Greetings from Finovate Fall New York, an annual conference where financial software companies show off their new products, both for consumers and the business community. Today I’ll be writing about brand-new financial apps for consumers, as well as new developments by established online services—Tobie Stanger
A couple of offerings at today’s Finovate offered the promise of financial education for teens and young adults, a population in dire need of good lessons in money management. If it weren’t for their other use—mining data for banks’ marketing departments—I’d have a lot more faith in their purported roles of serving a valuable social purpose. Thwakk’s Mo’doh Island is a 3-D virtual world featuring avatars that teens can manipulate to make financial decisions, both good and bad. On the way toward having their avatar buy a car, for instance, they’ll see tutorials about financing. When their avatars do the right thing, their scores go up and their Sim-like mood and happiness meters register positive. When they don’t, they’ll see popups like “Notice of Bankruptcy.” Thwakk mentions in marketing materials that banks purchasing the product can partner with schools or other organizations that value financial literacy. Where Mo’doh becomes less altruistic is in its role as a “customer acquistion tool,” in the words of CEO and Co-founder Scott Moriarty. Banks operating the program can see how well participating teens behave in various financial decisions their “worlds,” and then communicate to those teens about their financial products through e-mail and text messages. Thwakk will even assign players a quasi credit score that financial institutions can utilize. If a young player demonstrates a working knowledge of the aspects of credit cards, for instance, a participating bank “might want to offer him his first credit card,” Moriarty notes. Matchfund, currently in a pre-launch stage, is designed to help youngsters learn about money management and work toward financial goals while letting their parents, grandparents and others chime in and reward good decision-making. In one part of the Matchfund site, for instance, a 13-year-old named Mark is asked a financially-related question: Whether he’d prefer a cheap car for which he’d have to save for less than a year, or a more-expensive but practical car for which it takes longer to save. Mark’s responses go directly to his parents’ pages on the site. If they like his answers, they can reward him with virtual or real funds to be applied toward specific goals: college savings, savings toward an iPod or, say, on-the-spot spending. (The funds come from a bank account that’s either co-owned by Mark and his parents or totally owned by the adults.) Depending on how Mark chooses to deploy those funds, his parents can offer or withhold matching funds. The upshot is that Mark sees the impact of his choices. Is it worth it to have $4 now or can he wait and have $12 later when his parents match him? Other family members also can join in. In a selective social network created by the family, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles can all join in helping Mark work toward goals with gifts and matching funds. I was charmed by this site until CEO Paul Taylor started to talk about the opportunities for banks, which could use Matchfund as a branded product within their Web sites, or partner with Matchfund on its own site. Taylor mentioned an admirable benefit of that: A bank could, for instance, offer to match Mark’s contribution to his favorite charity. But it could also mine Mark’s and his parent’s activities for potential marketing. “Banks not only gain access to Mark, but to Mark family’s members,” Taylor said. Taylor noted that his site will comply with Federal law prohibiting the online mining of the personal information of individuals under 13 years. And he maintains that his company would have rules about the marketing messages teens would receive. But I can’t help thinking that the “Mark” in Taylor’s demo was a little too aptly named.From Finovate Fall Day 1: Financial voyeurism and a free credit score
Coming soon to your bank statement: Tax info and Macy’s couponsFinovate focus: Consumers who need money fast

Similar Posts:

Share