The financial innovation community in the US is a jaded bunch – NFC? Nobody f-ing cares. PFM? Yawn. Mobile wallet? I’ll just use my credit card. Entrepreneurs in the US keep chipping away at pain points and payments friction, but it can seem like an uphill battle. When European companies arrive on our shores and present their ideas, they sometimes seem like visitors from the future. Three companies – mBank from Poland, Numbrs from Switzerland and Pixeliris from France — showed their wares at Finovate Fall in New York this week and threw down the gauntlet to US competitors: “Where’s the innovation?” (Longtime readers may recall this phrase was actually spoken by Kristoffer Lawson of Holvi.) MBank launched in 2000, but relaunched in June with a new design and new functionality. The mobile-first online bank claims about 4.1 million customers in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Its list of features reads like a wish list for US rivals: Video banking with financial advisors Merchant- funded rewards in transaction history (a la Cardlytics) Event-driven CRM Google-like search for transaction histories P2P payments via Facebook and SMS Shopping and offers within the banking app Gamification ad education within the banking experience [...]
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