The innovators in this list from our sister publication, Bank Technology News, may not be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs. With a few exceptions, they're bankers and financial services executives who are adding new elements, such as crowdsourcing, mobile text alerts and context-aware computing, to more traditional financial services. But they're enhancing their offerings in a way that provides much-needed convenience, simplicity, debt assistance and faster access to credit.
The first choice, Brett King, stands out from the rest. He's one of the few who is not a banker, but on the contrary a bank critic. He doesn't have an actual product or working service yet. But the disrupter compay he plans to open this summer, Movenbank, will be closely watched by all in the industry.
At a recent conference, King showed a video in which his toddler daughter was shown a magazine and practially cried as she tried to click on it and got nothing. Then she was offered an iPad and she began merrily clicking and swiping around on the user-friendly device.
This is what banking needs to be like one day, King says: Frictionless, easy and fun. Will Movenbank make it so? We look forward to seeing what King accomplishes.
Click here for a slide show of the “Innovators of the Year”.
Penny Crosman is editor-in-chief of Bank Technology News.
John Adams is contributing editor for American Banker.
