Blog

HomeATM…Green Sherpa…kaChing…BillShrink…People Capital…LendingClub—financial and banking tech startups such as these are harnessing technology in innovative ways to offer consumers new and cool options for banking-type services, investment advice and personal financial management tools. On the flip side, innovation like this from “non banks” is sure to add to bank executives’ ever-growing list of things keeping them up at night. 

Dozens of these start-ups will preview their improved and new offerings at the FinovateStartup 2009 conference in San Francisco in late April. Here’s a quick review of the hot list as previewed by NetBanker.

• Need help with personal money management? Green Sherpa, iBearSoft and Rudder are poised to launch personal money management software (including iPhone applications) to let users consolidate, track, analyze and manage bills, payments and household finances.

• Don’t want to mess with software? BudgetTrack and CalenderBudget serve up online tools for tracking and managing finances.

• Trying to manage your credit? CreditKarma, already a popular site, gives users access to free credit scores, comparisons, tracking, advice and offers based on your credit score.
  Shopping for financial products? Centrro’s financial search engine lets you shop anonymously for home loans and credit cards that fit specific credit profiles. SmartHippo taps into an online community of users to help others find better rates on home loans and financial services.

• Looking for online shopping security? Moneta simplifies and adds security to online shopping by serving as a one-stop source for making online payments, alleviating the hassles of entering credit or debit card data each time you make a purchase.

• Paying down debt? GoalSpring’s DebtGoal helps you organize, prioritize and manage debt.

• For investment advice and education, WeSeed bills itself as “the stock market for the rest of us,” letting users learn from other users by investing fake money in fake stock to learn real lessons about the market. Similarly, social investment community kaChing offers insights into the minds and strategies of top investors for you to study.

Amidst the current economic and banking mess, it’s refreshing to see innovative tech firms rise up to offer cool products and services in the banking and financial services arena – it’s bound to be good for consumers. But for bankers who are fighting for deposits, consumer trust and survival, innovation such as this should serve as a wake-up call to the changing banking technology landscape and of new virtual competitors waiting to pounce. And that’s bound to lead to some more sleepless nights for bank execs.