BankSimple Launches Preview Site

Yes, it's called affiliate banking. It's how a lot of prepaid debit card companies operate.

I think one of the lessons of the contemporary internet is that outsiders often have some really helpful, valuable ways to improve institutional products + services.

It is true that when the stakes are high it's a little nerve-wracking. But really there couldn't be a better moment in time for outsiders w/out finance cred to take a crack at this. so many people are like, "ok, we let the "experts" manage finance. this doesn't work out so well all of the time..."

SO many people are chomping at the bit for anything better. i read comments on twitter every day from folks who are totally frustrated with their banks not just from incompetence, but because the services don't fit their lifestyles/ ways of managing money. maybe banksimple's initial customers will just be nomadic alpha geeks, start-up folks, and high frequency money movers. that's OK. alpha geeks were amazon's first customers, too.

Hi. I'm Josh, the CEO. You can read more about our growing team on the /team/ page, but in summary, I have an MBA in Finance and Accounting, and worked with a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio. Shamir, our CFO (aka 'account manager'), spent the last few years doing banking and payments consulting for McKinsey.

In addition to our core team, we have multiple payments systems consultants, banking lawyers and former regulators working with and advising us. We are also actively growing our compliance and regulatory teams. The jobs aren't posted on the site, because that's not the best way to hire for those roles.

Not that any of that is really worth much. Innovation comes from the outside. A lot of the pain in banking stems from atrocious technology, so we're making better tech to drive a better experience.

Has been said before but: if it was available in the UK, I'd sign up in an instant.

True, but we all have such a sour taste from our experience with all banks that we are rightly a little squeamish to the concept.

I think the subconscious reaction is "yeah right, trust another banker?"

This got me:

"...designing the complete consumer banking experience, via the web and your smartphone.."

I am not sure how good this will be, I mean, credit unions were supposed to be the answer to big banks issues - but they are largely aggregating under umbrella ownership as well. Their overdraft fees are a large percentage of their revenue (mine for example advertises the $500K per month they take in in overdraft fees as a primary asset directly on the wall in front of the tellers (Valley Credit Union))

---

What people really need is fundamental help with managing their spending and finances.

Though the following is overly complex, for illustration imagine the following:

You bring home $10K per month. You allocate a particular budget online.

But you have certain cards for certain classifications which are allotted a % of your spending budget after certain bills are accounted for (rent, utils, ins, legal req's (child support/tuition, etc).

These cards can only be used for the intended purpose. You'd have a "Food card", "Car card", "Entertainment card" etc...

The types of cards, their budget % and what not could be based off understanding you spending needs, habits and goals dependent on your history and other factors that you've already been measuring through the use of Mint. And manually set based on your own preferences.

The "food card" works at any grocery, restaurant, cafe, etc (based on the establishments profile ID in Mint, as an example) -- but will not work at Kragen, the gas station, etc..

This system could be used to teach people to allocate funds to a bucket - and ideally prevent them from over spending.

(Sure, there will be plenty of people on HN who will say "PSHAW! only an idiot would need to have such granular control over their spending - look at me, I don't spend beyond my means, blah blah blah" -- but there are literally HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of people who DO -- thus all the financial issues that people have, and the preying on such people that many financial institutions, rent-to-own etc type establishments that exist.

There really is a deep need for material hand-holding in financial issues in the world. Hand-holding to a degree that some people don't want or need, but many many others do.

If the system could have a measurable view; such as it requires that you select a >5% savings number that is not as easily accessed (e.g. like transferring from your savings to checking whimsically) and that gives you a constant and real-time view of your credit rating, payment standing and history on credit-based accounts etc...

With incentive offerings to provide a bit of gamification to the entire service "Pay your X bill on time for N months and get Y months free Z service", automatically - without the user required to do anything.

Rewards on brand loyalty simply built into their purchases, integrated group coupons for the users of the financial training instruments etc...

There is a serious and deep need for a pivot of the entire financial industry that differs from the centuries old taking that the industry is known for, and there is a universe of room for innovation in this area....