More of our live blog from Finovate in San Jose:

Capsilon

  • @CapsilonCorp
  • www.capsilon.com

The mortgage process is still very paper-intensive, yes, real paper. Even when there are digital docs, the workflow is cumbersome and time-intensive. Capsilon is helping to make the mortgage application process more efficient. The loan processor and underwriter have a dynamic checklist of documents. And key data elements are extracted, for example they can automatically spot large deposits. This seems like a good way for a lender to apply technology to improve internal processes. ^SR

We’ve worked with Capsilon in the past and I think Sanjjeev Malaneey (CEO) is a genius.

For years their imaging technology has been vital in the mortgage industry. In fact, when my wife and I refinanced our home last year with Delta FCU we viewed our mortgage docs through Delta FCU’s portal to Capsilon. I’m very interested in finding out what’s new with the company.

“Digital Mortgage Factory” – Ted is now showing their on boarding process that will increase au productivity and reduce errors. First step is complete loan app to the loan officer with the lender’s dashboard. What information do I need to enter this loan and register the loan? Capsilon is compiling the data into a PDF and generate a list of required documents. Showing browser-based interface on a Windows device with drag and drop capability which can be embedded in any portal. Separates individual documents and sorts automatically to industry standard or a custom process.

From their web site: Capsilon provides comprehensive digital mortgage solutions that enable mortgage companies to increase productivity and lower costs, while ensuring compliance. The company’s flagship product, Capsilon DocVelocity®, is a document imaging and data capture platform built specifically to address the needs of large mortgage companies. Headquartered in San Francisco, Capsilon serves many of the mortgage industry’s most innovative companies, including two of the 10 largest residential mortgage lenders in the United States. For more information, visit www.capsilon.com.    Great job!  @CapsilonCorp  ^William

Unison Home Ownership Investors

  • @myunison
  • www.unison.com  

Unison has developed an alternative financial product to help borrowers with their down payment for a home loan.  At first blush, this seems like the 2nd mortgage that borrowers used to be able to obtain at the time of purchase. Essentially, Unison helps to convert an 80/20 loan into a 90/10 product, without the bank taking the risk. But, isn’t there still an issue with the underlying risk? It looks like the borrower does not pay interest on the 10% loan, Unison takes a slice of the property appreciation. It is a unique product.  ^SR

Jim (Co-CEO) now speaking. “New financial product category: home ownership investment. Investment; not a loan, long-term, up to 30 years. As partners, we will or lose together. If home increases in value we share in appreciate and the reverse.” “We provide 20% downpayment with only 10% of your cash eliminating PMI”.

Now THIS is cool. With so many younger Americans that WANT to buy a home but just can’t afford it or have too much student loan debt. I like this idea.

From their web site: Unison is the market leader in home ownership investment. Founded in 2004, San Francisco-based Unison makes long-term investments in individual residential properties through two innovative programs: Unison HomeBuyer, which provides a portion of the down payment needed to purchase a home, and Unison HomeOwner, which allows current homeowners to tap into their home equity without interest or monthly payments.  Good job. Congrats!  @myunison www.unison.com ^William

Infocorp

  • @infocorpgroup
  • www.infocorpgroup.com

They are focused on delivering customer love, I’m all for that as a business objective. Seems like a pretty straightforward application of marketing automation and predictive marketing. Valuable, but I’m not sure if there is a core innovation represented here. ^SR

Ana, CEO is speaking. “20 years helping people love their bank.” Omnichannel campaigns online. From their web site: We create, design and develop innovative applications, combining talent and technology to achieve high impact creative solutions for our clients’ needs. It looks like the company HQ is in Uruguay and they have an office in San Juan, PR.

Showing how a banker could build an online offer in real time. Very nice UI with great real-time graphics and personalization.  @infocorpgroup  www.infocorpgroup.com  ^William

BeSmartee

  • @BeSmartee
  • www.besmartee.com

Today is clearly Mortgage day at Finovate in San Jose. BeSmartee has a digital application for consumer mortgages. They use “continuous data validation” to verify each data element as it is input, for example it verifies the telephone number as soon as it is entered. The platform provides a full digital process for submitting an application. There is also a backend workflow tool, as well as a portal for realtors. ^SR

BeSmartee is based in Huntington Beach, CA. Tim and Arvin, Co-Founders are on stage. “Saw first hand the 2008 the mortgage debacle” These guys could be on to something BIG. “Point of sale and emortgages are going to be big.” I agree.

