Here are the news headlines posted recently on our Twitter feed (follow it here).

Billeo's iPad Sweepstakes -- From Feb. 4 to April 5, Billeo is offering an incentive for new users. Sign up to Billeo and be entered into a sweepstakes to win a new iPad. No purchase is required but you must download the Billeo app and register.

Credit Karma Adds Users and New Tool -- Credit Karma doubled its users in 2009 and now serves more than 1 million users. On Feb. 3, the company announced its new Savings Dashboard tool, which helps consumers capitalize on improvements in their credit scores.

Expensify Launches Palm Pre App -- Expensify has released a new app for the Palm Pre that scans receipts and tracks expenses. The company already has apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.

GreenSherpa Wins Catalyst Competition Award -- Social networking company Girls in Tech and broadcast platform Vator.TV have announced the winners of their joint Catalyst Competition honoring women-led startup companies. GreenSherpa was among the five winners selected. Other winners were AccessDNA, BakeSpace, MyLawsuit, and Marriage.com, with Graspr winning the popular vote.

Intuit Launches PFM product in India -- Intuit has launched a new financial software product in India. The new Intuit Money Manager application aggregates account data and allows users to view real-time information about their expenses. The tool can also track investments, insurance, and other financial instruments through Intuit's collaboration with Moneycontrol.com.

Mortgagebot Reports Growth in Users and Revenue -- Mortgage technology provider Mortgagebot reported a 25% growth in revenue for fiscal 2009. The company also gained about 200 new clients in 2009 and now serves nearly 950 clients.

Silver Tail to Present Webinar -- On Feb. 23, Silver Tail Systems will present a free webinar on screen injection, a new hacking technique threatening the security of online banking sites. Silver Tail's founder, Laura Mather, Ph.D., will provide detailed information on the hacking technology.

Free online bookkeeping site Outright.com has added its first fee-based service for small business owners.

Outright provides online tools to help small businesses track and manage their finances. The company focuses on single-owner enterprises that require accounting systems that are fast and easy to use. The Outright.com site imports data directly from the user's bank or other financial services provider to populate reports and tax forms. (Finovate 2009 video here.)

The company's new service helps business owners manage 1099 tax forms for contractors. Using data from the W-9 forms that businesses collect from employees, Outright.com automatically fills out the required IRS 1099-MISC forms, electronically files them with the Internal Revenue Service, and sends copies directly to the contractors. (See screenshot #1 below.)

Unlike other services at Outright, the 1099 tax form product isn't free. The company charges $5 per filing. But for each contractor that joins Outright, the company will refund the fee. Outright plans on introducing more fee-based services in the future.

Along with the launch of its 1099 service, Outright also launched a new tax information website, Right Taxes Now. The new site provides tax advice and offers opportunities to sign petitions regarding small-business tax relief legislation. It also provides links to services offered at Outright.com. (Screenshot #2)

Both the new tax product and the Right Taxes Now website should help bring users to Outright's site. According to traffic data from Compete, Outright.com saw about 54,000 unique visitors in December, down from its 2009 peak of nearly 71,000 in November. The Right Taxes Now site was launched on January 20 and traffic data is not yet available.

Compete.com, January 2010, traffic data here

#1. Outright's 1099 Tax Service

#2. Links to Outright from Right Taxes Now

#3. Outright.com helps users track income...

#.4 ... and expenses

BillShrink, which provides money-savings advice to consumers, has expanded its offerings to include a new feature for business owners.

BillShrink offers online tools to help consumers find the best prices on goods and services in markets where comparison shopping can be difficult. The company collects geographic and usage data from the consumer in order to create personal recommendations. BillShrink currently offers price comparison services for cell phone plans, savings accounts/CDs, credit cards, and gas stations. (Finovate 2009 video here; FinovateStartup 2009 video here.)

The company's new BillShrink for Business service helps businesses find better credit card deals. The company currently has online tools in the works for comparing business wireless phone services and savings accounts.

How it Works:

1. The business owner goes to the BillShrink for Business site and answers two basic questions: Do you pay off your credit card monthly? And what is the annual revenue of the business?

2. Next, the site collects more detailed data about the card usage, followed by questions about what services the user values in a credit card account. (See screenshot #1, below.)

3. The last personal detail required is an email address.

4. The system presents a quick analysis of the user's current credit card (screenshot #2) and then recommends money-saving alternatives (screenshot #3). Clicking on a link that reads How is this calculated provides additional data, showing the value of cash rewards and other incentives that may come with the new card.

5. At the bottom, there is a link to apply for the recommended card at the card-issuer's site. (Screenshot #3.)

BillShrink is paid by retailers when consumers switch to the suggested products. Offering its comparison shopping services to businesses expands the company's market, allowing it to draw a new category of shoppers to the site.

According to traffic estimates from Compete, the BillShrink site saw about 150,000 unique visitors in December, slightly less than its median average for 2009. Site usage peaked in summer with about 490,000.

Compete.com, January 2010, traffic data here.

#1. BillShrink collects basic usage data

#2. Analysis of current credit card (highlight added)

#3. Recommendations for a new credit card

On January 19, BrightScope launched a new online tool, the Personal 401(k) Fee Report, which is available free on the company website. The new tool provides individual investors and financial advisors with personalized data about retirement plans, comparing current fees to other options.

