BBVA Compass is learning lessons from its interactions with startups.
The division of Spanish banking company Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, which recently committed fresh investment to its BBVA Ventures arm, is launching a branchless bank account aimed at fans of professional basketball.
Clearly modeled after early stage companies' efforts — most notably Moven (formerly MovenBank) and Simple (Formerly BankSimple), which are both in pilot with beta customers — the NBA Banking account is a fee-less checking and savings account attached to a debit card that will give the Birmingham, Ala., bank a national scope.
The launch will coincide with the NBA's All-Star Weekend in Houston. BBVA has been working the professional basketball league for the past three years, a spokeswoman says.
"We've been investing in the future for a while; BBVA was one of the first banks to formerly have an R&D division, which is unusual for banks, really," says BBVA Compass CEO Manolo Sanchez. "The industry is at a crossroads in the sense that the brick and mortar system is changing."
Eventually, he says, other services (perhaps loans and mortgages) might be attached to the banking account, which will be primarily managed through a bank customer's smartphone. "Our strategy is to really have a long-term relationship, so we will build other ways to services [these] customers," says Sanchez, adding that the bank will have to be careful not to brand those financial services products alongside an NBA logo, because of its limited agreement with the league.
The NBA Banking accounts can be funded through ACH, credit cards, debit cards or mailed-in deposits. Customers can end up putting cash into the accounts as soon as the next day. Those new customers will also have access to Cardtronics' Allpoint network of roughly 50,000 ATMs.
The account opening method is nearly immediate, says Shawn O'Brien, a director of consumer deposits and senior vice president at BBVA Compass. The process is the by-product of BBVA's partnership with bank technology provider Fiserv's CashEdge division.
A majority of the technology found alongside the NBA Banking account, he says, comes from the bank's new Accenture Alnova core system that had been implemented last fall. "All the online banking stuff comes off our new core," says O'Brien.
There is even a gamification piece to BBVA's new account that encourages mobile customers to make three bill payments in exchange for $100 to spend in the NBA's online store.
"Startups show us a lot of the need for those things, such as the games piece and the content piece. We are seeing a lot of those things from startups and new players in the industry," says O'Brien.
The decision to launch the branchless banking accounts comes amid a series of efforts by BBVA to innovate.
The bank is working with the same company that developed Apple's voice recognition software Siri (which was originally created by SRI International) to foster a similar technology for its own online banking website. The virtual personal banking assistant, Lola, will launch in the next 12 months, says Sanchez.
The company is also the bank holding SmartyPig's customer's deposits, The Des Moines company provides an online savings account and a prepaid card.
"There was even BancBowie, the online bank for David Bowie fans. By and large, these sites never made it to their golden years."
--Daniel Wolfe, Editor in Chief, PaymentsSource