With the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still in recovery there has not been great investment in mortgage technology. These folks are may be one of the companies that bring 21st Century technology to the industry. Think about QuickenLoans and their Rocket Mortgage. They invested in new technology and are promoting the heck out of it. ALL LENDERS whether banks, credit unions or independent mortgage bankers MUST step up their customer experience and reduce costs with new technology from companies like BeSmartee.

Again, another great UI show how a loan officer can work faster creating a better customer experience.

From their web site: The original idea for BeSmartee was founded in 2007 during the onset of the mortgage crisis. Husband and wife entrepreneurs Tim & Veronica worked in the industry and received hundreds of calls from borrowers, each sharing horrific stories of their mortgage experiences, and why they were now going to lose their homes of 5, 10 and even 30 years.  @BeSmartee www.besmartee.com ^William

MX

  • @mxenabled
  • www.mx.com

We’ve worked with MX (then MoneyDesktop) in the past and these folks have ALWAYS done terrific presentations at Finovate. They have once again cancelled at the last minute and I don’t understand. I’ll have to stop by the stand and find out what’s going on.  @mxenabled www.mx.com ^William

FUCO&SOLUTION

  • www.fucosolution.com.tw

It looks like this company is based in Taiwan. Showing a mobile browser-based that once again looks slick. I know you are tired of reading this but we are seeing GREAT UI’s that are browser-based that look like apps. I’m having hard time getting a handle on their USP but I think it’s an Omni-channel solution SAAS for FI’s. I’ll try to stop by their stand and see if they have any U.S.banks as clients.  www.fucosolution.com.tw ^William

Neener Analytics

  • @NeenerAnalytics
  • www.NeenerAnalytics.com

Millions of potential customers may have thin or no credit files, and this makes it hard to lend to them. They are looking at social media analytics as a way to bridge the gap. They are trying to create a psychological profile based on social media activity. By creating social media profiles, they have done a POC that showed significant reduction in loan defaults. I have to say, we’ve seen how easy it is to manipulate social media and create fake profiles. I’m sure the skepticism level will be high for this one.  ^SR

San Jose-based company that looks big. “Expand your market and increase your revenue in 20 minutes.” These look like smart folks with a TON of data scientists at the company. “We are who WE are, not who our friends are.” Showing how a bank-branded site can be used by a consumer by logging in with their Facebook credentials. “We believe the future of log-ins with be with social media log-ins.” While this may be true, I don’t use Facebook and for privacy reasons I don’t ever log into a site using Google or other credentials. I may be more concerned about privacy that most people but I think consumers will be taking a more active engagement in privacy and how their data is used.

From their web site:

Neener is the FICO for Social Media users. They’ve built a platform that correlates Personality & Behavior using their proprietary method by which to correlate social media data to score financial risk. To prove the model, Neener is the first to connect a consumers Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profile, with Personality & Behavior and an accurate FICO prediction. Neener can accurately predict/project a consumer’s fico score range almost 80% of the time. That is, armed with nothing but a consumer’s single Facebook profile, almost 80% of the time Neener can accurately predict/project that persons fico score range.

@NeenerAnalytics www.NeenerAnalytics.com ^William

AutoKept

  • www.talkaccounting.com
  • @AutoKept

Small businesses struggle with bookkeeping, no surprises there. AutoKept is developing a solution to help companies track expenses using their smartphone. ^SR

Tucson-based KC Truby, President presenting. This could be a Quicken killer – real 21st century accounting solution that was built mobile/web first. Their “TALK” app could cut labor costs associated with accounting by 90%. I’ll definitely learn more about this company.

They even offer a FREE version with the following functions (from their web site).

For the small cash-based business, independent contractor or sales and service person recording money events on the road.

