BankSimple was co-founded by Alex Payne, a former Twitter engineer, who was there from the beginning, and worked primarily on building Twitter’s developer platform and on the service’s core infrastructure. Think about how much of Twitter’s success has been based upon the developer ecosystem around it. "It was an education in scaling, optimization, and systems architecture, not to mention all the joys and stresses that come with working at a growing startup," says Payne of his time at Twitter.

BankSimple says it is designing "true mobile banking", and shouldn’t be confused with Square, another startup from a Twitter vet (co-founder Jack Dorsey) looking to disrupt the credit card industry. 

"BankSimple is doing something no bank has ever done: We’re designing our web and mobile experiences in tandem," the company says. "Deposit checks by phone. Authorize transactions by phone to prevent fraud. Categorize spending on your phone as it happens. That’s just the beginning."

"Part of Banksimple’s secret sauce is its predictive money management model," wrote Jennifer Van Grove, who interviewed Payne about the company last summer. "While users only need to concern themselves with a single account, there are actually checking, savings and credit accounts tied to that one login. Those will function behind-the-scenes with Banksimple automatically managing funds and transferring money between the accounts as needed."

Based on the interview, it sounds like much of BankSimple’s success will depend on the developer community, not unlike Twitter. It’s a whole new ballgame when you’re talking about bank accounts, though, and Facebook/Twitter integration (which it is supposed to have) could be a little scary for some people. 

BankSimple says its team is made up of people with backgrounds in a range from bank strategy to data science to software engineering, and has worked in financial services, information security, "top-tier" consulting firms, and successful startups. 

Last week, the company announced a new customer relations team, which should be key in its quest to provide customers with a Zappos-like customer experience as described in the interview with Payne. 

The product will be coming this year, according to BankSimple’s website, and they’re currently letting people sign up to be on their beta list.

Mercatus also found that the current pace of mobile adoption is exceeding that of past innovations, such as ATMs, debit cards, and online banking. About a third of consumers are using or at least considering using mobile financial services in the next year. Based on its findings, Mercatus even projects that mobile financial service adoption will exceed the use of online banking by 2015.

"Owing to its rapid pace of adoption, mobile is a market that offers a clear first-mover advantage. Banks that act soon, and aggressively deploy mobile financial services, will capture a clear market opportunity to aggressively deploy mobile financial services," said Bob Hedges, Mercatus managing partner. "Banks that delay will risk losing their best customers to the competition."

Some other findings from the survey include:

- Mobile financial service capabilities were more impactful in a consumer’s decision to select a bank than availability of online banking, access to ATMs, or nearby branches

- Banks offering mobile financial services should anticipate as much as a sixty percent increase in sales lift

- Customer acquisition promotional offers including mobile financial services out-performed those that did not include mobile financial services by nearly thirty percent

- A decrease in cost of acquiring a new customer by as much as twenty percent based on the increased effectiveness of mobile-related customer acquisition marketing

According to the survey, users of mobile financial services:

-Are younger (between age 18 and 39) and have higher incomes

- Hold higher balances at their primary bank, use more banking and card products, and display lower rates of attrition as compared to traditional customers

- Can be serviced at a twenty percent lower cost than traditional bank customers

- Display lower rates of attrition as compared to traditional customers

"Financial Institutions offering mobile services can have a strategic advantage when it comes to attracting new customers," said Tim Attinger, Head of Product Innovation at Visa, who sponsored the survey.

The survey really highlights how mobile our culture is becoming as a whole. As smartphone adoption continues to rise and more sites and apps accommodate them, we’re headed for a very mobile world at a very fast pace.

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For example, if the American people just shelled out $85 billion to save your crooked butt so you don’t drag everybody else down with you, lying low for a while in feigned humility and embarrassment is a better idea than gathering up the boys for a few hundred thousand dollars worth of pedicures and margaritas in a phew-that-was-close party while changing the company initials to stand for “Ain’t Insurance Grand?”

Some hint of remorse and/or gratitude would be good, don’t you think?

Or, if you run one of the biggest predatory lending outfits in the country into the ground and have to rely on Bank of America to bail you out, it’s best not to go on record sneering at your victims’ cries for help. Better advice: If you absolutely must create a document deriding your snookered customers as “disgusting,” be sure you hit the “Forward” button in your email and not “Reply.”

The Consumerist and the LA Times have reported on an email exchange posted by a man named Dan Bailey in a forum at LoanSafe.org, a site dedicated to helping people in mortgage trouble better negotiate with banks. Bailey sent a letter to Countrywide hoping the bank would adjust his adjustable rate mortgage back to where he could afford it, rather than letting it foreclose. He received this reply from Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, which was obviously intended for someone internally:

This is unbelievable. Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the internet. Disgusting.

Yes, the little people are having to ask the internet for help dealing with crooks. That is disgusting, but in a much different way than Mozilo meant.  

It’s one thing to give sweetheart deals to “Friends of Angelo” while baiting and switching those with more hope than money—people sort of expect a banker to be crooked—but it’s another to sneer at the poor soon-to-be-on-the-street saps as your own fiscal irresponsibility earns you an investigation, public scorn, and likely as not a smaller house than before. Sure, you’ve got friends on Wall Street and in Washington willing to lend a fresh-mint-smelling, not-invisible hand—but we suppose switching those adjustable rate mortgages over to fixed rates is just out of the question, right?

So after being Mr. Potter to every George (Dan) Bailey in the land, you expect George Bailey and the whole town now to come to your rescue, huh? If that’s not disgusting, I don’t know what is.  

The report said that one-fourth of mobile bankers would be customer who had not tried mobile banking previously.

