Banking 2.0: Innovation, Disruption, and the Better Idea

June 20, 2012 - PRLog -- Boston, MA -- Banking is no longer a passive art but is instead being transformed into an interactive, real-time relationship. In a new report, Banking 2.0: Innovation, Disruption, and the Better Idea, Mercator Advisory Group examines the next generation of retail banking deposit-based products.

This report considers the changes occurring in retail banking services through the prism of existing direct banks and new market entrants that are building consumer-centric services on cutting-edge platforms. Findings from interviews with leaders in three of these new Banking 2.0 solutions illustrate the extent to which these companies are investing in their vision of what the next generation of financial services should look like.

"Twenty years ago, the battle to fix banking services was more of a "David vs. Goliath" story weighted toward Goliath, but as strategies like Square have demonstrated, slingshots are hitting their mark. As a result, legacy organization executives sit on start-up boards, are making investments in new technologies, and even the smallest financial institution wants to know what's next for banking because it is understood at all these levels that the shift has already taken place," comments Patricia Hewitt, Director of Mercator Advisory Group's Debit Advisory Service and author of the report.

Major highlights of this report include:

Profiles of three leading Banking 2.0 strategies based on interviews with executives of PerkStreet Financial, Movenbank, and SmarterBank

A discussion of the disruptive entry points to the retail banking market and services designed to meet these targets

A look at the way innovation is driving investments and the risk they present to legacy financial institutions

Summary of the barriers inherent in competing against existing institutions, how niche banks have created a new market for distributed, white- label services, and how innovators compare to existing direct bank models

One of nine exhibits in this report:

This report is 24 pages long and has nine exhibits.  
 
Entities mentioned in this report include: Movenbank, PerkStreet Financial, Walmart, Bancorp Bank, USAA, Charles Schwab, Ally Bank, SmarterBank, ING Direct, and Occupy Wall Street.

Members of Mercator Advisory Group's Debit Advisory Service have access to this report as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead, presentations, analyst access and other membership benefits.

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About Mercator Advisory Group
Mercator Advisory Group is the leading, independent research and advisory services firm exclusively focused on the payments and banking industries. We deliver pragmatic and timely research and advice designed to help our clients uncover the most lucrative opportunities to maximize revenue growth and contain costs. Our clients range from the world's largest payment issuers, acquirers, processors, merchants and associations to leading technology providers and investors. Mercator Advisory Group is also the publisher of the online payments and banking news and information portal PaymentsJournal.com.