Up to 3 users linked to the same company. No QuickBooks or other acct. software needed. 10 second transactions by talking to your phone. Automatic linking to credit/debit cards. Expense tracking & reconciliation. Attaches picture of source document to transaction. Upload and save tax forms that come in the mail. 3-year storage of all doc and transactions. 5-minute learning curve .Allows for job costing and itemization. Optional tax preparer access for low cost returns. 500 transactions per month

www.talkaccounting.com ^William

BakerHill

  • @bakerhill
  • www.bakerhill.com

BakerHill is helping FIs with solutions based on BI technology. They have a new offering, NextGen, that is based on a persona-based design. Key tasks and activities, repository for reports and docs, and CRM functionality are all available on one platform. They also offer integration into Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-enabled productivity suite. BakerHill’s workflow technology looks powerful and super intuitive.    

Full disclosure, WMA represents BakerHill (#wmaclient). I’ve known this company for more than 25 years and you will find like me, this company has a stellar reputation with a ton of happy clients. I don’t think I’ve seen them present at Finovate so I’m looking forward to their presentation.

Mike Horrocks and Eric LaPlante presenting. “Bankers will now have the business intelligence to make smarter business decisions.” Showing newest innovation, BakerHill next-gen, 100% end-to-end solution, great UI, persona-based design. At the core of NexGen is the “Hub” where a banker would start their day with dashboard, review and workflow. Seamless integration with al the core providers.

Showing use case of BakerHill NexGen in the field how the loan officer would use the technology with a customer in the field using real-time information. Great workflow. Now showing the credit analysis that might be done back at the bank and adjust as needed.

Great job!

From their web site: Baker Hill empowers financial institutions to work smarter and drive more profitable relationships. The company delivers solutions that streamline origination and portfolio management for business, consumer direct and indirect lending. Baker Hill also delivers sophisticated business intelligence and revenue enhancement solutions that support sound business decisions to mitigate risk and generate growth. Baker Hill is the #1 provider of member business lending services, serving 600 financial institutions, including more than 20% of the top 150 U.S. banks and 20% of the top 25 U.S. credit unions.

@bakerhill www.bakerhill.com

^William

NCR

  • @NCRCorporation
  • www.ncr.com

We’re seeing our first (only?) demo using VR at the Finovate show.  You can pick up parts of the machine, navigating through a 3d animation. This is a use case based on maintenance training for how to service an ATM.  “It brings our ATM to life,”  and you can have an expert work remotely with the customer to customize the machine. This is much deeper and more engaging than a co-browsing experience. You can actually step inside the same virtual environment. They are positioning this as tool for real-time collaboration for training, servicing, and collaboration. ^SR

Oh our first VR (Virtual Reality) demo of the show. Bringing ATMs into the virtual world. “Branching the physical and digital world.”

Demo: In NCR Virtual club – NCR self-service ATM.

Animate the ATM unit and take a look at different parts of the machine in VR. Also can take a part the dispenser in the VR world. Used for training everybody on what they are doing. What else can VR be used for? Supposedly, allowed to customize ATMs in branches and see what it would look like in a different environment. Changing colors and overall look and feel without leaving your home/office. ^KT

Horizn

  • @horiznplatform
  • www.horizn.com

They help FIs to implement innovation, helping with training and onboarding. One of the issues banks’ face is helping existing staff to learn new products, like that cool Apple watch banking app. They are the “candy crush of learning”, gamifying the process of learning new bank products and services.  Today’s demo is of the customer knowledge platform. This looks like a very effective way to train 100s, or even 1000s, of employees very simply. Impressive!   ^SR

“Help FI’s accelerate market adoption of their latest innovation and technology.” Case Study: Have increased mobile adoption by 25% for one bank. Today they are launching Horizn’s Customer Knowledge Platform. Bank’s employees can learn about the bank’s latest innovation. Employees can see their points and badges. Aiming to change the way employees learn and reduce anxiety around digital changes in the organization. “Micro-Learning” is the new term. Gamification within the platform. “Candy Crush of Learning” for Bank’s employees. Interesting concept. Schools have been using online gamification to educate students for decades. It has worked for schools, I am sure it will work well to educate bank employees as well. ^KT

TurnKey Lender

  • @TurnkeyLender
  • www.turnkey-lender.com

Turnkey is focused on process automation in consumer lending. Quite interesting that this Finovate has several demos showcasing technology to make lending more efficient. The platform has pre-configured templates, with the ability to customize. Incorporates different modules for notifications, routing for e-signature, decision engine for underwriting, etc.  There is even a workspace to manage information related to collateral. Reporting includes exec dashboards, as well as more detailed operational reporting. ^SR

