Recap of FinTech Week in New York

 

After spending two weeks meeting with bankers all across the Southeast United States on our Bank Innovators Road Show, all of that activity reached a crescendo with FinTech Week in New York last week.

Monday September 22

Bank Innovators Lab Day

After stops in London and San Jose, the Bank Innovators Council’s third and final Bank Innovators Lab Day of 2014 came to New York on Monday September 22, right before FinovateFall.  Thought leaders, executives and influencers from FinTechs and banks from four countries on three continents joined us for a deep dive of the FinTech companies about to demonstrate at Finovate through the lens of our Relevance Models.

Participants discussed the customer segments they were most interested in focusing on, and then broke up into five groups representing those segments: Corporate Customers, Millenial Consumers, Mass Affluent Consumers, Financial Institutions, and Small Businesses.

We then worked through the six major categories we created for the ideas that would be presented over the next two days at Finovate: Core Banking and Security, Personal Financial Management, Payments, Big Data and Analytics, Capital Markets and Wealth Management, and Lending.

 

Then, each group considered these categories of solutions for their chosen customer segment through our Relevance Model. Our relevance model looks the investment required and the amount of internal disruption necessary in order to implement any new idea, along with its expected impact.

 

Each group created their own Relevance Model in the context of their chosen customer segment and their own criteria for successful implementation. At the end of the day, we compiled all of the groups’ ratings into one overall Relevance Model and discussed everyone’s ratings and why they rated each idea where they did.

 

Each idea was rated from 1-5 for their expected impact on the market, with 5 being the highest. There were only three ideas rated 5 by the group (All company information is from publicly-available sources):

Knox Payments: 

Knox is the easiest way to pay. No credit card forms to fill out or account numbers to remember, just login to the bank you use everyday. Knox combats the 3% + 30¢ of every transaction processing fees. Knox strives to create value for merchants by keeping the amount they spend on payment processing fees small. Knox wants to take part in the stories of change, those of the businesses and non-profits, where the smallest number makes the biggest difference.

• No charge for micro transactions (payments under $2). Accept payments without worrying about all the fees associated. 18 ¢ plain and simple for transactions over $2
• Guaranteed Funds: Knox Assured ACH payments are guaranteed and overnighted
• Login Securely: Knox stores the minimum information necessary to make a transaction on your behalf and NEVER stores your online banking username or password
• SOC 2 Compliant and 128 Bit Encrypted

WorkFusion:  

WorkFusion is a rapidly growing enterprise software-as-a-service company dedicated to transforming knowledge work through crowd computing. WorkFusion uses machine learning to combine automation, crowdsourced workers and employees on web-based knowledge processes.

• Automation tools unburden human workers of repetitive tasks, crowdsourced workers perform judgment tasks, and employees are focused on tasks that require subject matter expertise.
• Self-repairing automation pairs algorithms with human workers
• 30 million on -demand workers for performing tasks and training algorithms
• 50% reduction in cost of creating financial content

Zenmonics/Diebold:  

For more than 150 years, Diebold has brought together a combination of innovation, expertise and quality service to become a global leader in providing integrated self-service, security systems and services. Headquartered in the Canton, Ohio area, Diebold employs approximately 16,000 employees, with representation in more than 90 countries worldwide. In 2013 Diebold reported total revenue of US$2.8 billion. Diebold is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “DBD”.

• Channel/UNITED Mobile Platform – brings core banking, branch platform, and mission critical systems to the mobile channel
• Pioneering omni-channel technology to unite digital devices with your existing systems and service-oriented architecture, to speed deployment of advanced mobile applications
• Results in consistently branded, reusable delivery across your customer experience

 

Other Monday Events

NYC Tomorrow’s Transactions Unconference

NYPAY and Consult Hyperion presented their 3rd Annual NYC Tomorrow’s Transactions Unconference, also on Monday, September 22, 2014 at Google’s New York offices. The Unconference event is a unique mix of thought-leadership talks and open-space discussions on topics chosen by the delegates on the day. FinTech and other topics covered included social and financial inclusion, new transaction technologies (e.g. HCE), mobile financial services, data security, cryptocurrencies, new institutions and much more.

Trade Canada Networking Reception

On Monday evening, Canada’s most innovative FinTech companies, including Finovate presenters Silanis, Financeit, and Ticksmith, plus Canadian technology accelerator companies Camouflage Software, Wagepoint, and Market IQ held a reception at the Times Square offices of Thomson Reuters, with a special keynote address from Greg Baxter, Global Head of Digital Strategy at Citi.

Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23-24

FinovateFall

On September 23 & 24, Finovate returned to NYC with a record 1450 registered attendees for FinovateFall, the flagship two-day showcase of the latest and greatest FinTech innovations from leading established companies and hot young startups.

Finovate’s signature demo-only format saw 72 companies from 11 countries with just 7 minutes on stage to demo their latest innovations to the huge crowd of innovators, investors, journalists, bankers and analysts. Networking sessions followed the demos each day, giving attendees the chance to make one-on-one connections with the innovators they just saw on stage, as well as the other influential fintech professionals in attendance. 

Attendees voted for 7 Best of Show Award winners, and here they are in alphabetical order, courtesy of the Finovate blog:

Tuesday night – Chris Skinner: Digital Bank

Tuesday evening we were proud to help sponsor our friend, noted FinTech commentator Chis Skinner for an exclusive reception for his new book Digital Bank. The need for innovation in a world where consumers and businesses want digital and virtual access to their money is driving investment in financial technology by many players, including banks and other traditional financial services providers. 

How customer demand and technology are changing the way we bank and why embracing that change is critical for banks is the subject of a new book, Digital Bank, by thought leader and author Chris Skinner. 

(P.S. – Chris will also be in Boston October 2 for a similar event during Sibos)

Thursday September 25

Breaking Banks Radio Show

Each week FinTech icon Brett King hosts Breaking Banks, the only dedicated global radio show focused on disruption in financial services and the emerging FinTech sector (AM 1160 in New York, and VoiceAmerica Business Channel). Despite a struggle with my hotel Wifi, I was honored to join the show for my fourth appearance, this time with guest host by Jim Marous, publisher of the Digital Banking Report and Retail Banking Strategies for The Financial Brand.

Joining me last week was Robb Gaynor, Chief Product Officer of Malauzai Software, Ryan Caldwell, CEO of MX (formerly Money Desktop) and Derek Corcoran, Chief Experience Officer at Avoka Technologies.

Listen to the episode here.