BrightScope is a 401(k) plan rating company that collects data on plans to help sponsors, advisors, and participants improve their 401(k) plans. By compiling 401(k) data into detailed presentations, the company makes complex retirement plans easier to understand. (Finovate 2009 video here.)

BrightScope has data on about 30,000 individual 401(k) plans, so in many cases generating the Personal 401(k) Fee Report is as simple as entering the name of your company and answering a few questions about your contributions to the plan.

In an interesting addition to BrightScope's standard 401(k) ratings, the report compares the cost and retirement results of the selected 401(k) plan against a typical low-cost IRA and indicates if switching would be beneficial. This provides a valuable tool for financial advisors seeking to generate business by showing clients how much they could save rolling their 401(k) into an individual retirement account (see screenshot #1, below). The report also offers more detailed information, including a breakdown of the fees and a list of the funds associated with the 401(k) plan (see screenshot #2, below).

BrightScope makes its money providing tools that help 401(k) plan sponsors monitor plan performance and insure that the plan they have is right for their employees. The company also markets tools to financial advisors. The Personal 401(k) Report serves as a new way to draw individual investors and financial advisors to the BrightScope site. According to website usage estimates from Compete.com, BrightScope ended December with 27,000 unique visitors, down from 35,000 in September.

Compete.com Jan.2010, traffic data here

BrightScope could also potentially generate additional revenue by allowing users to link directly to accredited advisors from the report, charging the advisors a finder's fee for each lead.

How It Works

BrightScope collects data on 401(k) plans and ranks them in peer groups, making it easy to quickly compare and evaluate plans. The company considers a number of factors, such as fees, quality of investments, and corporate matching programs, in order to assign a rank to each 401(k). The quantitative ranking system measures how quickly a plan gets its users to a successful retirement. The new report adds another tool to individual workers who need to know if they are contributing enough into their retirement plans and whether they are taking full advantage of matching benefits programs offered by their employers.

#1. The Report Indicates Potential Savings

#2. Detailed Information on 401(k) Plans

Six new community financial institutions have agreed to carry Kasasa branded products, joining the 13 banks and one credit union already supporting the program across 11 states. The new additions bring the number of states to where Kasasa products are available to 15.

Kasasa is the first nationally branded checking account supported by individual community banks and credit unions. The idea, created by bank marketing company BancVue, is simple: By combining together under a single brand, smaller banks can pool their marketing resources, creating a unified advertising strategy that can compete against the banking giants that dominate the industry. BancVue launched Kasasa in May, 2009. (Finovate video here, Netbanker blog post here.)

The six financial institutions joining the Kasasa program are:

• The Farmers & Merchants State Bank in Archibold, OH, the third Kasasa bank in Indiana and the second in Ohio ($640 million in deposits)
• First Bank in Clewiston, FL, the second Kasasa bank in Florida ($220 million in deposits)
• InCommons Bank in Mexia, TX, the second Kasasa bank in Texas ($74 million in deposits)
• Murphy-Wall State Bank & Trust Company in Pinckneyville, IL, the fifth Kasasa bank in Illinois ($69 million in deposits)
• Aspire FCU in Clark, NJ, the first Kasasa financial institution in New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia (21,000 members)
• Double 11 Credit Union in Indianapolis, IN, the first Kasasa credit union in Indiana (5,000 members)

Adding new banks and credit unions is important to Kasasa because each new addition expands the service area covered by the program, strengthening the brand nationally and benefiting all the financial institutions participating in it.

Kasasa enables participating financial institutions to offer their customers their choice of four products:

1. High interest checking
2. Savings accounts
3. Reward account that gives debit card users iTunes downloads
4. Charitable program that allows users to allocate interest payments to established charities.

Of the six newcomers, only The Farmers & Merchants State Bank elected to offer all four of Kasasa's products.

The Four Kasasa Products

CashEdge, one of the largest established providers of online funds transfer services to financial institutions in the United States (including Bank of America, Citibank, Boeing Employee's Credit Union, and Wachovia), recently announced that a major new financial institution, FNBO Direct, went live with its new POPMoney service on January 18.

FNBO Direct, a division of First National Bank of Omaha, is the third bank to offer the POPmoney program. The first two banks, First Hawaiian Bank and PNC, launched the service in December 2009. (See our Nebtbanker blog post here.)

The addition of FNBO is a significant coup for CashEdge. First National Bank of Omaha is a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska, the largest privately owned banking company in the United States. First National of Nebraska has more than 6.6 million customers and about $20 billion in managed assets. Signing up a major new bank should nicely expand POPMoney's user base, adding visibility and credibility to the program.

First National Bank of Omaha has incorporated POPMoney into its FNBO Direct line of online banking products. The service is available on the FNBO Direct site under the Online BillPay Account link (see screenshot below).

In order to educate consumers in the new mobile payment technology, FNBO Direct presents a branded website describing the POPMoney process, as shown below. The POPMoney service also provides FNBO Direct with a revenue opportunity, allowing the bank to collect transaction fees from users. (See highlighted section below.)

FNBO Direct charges $2.00 for standard three-day delivery and $10.00 for express next-day transfer service. How bank customers react to these fees will depend on how they want to use the service. While the fees seem reasonable for emergencies or large purchases, they may deter customers from using POPMoney for smaller transactions.