Presenting latest release of TurnKey Lender. Covers the whole life-time of the loan. Operating in 22 countries. White-Label available for customers to look like the bank’s website. Sample rules for pre-screening of applicants. Each rule can be set to a specific call to action. I.e. can be referred to an underwriter for manual processing. Scorecard demo – built in adjusted for the type of lending and lenders can enter their own scorecard if they would like. SMS and email notifications available. Once the application is submitted, the credit score, probability of loan generated for the lender to review. ^KT

Hedgeable AI Lab

  • @hedgeable
  • www.hedgeable.ai

Presented at Finovate before. First goal: Close the gap between average investor and high net worth which they think they have accomplished. Now they are presenting AI Lab. Their bot/messenger app is called “Katana” for support when client is on the site. (Pretty similar name to Microsoft’s Cortana but I don’t mind.) They don’t have any advisors and don’t believe in any of them. They believe bots will replace advisors who have much greater access to data. The bot can provide guidance and advise against things that may be a bad choice like pulling all money out of investments out of fear. “You have spent a lot of Money at Starbucks, That’s a lot of unicorn fraps” – that’s a pretty funny bot. ^KT

Hedgeable is an emerging leader in the fintech space, with a dynamic team and solid leadership. In the market for several years, they are upping their game with predictive analytics and AI. Their new Katana assistant is excellent, an impressive bot and a voice-driven interface. They are providing their AI tech via an API so it can be leveraged by financial institutions. Great demo, and this is technology that fills an immediate need in wealth management.   

ACH Alert

  • @achalert
  • www.achalert.com

ACH Alert is a leader in the payments space. They help consumers and commercial customers reduce exposure to fraud. Since companies don’t get Reg E protection, larger customers may have less than a day to block questionable transactions. ^SR

Demonstrating Fraud Prevention HQ Platform. Allows account holders to stop suspicious ACH transfers in real-time without FI intervention. Actionable alerts so the customer can monitor.  Customer can access system through single-sign across devices. For a corporate customer, the ability to detect return suspicious activity is really important because they only have 1 day to detect unlike consumers. ACH alert displays company ID and can user can approve transactions on the fly.

Consumers need the same protection as well. Today, if they get hit with a debit, they have to call the institution, then come into the branch, fill out paperwork, etc. But with ACH alert, system takes in rules into consideration, with a few buttons and an eSign, the consumer can return the suspicious activity and the money never left the customer’s account.  No backroom cost for FI, everything is passed on to customers. Great demo! ^KT  

Home Captain

  • @homecaptain
  • www.homecaptain.com

There is one clear message from Finovate: consumer lending, particularly mortgage lending, is in need of a change. And apparently, technology is the answer. Home Captain is working through key referral sources, like realtors, and have created a platform that is partner-friendly. On the consumer side, they are helping the buyer manage the home buying process itself. Home Captain is able to monitor Net Promoter Score at every step in the journey. (Now, they say they have an NPS of 100, which sort of says they are probably not doing it right.) ^SR

Target audience: All for lenders in mortgage market. 2 customers on the stage and also touting partners. Setting the stage: In the mortgage market, we have enjoyed a declining rate environment and focus on re-finances which is overall easy sell. Since November, we have been in an increasing mortgage rate environment resulting in a shift of customers. Purchase customer is highly unique and many nuisances along the purchase journey.

Demo: re-creation of experience of a customer. “Dan” started at lending tree and looking to get a Jumbo Loan, previously in army. Got a great quote from nbkc bank. Once he submitted his info, the loan officers is qualifying Dan, Loan Officer is able to send an action to Home Captain. Their HomeBuying concierge team reaches out to Dan to get his particulars and boil down the search.

