Movenbank promises to 'reboot' banking at Sibos

Bank innovation evangelist and inveterate Finextra blogger Brett King took to the stage at the Sibos international banking conference in Toronto to outline his plans for the creation of Movenbank, an entirely new branchless, paperless, and mobile centric bank.

Speaking before a packed house at the opening Innotribe session on Monday morning, King finally took the wraps off the Movenbank project, a revolutionary concept in retail banking that promises to import modern Internet trends in gamification to re-imagine the customer experience.

Operating in stealth mode for the past six months, Movenbank has taken its cue from disruptive start up BankSimple to create a simple Google-esque holding page on the Web inviting people to sign up for more information. The page advertises the imminent arrival of a "third generation banking experience...built from the ground up for mobile and online", that will abolish paper, plastic and hidden fees.

Movenbank will apply gamification techniques to encourage repeat business and reward customer loyalty through the use of a points system, which at a certain level will instantly qualify customers for a line of credit. King says the customer 'cred' mechanism will help foster a new trust-based ecosystem for credit scoring based on a customer's financial behaviour and social reputation.

The "reboot' begins on 1 October, says King, when Movenbank will take the wraps off its 'alpha' site, with plans for a formal launch by mid-2012.

Related Companies

Moven

Channels

Sibos Retail banking

Keywords

Mobile & online banking Non-bank competitors

Comments: (3)

A Finextra member 24 November, 2011, 09:28

1 like

Got my invite today. Went to enrol. Must have a Facebook account to enrol.

Bye, I'm outta here.

Movenbank is about using social networks to build your financial 'Cred'. But it's still a bank so needs to be strong on privacy and trust. Facebook is the diametric opposite.

If it's linked only to FaceBook and Twitter, I can't see MovenBank attracting or retaining many value-creating customers. But it will be an interesting experiment to watch - and maybe copy the good bits.

Report abuse

Brett King - Moven - New York 24 November, 2011, 11:24

Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up

0 likes

I can respond to that on behalf of Movenbank.

Essentially right now we're building out our CRED engagement model, of which Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn profiles are a component of the data model. 51% of 'web' users today use Facebook to engage with eCommerce sites, so it's a common standard for basic identification.

Once the bank product is launched, that will be backed up by a second layer of Identity Verification that is more stringent and traditional. However, that deep level of KYC is simply not required for the interactions we're having with our customers right now.

This is a perfect illustration of what is broken in the current KYC model. I don't need ALL your identity information to start this relationship. I might later, but I can build that over time and still have a very secure, safe relationship with the customer.

I think suggesting that Facebook is diametrically opposed to security shows a rather traditional view of interactions. The fact is, social media is not going away. We need to figure out its place in the interaction, but still protect the consumer long-term.

That's is what Movenbank is all about.

Report abuse

Elizabeth Lumley - Girl, Disrupted - Crayford 24 November, 2011, 12:20

0 likes

Interesting. Two issues these discussions bring up - Identity and Facebook.

When I met with Daniel Marovitz, late of Deutsche Bank now of startup Buzzumi, he talked about the lessons his startup gained in regards to Facebook.

When Buzzini started, you needed to log in through Facebook, meaning you needed a Facebook account. Daniel looked at the sheer number of people connected via Facebook and felt it was a no brainer. However, the connections, really didn't get off the ground. He investigated and found, through market research that many people, and in his words 'the more senior and serious the person, people who's opinions I respected' were, they less they were to even be a member of Facebook.

Facebook is where people share picture of their children with people they like. Is it a place for business, real business, not just games credits or vouchers? Many thought it would be, but antedotal evidence is suggessting, it isn't (right now).

The second is identity. I attended the CSFI Visa Fellowship roundtable looking at indentity in financial services yesterday. In a heated debate on KYC, idenity and so on, one of the roundtable members commented that on the first day of Metro Bank's launch in the UK 90% of the people who opened one of their 'instant accounts' did so with fraudulent documentation. 90%! The bank average is 18%.

Unique personal digital identity (which is what it will evolve into) will be the topic of 2012 - I predict.