"With mobile device penetration in the US at an all-time high and market dynamics shifting, mobile banking is finally poised to thrive," said Bob Egan, chief analyst at TowerGroup.

"Consumers view their phones as trusted devices, even more so than their desktop PC," Mr. Egan said. "This perception will help fuel the adoption of mobile banking among non-online banking users."

The TowerGroup also estimated that up to 30 percent of online banking users would start using mobile banking in the next five years.

AdSense Blog Reveals Odd Banking Policy

Though it has been nearly 20 years since my first real post-college job as a bank teller, I’m pretty surprised to learn just what has changed over that time.

Google’s Vineesha Malkani posted at the AdSense blog some routine advice about AdSense. It almost sounds oriented toward international AdSense publishers, and I’d accept it as that were it not for a strange incident that happened in the US.

Back in July, Mobilejones blogger Debi Jones experienced some unpleasantness in getting some issues with her AdSense account sorted out. It took the intervention of Matt Cutts to get Jones her AdSense check.

But when she traveled to the bank to cash the check, she was told it could not be cashed due to insufficient funds. That statement by the bank sounded strange at the time, as Google certainly employs an accounting department. Why would Google not have enough funds to cash Jones’ AdSense check? It didn’t make sense.

It now sounds like the bank gave Jones incorrect information, based on Malkani’s line in the AdSense blog post about checks and AdSense:

Checks from AdSense are for deposit only; they are not able to be cashed.

  A valid check has some common features: routing and accounting numbers, a bank transit number, and a payee line with the text "Pay to the order of" at the start. These have been in place for years, as any checkbook owner can see.

If a customer comes into a branch with a check drawn on a customer account (this used to be called an ‘on-us check’), the check can be cashed if funds are available. Banks usually require an ID like a driver’s license, while some go farther and ask for thumbprints and even fees to cash an on-us check for a non-account holder.

Google simply cannot tell someone they can’t cash a valid check drawn on their account at Citibank. It sounds more like Google, certainly a large account holder, secured an agreement with Citibank not to honor a check at the teller line.

The insufficient funds line always sounded like bull droppings, and with this latest post from Google I’m convinced. We can’t wait to see the spin on this story.

When consumers where asked what banking method they used most often, 36 percent said branches, followed by 23 percent who bank online, 21 percent use an ATM, 5 percent bank over the phone and 8 percent by mail.

Generational differences had played a strong role on how respondents answered. Banking at a local branch was the preferred method by close to half of those over 55, but just 25 percent of those under 34 said they use branches most often. Younger customers ranked branches behind online banking (30%). Older customers said the opposite with 47 percent favoring branches, 17 percent preferred ATMs and only 13 percent selected online banking.

"We are continuing to find that while our younger consumers feel comfortable banking from their laptops, traditional services are still preferred by many," said Edward L. Yingling, ABA president and CEO.

"This is why banks are trying to offer a variety of banking options in order to meet all of their customers’ needs."

According to the study of more than 3,500 consumers, one in five online consumers read blogs. The report found that banks are losing control of discussion about themselves in the blogosphere. Javelin says that bankers will find that none of the traditional customer interaction rules apply to blogging and that blogging offers an important, low-cost marketing benefits available through no other avenue.

James Van Dyke, President and Founder of Javelin, notes, "Blogs are quickly becoming vital to many consumers that seek advice or opinions on a variety of topics with a more informal tone."

"Financial Institutions need to realize that brand management, customer-centricity and loyalty can be strengthened through a blog at relatively little cost, but only if the new rules are understood by established bankers."

The study also found that 34 percent of tech savvy consumers read blogs and 20 percent of all online consumers read blogs. As social media becomes more wide spread, it impacts the financial lives of consumers and blogging is an extension of social media.

According to study author and research analyst Jean Garascia, "Blogging only brings risks to financial services executives that are unprepared, and banks must not miss out on a way to positively impact their brand through this unique online communication mode by dismissing it without a full evaluation."

"Successful blog sites require preparation and research of both consumers and peers, and can pay big dividends through higher customer interaction levels."

These consumers will be the next large prosperous group. The report says that offering them financial services in ways they are familiar with will establish their loyalty, and pay off as the group’s wealth increases.

The group also used debit cards more frequently than other payment methods and for lower dollar amounts than older consumers.

Dan Schatt of Celent said, "GenM is the first generation to grow up online and to grow up without the need for a landline phone."

"Given the ubiquity of mobile handset adoption and Internet usage among college students, banks that want to tap into this demographic will have to invest heavily in the mobile and Web channels, the number one preferred way for this segment to communicate and obtain information about financial providers."

Thirty-six percent of the millennial generation in the U.S. chose the Internet as their preferred method for doing financial business. Thirty-three percent said doing their banking in person would be their second choice, followed by 23 percent who said they would chose to use the phone.

Nine in 10 said it would be valuable to combine mobile devices with the Internet and self-service kiosks or ATMs.

ATMs and kiosks come with a variety of features including Internet enabled models and ticket-printing multifunctional banking machines. Similar devices have other uses such as checking in at an airport or renewing a driver’s license and avoiding lines.

 The study found that there are some areas where consumers would want to do their business in person, such as banking. Close to three-quarters of respondents said they would favor speaking to someone for investment advice or mortgage advice in person.

Bill Nuti of NCR said, "Proper deployment of self-service will allow business to focus personal assistance where consumers find it most valuable."

Transactions made at bank branches cost more to perform than those made remotely using ATMs, phone banking and online banking. Some backs have been pushing for less profitable accounts to use remote channels more frequently.

eMarketer Senior Analyst Lisa Phillips said, "Bricks-and-clicks are still the right mix, although more and more banking will be done online as the boomer population ages into its 70s in the next decade."