The quote ” “Every really new idea looks crazy at first” is attributed to both Alfred North Whitehead and Abraham Maslow, but regardless of who said it this truism applies to financial services, payments and security managers right now because limits and controls on account usage is shifting from bank to account holder. Banks are still playing the “man behind the curtain” role with accounts, not giving the customer the ability or permission to simply determine, in advance, how “their” deposit, payment, investment and other accounts can be used. At stake is adoption, selection (to use card industry parlance), cross-sell, and loyalty, and the first provider that makes it easy for customers to feel the most control is set to gain big at the expense of competitors. (Yet to digress, even if I were able to predetermine how my bank or card account could be used in advance, all that peace of mind and transaction-shift will remain simply as a drawing board concept because of usability issues. As you board a large commercial aircraft, have you ever momentarily stared to the left, into the cockpit, to witness the jaw-dropping complexity that keeps us mere mortals from flying even a Southwest 727? Even if customers could go online to prohibit unwanted foreign transfers to their card or make sure the card doesn’t get turned off on their next trip to Brazil, our rudimentary usability practices would make the consumer’s control panel look like that set of cockpit controls, thus barring adoption.) Back on point, there’s a market waiting to explode in what we’ve coined as UDLAPs (User Defined Limits and Prohibitions) and IFMs (Interactive Financial Messages, or two-way alerts that update consumers on selected conditions within their accounts). We’ve been calling for changes in these two areas for years, and I invite clients and readers to hold me accountable on the following data-derived belief: by the end of this decade, bank customer activity and industry vendor success will begin to measurably determined by how much is invested in UDLAPs and IFMs. These two areas are the next spending wave, like what we saw in bill payment (or have yet to see in aggregation). Banks can’t afford to build UDLAPs and IFMs on their own, vendor platforms are a natural, and customer profitability will be determined by how well and how fast they are deployed.

Watch for our Banking Safety Scorecard, available Wednesday the 7th to non-subscribers, or 9:00 am PST November 2 to Javelin subscribers. A credit Card issuer’s version of the Safety Scorecard report (both of which compare top institutions based on their availability of UDLAPs, IFMs, and many other vital features) was published a few months ago. Additionally, our report on what IFMs look like has been released and subscribers may access that now.

Get on board with UDLAPs and IFMs, because they will change everything about the profitability of customer relationships, giving account holders the feeling of control they so desperately crave.