking e-mail via mobile devices continues to increase (and text alerts are obviously received via mobile), it’s clear that our lifeline is our mobile device. It only makes sense that the use of social networking usage continues to trend toward mobile.

Now, before you begin to scream about the security issues, I don’t feel social alerts provide any increased risk that’s not already present. Alerts aren’t meant for financial discussion. They’re meant to provide an “oh, yeah”. Implementing such alerts aren’t any more complex than what’s used to initiate current alerts. Provide a disclosure that the customer needs to read and agree to. Ensure proper communication is utilized informing the customer not to disclose any personal information. Use the tool to drive conversations to proper offline channels, if need be.

Personally, I would  sign up to receive alerts via a Twitter direct message. Yes, this would require financial institutions to become verified users – which I think is needed regardless. If Chris Brogan is verified, why isn’t Bank of America? The beauty of this method is that it would also allow the opportunity for brands to build their community base and form relationships.

So what do you think? Would you take advantage of such a resource, if made available? Please take a moment to conduct a brief, anonymous survey regarding social alerts. Click here for a 3 question survey.

As always, you’re welcome to leave your thoughts in the comments section, even if you do participate in the survey.

1. USAA announced that their popular Deposit@Mobile application is now available on the Android platform. The application allows for customers to make deposits by submitting an image of the front and back of endorsed checks via their mobile device.USAA’s iPhone application was launched last May, with the Deposit@Mobile being released in August, has already seen over $300 million.
2. California-based Torrance Community Credit Union announced the release of their iPhone application.Torrance Community CU partnered with Innovative Technology Inc. of Omaha, Neb., and check processor Eastern Corporate FCU of Burlington, Mass. The iPhone application was developed by EasCorp subsidiary Vertifi Software LLC to interface with INTECH’s mobile banking solution. An Android version is in the works and should be released soon.

iFinance had the opportunity to sit down with Mike Alfred, co-founder and CEO, where we talked about the importance of financial education, the idea and concept behind BrightScope and how it plans to change the financial landscape.

To begin, I think it’s best to get a clear idea of what exactly BrightScope is. From their Web site:

BrightScope^TM, Inc. is an independent provider of 401k ratings and financial intelligence to plan sponsors, advisors, and participants in all 50 states. Our mission is to increase the retirement security of America’s workforce by bringing transparency and efficiency to the 401k plan market. We maintain a comprehensive database of information on the 401k plan market and add additional value and insight by quantitatively rating each 401k plan across critical metrics. BrightScope^TM empowers plan sponsors to quickly and accurately determine the optimal structure for their 401k plan and choose the providers that provide the most value for the fees they charge. BrightScope is the only 401k analytics firm that is truly independent and does not accept compensation in the form of revenue sharing from mutual fund companies or plan providers. BrightScope is aligned with plan sponsors and seeks to avoid conflicts that will jeopardize its ability to give its clients unbiased advice. BrightScope is not a fiduciary under ERISA.

While most people have an understanding of basic economics and finance, as the complexity of the data increase, general interest decreases. Unless one works in finance, generally, most people don’t have much interest in the financial space. The reasons can be debated; but in my opinion, the fact that it doesn’t directly relate on an individual level is probably the reason. Fortunately, BrightScope fixes that problem.

I think it’s safe to say that most people want to eventually be able to retire. No one really wants to work their entire life. However, unless you win the lottery or inherit a large sum, most people will be forced to work a lot longer than previous times. This is exactly why understanding your 401k is critical in today’s tough economic times. This is also where BrightScope steps in.

“Financial education is fundamentally missing from society,” Alfred said. “Education is not there. Products are becoming more complex, but we as a society aren’t there. It’s unfortunate, but pensions and the government aren’t going to be there down the line.”

How Does BrightScope Work?

Unlike the money management resources out there today (think Mint, moneyStands, Quicken), BrightScope isn’t a recommendation platform. Instead, BrightScope is more of a plan management database that provides in-depth quantitative metrics of over 30,000 plans. Again, it’s key to understand that BrightScope is NOT a recommendation platform.

There are three main markets that BrightScope advertises its services for: participants, sponsors and advisors. For the purpose of this blog, we’ll focus on participants and advisors. *Note: this is not to discredit the value it provides sponsors. However, for target market of iFinance, we are choosing to feature participants and advisors. Please contact BrightScope if you are interested in more information about their services if you’re a plan sponsor

1. Participant features

There are two main functions if you’re a 401k participant (meaning you currently employer provides a 401k option). First, you can essential research any company’s 401k plan and receive their BrightScope Rating. This rating provides a variety of information comparing said company’s 401k plan and gives it a numerical rating from 0-100.

For more information on BrightScope Rating, click here.

* Best Buy was randomly selected.

The second feature for participants is the Personal 401k Fee Report, that allows participants to get an in-depth look into their current 401k plan and get a clear understanding of the fees associated with their plan. A lot of 401k participants simply sign up for through their employer, contribute each paycheck and never bother to research the investment options. This fee report allows a participant key information and better understand their investments. Again, focusing on education.

2. Advisor features

For advisors, BrightScope features their Advisor Central platform that allows advisors to integrate benchmarking into their plans, learn how to use benchmarking as both an offensive and defensive strategy and create custom reporting.

“The key value of BrightScope is that we aren’t rating on popularity,” Alfred said. “We’re completely objective and providing a resource for participants to become more educated about what goes into their plan and how it’s working for them. From an advisor standpoint, we’re providing tools that can help them become more efficient.”

What the future holds

Despite this untapped space, Alfred and BrightScope are quick to reittirate that they aren’t the answer to everything. As a result, BrightScope is taking to various social media platforms to create meaningful conversations, as well as blogging about a variety of resources.

“There’s $5 trillion combined in 401k’s,” Alfred said. “So it’s clear that this is a very large space. There are a lot of opportunities that we can focus on.”

Whatever your level of interest and knowledge of the financial space is, one thing is for sure – BrightScope is leading the way in educating the financial future.

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