In what we believe is a first for any US online banking platform, Jwaala has added Skype alerting capabilities to its MoneyTracker BOB (Better Online Banking) platform. Twitter alerting has been added as well. SMS and email alerts have become fairly common in recent years but it will be interesting to see if these new alert channels catch on with users.
The platform is a ready-to-deploy online banking system that allows financial institutions to offer money management services -- including features such as search functions, alerts, dashboards and widgets, and budgeting support. Jwaala announced in January that it added ten new credit unions to the list of institutions using this service. (FinovateStartup 2009 video here.)
Both Skype and Twitter have tremendous adoption -- Skype claims more than 20 million users and Twitter, which had over 50 million users
in September, gains about 8 million new users each month. (See note, below.)
Consumer alerts allow financial institutions to provide personalized information to their clients.
Alerts might be security notices, balance information, transaction confirmations, or other account data. By incorporating Skype and Twitter capabilities into MoneyTracker BOB, Jwaala differentiates itself from other PFM add-on platforms by giving its clients the flexibility to offer alerts through channels that are already familiar to their customers.
Financial institutions may need to reassure consumers who will naturally have privacy concerns about receiving financial data through public, third-party media. Twitter, particularly, is well known as a public forum. But both Skype and Twitter have security features in place. Skype uses encryption, digital certification, and authentication protocols to ensure private communications. Twitter has privacy settings that allow communications to be limited to approved users, which would be more appropriate for personal account information.
Note: While Skype usage data is not readily available, the company reports peak hour traffic over more than 20 million users. Data on Twitter users is drawn from analysis by TechCruch.