Home Captain able to match Dan with the best real estate agents who has the best experience in Jumbo Loans and VA program. Real-time updates of what Dan is doing with the realtor like visiting open houses.  Closed on the loan while keeping Dan and every member involved happy. ^KT

AlphaRank

AlphaRank is focused on social graph data. Word of Mouth is critical for managing relationships with Millennials. But, does your bank gather that data? You can save money on marketing by focusing on influencers. AlphaRank helps bank to create a social graph. Other industries have leveraged predictive analytics and the social graph, it is time for banking. ^SR

76% of millennial financial decisions are driven by word of mouth. Drug companies used social network diagrams to help locate influential doctors decades ago. Basically, by targeting your biggest influencers first you will fast-track your product launches in the market. By using the same social graphs similar to Facebook and Google, Banks can better understand their audience and market effectively. Showing a Banking Social Graph which connects the Bank’s audience and determine the biggest influencers for the bank. This also helps with attrition, preventing people from leaving by reaching out proactively. ^KT

Divy

  • @TeamDivy
  • www.divy.com

Divy allows you to open a brokerage account, fund it and invest it in 5 minutes. Allows you to buy any stock no matter the price in increments of $10. App provides you the ability to buy and sell in the app and reinvest your profits.  Can browse the stocks and opportunities broken down by categories that are drilled down. Once you find a brand you can compare against competitors and buy in a few clicks.

“People invest in things they believe in.” Divy brings the information on corporate responsibility, CEO perspective, community involvement, etc into the investing view. ^KT

Automated Financial Systems

  • @afs_vision
  • www.afsvision.com

AFS provides tools and information for commercial lending. Demo was quite comprehensive and they can clearly support many aspects of the business. ^SR

Real-time for commercial lending.

Demo: Loan officer on his way to meet a customer when he is notified by AFS Vision that the market has changed. He is able to view collateral value and loan availability, as well as alternative collateral. Notified, when loans fall under margin, when this happens AFS Margin can freeze the account (based on rules previously configured). ^KT

Microblink

  • @microblink
  • www.microblink.com

Microblink is a research and development company. Enabling different process in mobile banking.

Through Machine learning ACR, one use case (outside of banking) students could view math equations and the system immediately solves it and provides a breakdown of how it is solved. That’s pretty interesting. This is the baseline software for their mobile banking solution.

Demoing Blinkreceipt today. That have built their latest machine learning software. Right now, they are looking at a receipt which scans and produces a digital view. Answering the question of what your customers are purchasing why they are purchasing it. Visual Data as well. Allows you to really understand your customers much better. Very nice UI. ^KT

OCR has never been very good. In my experience, it has always been faster to just manually retype data, versus trying to extract key information. With machine learning, this is a great step forward. Kudos to this team. So many companies have legacy data locked up in printed documents. Their tech does not just take a single image and try to convert it. The solution is particularly optimized for receipts.

SpeechPro

  • @FlorianPhilippT
  • www.speechpro-usa.com

Everyone agrees that passwords are obsolete. The question is, what should we use to replace them? SpeechPro is an emerging leader in a form of biometrics, voice and face verification. This is for use cases like call centers. Their tech is independent of language. Not only can the platform verify a customer, it can help to identify a fraudster as well (if the fraudster has tried phoning in before). ^SR

SpeechPro is a biometric software company dedicated to voice and face solutions. Demoing voice solution for call centers. Reduces your cost, increases security and increases experience of your customers.

Demo: Customer call the bank who wants to transfer some funds. The demo shows that it recognized the caller immediately. No need to ask questions or provide verifications. Continually refreshes score as the caller is speaking. That is pretty neat technology. I wonder what the setup would be for a first-time caller.

Next part of the demo is a fraudster who knows the client’s SSN and personal information. But when he calls in, the system understands that he is not their client and it gives a name to the known fraudster in the system. Even in foreign languages it understands that it is not your customer. ^KT

Moxtra

  • @MoxtraHQ
  • www.moxtra.com

When it comes to digital interactions, one of the challenges is to maintain a human element. It can also be tough for multiple team members to work together in supporting consumers in digital channels. Moxtra offers an array of collaboration solutions. Some of the tools support back office functions, while other features enhance the interactions directly with consumers. ^SR

Showcasing client engagement solution. Founded in 2012, built by the same team as WebEx. Deployed with CitiBank. Mobile centric and built for document workflows. Configurable for different levels of touch. Moxtra embedded into banks portal, also available on mobile. Demoing messenger app on portal and mobile. The also show a voice recording in the messenger app that includes a recording of the client’s voice along with any annotation the contact is making on the portfolio screen for the relationship manager that is then shared via the app. ^KT

