In the Future… the Power of Goals

This is the first in a series of posts inspired by CFSI’s Underbanked Financial Services Forum.  At the conference, attendees were asked to complete the sentence, “in the future, the underbanked marketplace will…” on a square button. I was struck by the power of goals and how different financial products…

WalMart vs GreenDot

Last week GreenDot’s IPO was rumored in question.  It could be due to interchange changes or concentration risk.  In either case, GreenDot’s relationship with WalMart is pivotal and not always aligned. First, interchange: Given GreenDot reports 30% of its income derives from interchange fees, the pro-retail pending interchange legislation might…

In the Future… Series

Last week around 600 industry leaders convened in Miami at CFSI’s 5th annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum.  It was hot, and not just outside. CFSI’s founder and director, Jennifer Tescher, started the conference by inviting participants to complete the sentence, “in the future the underbanked marketplace will…” with a sharpie…

Look West, Wall Street. Look West

Why is the ATM the last great banking innovation?  That’s what former Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker, wonders. While Silicon Valley has created a tremendous amount of society changing ideas and businesses, Wall Street’s attempts at innovation have mostly backfired.  Instead of Google, ethernet, LinkedIn, the iPhone or eBay, Wall…

Remit This

Entrepreneurs have tried to disintermediate the $300 billion-or so that immigrants send back home every year for quite some time.  Western Union and MoneyGram dominate the business and charge a lot.  Should be easy to cut out the middleman, right?  Wrong, although some new models are making a dent. Card…

Marshmellow for your payments?

Ideas like paternalistic libertarianism are en vogue these days.  You’ve read about them in books like Nudge, Freakonomics and Predictably Irrational.  It’s all part of the attack of the behavioral economists, a band of economists who believe that traditional economic modeling is based on humans that are fundamentally not human,…

Consumer Banking Oxymoron

Reams have already been written on how “retail” banks aren’t particularly people friendly.  Today, the American Banker ran a couple stories on how smaller banks have better reputations than larger banks.  I think the REAL story is how all banks rank below the best consumer brand in any industry.  The…

Mobile lending, really?

Yesterday, one of my CFSI colleagues received the following SMS text on her phone: Authorization Code #8056-RFS (go to cash898.com now). Cash Advance as soon as 1 hour. Go To cash898.com. Reply STOP to Stop messages. This is the first instance I have seen of marketing for payday loans through…

Credit to the Poor

The New York Times ran an article on microfinance recently titled, Banks Making Big Profits From Tiny Loans.  It’s one of these topics that many people have a strong opinion about, but know little about.  Unhelpfully, I know a lot about it, but don’t have a clear opinion.  Basically, it…