Tavant

  • @Tavant
  • www.tavant.com

“Do you like to get audited?”  Um, no, no I do not. Provocative question, a little loose in the connection to what Tavant provides. The demo presents their FinXperience product. FinConnect is a platform for data connectors. FinCapture is a portal for uploading documents, and then extracting data from the documents.  The emphasis is on a universal UI, well designed, to be a front end for messy backend systems. ^SR

Moving from a document centric process to a data centric process. Based in SIlicon Valley. Providing a better experience to your consumers. Demoing FinXperienece – and application process. Application is adaptive flow of questions as the user moves through it. Really based on user experience with a help screen on the right. Next Product – FinConnect where customers fill out the online forms and then your internal folks can monitor transactions. Lastly, FinCapture – parses information loaded like 1040Ez, the platform separates, indexes and keywords the documents.^KT

NewChip

  • @newchipco
  • www.newchip.co

Most investment apps don’t meet the needs of Millennial investors. NewChip asks users to input their likes and preferences. Based on that, their machine learning algorithm helps make investment recommendations. I’m not sure this is a sound idea. Where is the financial advice that is tailored to your financial circumstances?  Recruiting your friends into investments — so friends can lose as much money as you do. This is a way for FIs to tap into equity crowdfunding. “Hyper market validation”, an all-or-nothing structure that ensures the funds can be raised, or all of the investors receive their investment back. The social plugin allows for sharing of investment. ^SR

NewChip “Are you familiar with millennials? Like to work with them” That’s their marketplace. This market segment wants to invest in startups and they are helping them do that. This segment are voting with their dollars and want to change the world. Most applications are not designed for this age group. We’ve consolidated the information for products/services that they like.

We’ve created not unlike Tinder that brings in your preferences and better helps you decide what stock you should/would like to invest in. “We are in the app store/pre revenue” Crowdfunding is huge and big investors don’t like to invest in very small companies but millennials do. I’m not in their target market but I really like their idea and what they are doing. Good job.

From their web site: Who can invest? Anyone over the age of 18 can invest in Reg CF deals and Reg A+. However, there are investment limits based on your yearly income as well as large deals only available to accredited investors. @newchipco www.newchip.co ^William

Checkbook

  • @checkbook
  • www.checkbook.io

$17 billion in checks were still sent in the United States. Checkbook allows users to send a check, without paper. For people very comfortable with check writing, this is an easy transition to the world of digital payments. Checkbook has created an integration into QuickBooks and they have an API as well.

Silicon Valley-based. “We are solving a really old problem. Paper checks. We built a solution to send a check through email.”

I like it but didn’t an earlier Finovate company, VerifyValid (sold to Deluxe), already patent this process?

Showing browser-based platform, once more, another great, clean interface. “We really built this for business.” I agree with that; I have to sign checks for less than $10 for our business and it seems like a huge waste of time, paper and money to mail a check for such a small amount. Showing how they can offer an API so it can take the data from QuickBooks to email automatically.

Lender Price

  • @lenderprice
  • www.lenderprice.com

LenderPrice is, as you guessed, a resource for pricing of loans. The focus is on analytics. They included an Excel sheet as part of the demo. Huh?  ^SR

Pasadena based Digital Mortgage Platform. Again, a 21st century technology for mortgage. The industry really needs forward-thinking providers. The two giants of the mortgage space will never really invest in the mortgage sector because it’s such as small part of their product portfolio. Hadoop based. Showing how their platforms works via a Mac laptop using a Chrome browser. I don’t know why but it seems like Chrome is the dominant browser choice for presenting FinTech companies. I use Chrome some but Safari something I use every day.

Do you every wonder why so many mortgage technology companies are from California? I believe it’s because California represents about 1/3 of the U.S. economy so they have a TON of realtors and loan officers.

Good job. I hope to see you at the MBA show later this year.

From their web site: At Lender Price, we believe in disrupting the mortgage lending industry by equipping the lending community with innovative technologies that enhance user experience and streamlines the mortgage loan process. Lender Price provides an Openly Accessible Marketplace for mortgage loan originators to price mortgage loans with hundreds of lenders real-time and we provide lenders the technologies needed to compete and stay compliant in today’s competitive mortgage market. ^William

Greg Palmer is now setting up the first ever panel at Finovate. This should be interesting.

WM