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about me
Hi, I'm William. I'm the Director, Online Banking & Engagement at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union.
My opinions and views are just that, and don't reflect the views of my employer (or, perhaps, anyone else).
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CommunityLend brings social lending one step closer in Canada.
Colin Henderson, who as The Bankwatch is one of my very favourite bloggers, is one step closer to making CommunityLend a reality.CommunityLend is:
An online community where people can lend money directly to other people in a safe and secure way. It is an exciting and unique lending service for Canadians that will revolutionize the way lending works in Canada.I asked Colin about his new venture and here's what he told me:
I look at the Canadian Banks' involvement in the US Sub Prime mortgage market, and the fact that over $2Bn has been lost there by Canadian Banks. That's an enormous loss. There is a need for greater transparency for people seeking a return on their money, and what they are investing in. Social lending not only eliminates those issues, but provides a better return for borrowers, and lenders.Colin deserves a lot of credit for his outstanding blogging on the Sub Prime and ABCP situation, while many others have skirted around the issue or moved on. I have learned a lot from reading Colin's editorials on this situation, and have a lot of faith in his opinions and his ability to create alternatives to the lending and borrowing options Canadians have today.
According to Colin's blog "2007 was a long year, as we raised our funding, and organised the management team (of which he is Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder)." They're aiming for a Beta launch in early 2008, which means those of us north of the border can finally kick the tires on the services that several companies around the world have started, including Zopa, Prosper and Lending Club.
CommunityLend's website, very recently updated with information (for months now it's been a teaser with no real information) says that:
The unsecured consumer loan marketplace in Canada exceeds $100 Billion in volume every year and generates interest payments on those loans exceeding $15 Billion annually... Today in Canada, this very profitable industry is also a very closed industry, with only a handful of major companies involved... CommunityLend intends to democratize lending in Canada by opening up this billion dollar industry to other Lenders interested in participating. Share the wealth, we like to say!They're also obviously going to have a big community component around people's borrowing goals. Knowing Colin, they're going to tackle all of this very, very smartly. I can't wait to try it out and see how it works.
Stay tuned...
Labels: bankwatch, communitylend, poverty, social lending, social media
posted on Friday, December 14, 2007
Discovering kiva.org
In all the recent posts I've been reading about peer-to-peer lending, including the excellent reporting by Jim Bruene at NetBanker and Colin Henderson at The Bankwatch and CommunityLend, I hadn't come across Kiva.org.I'm very excited about social personal finance and think it may well change the way people exchange money when they just need to borrow or invest a small to medium amount and don't want to bother with a bank or credit union.
But tonight my aunt showed me Kiva.org, and I got to admit I was a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't know what it was. It's an amazing concept where anyone can make microloans to people in the developing world who need small amounts of money to start an enterprise. According to their website:
Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.
You can cash out when you're repaid or reinvest it into a new opportunity. I think this is genius. Did everyone else know about this and somehow I'm the last to the party? Hard to be shown up by my aunt after all...
I started tonight by investing $25. Kiva.org asks you for a 10% addition as a donation to keep them running. That's optional. You can pay by PayPal or credit card. When you're done you can easily send the info about the cause you donated to to your email list to spread the word. Nicely done.
Here's who I donated to: Massan Aziado of Togo. Fantastic and inspiring!
Labels: banking, bankwatch, communitylend, credit union, innovation, kiva.org, microcredit, netbanker, poverty, social personal finance, technology, web 2.0
posted on Saturday, June 23, 2007
ROI on community.
I have been asked many times about the ROI of community projects like ChangeEverything.ca. Up until last month I had an answer, but it wasn't very good, and I can't even remember what it was any more. Just some mumbling about how we can't measure ROI on everything.At Net.Finance I heard Michael Seaton speak and he asked the audience, "What's the ROI on a round of golf or lunch with a client?" I loved it. If a company is interested in being innovative, some money has to go towards projects where the ROI cannot be expressed ahead of time. You have to try it and see if it works. Certainly I wouldn't recommend this for more than, say, 10% of your marketing or development budget. But if you want to innovate you have to have a little fun money to play with for experimentation purposes (rumour has it that Google developers can spend 10% of their time on side projects, that can end up creating important innovations).
And then, via Colin I came across this post by Will Pate: Online Community Success and ROI. He has found metrics and stats from a variety of sources indicating the benefits that community features will give to a website's ROI. Nicely done.
Thanks Colin and thanks Will...
Labels: bankwatch, blogging, changeeverything, innovation, netfinance, technology, web 2.0
posted on Friday, May 25, 2007
BarCampBankSeattle
I discovered on Colin's Blog that there will be a BarCamp specifically focused on the FI sector in Seattle. The time and exact location of BarCampBankSeattle is yet to be determined, but it sounds great. I hope to be there!Labels: azaroff, banking, bankwatch, blogging, credit union, innovation, usa, web 2.0
posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2007
tinfoiling on the virtual human experience.
In a post I made a few days back, I tried to articulate some of the issues I've been thinking about our web site design to enhance the member/user experience.Gene at tinfoiling left a comment in which he said:
The online experience seems to revolve around the person, their personal networks and being able to keep things the way they want to. Our products need to capture these elements.
I was intrigued, but his short comment on my site obviously didn't capture the depth of what he was getting at, so I asked him to expand on his own site. Much to my delight he has.
Here's Gene's response on tinfoiling.
His theory, and I hope I do it justice is that web design as we've been dealing with it is a bit of a boondoggle, avoiding the key element of what the customer wants. And it goes back to our product design as well. A huge idea really, and I gotta admit, I'm still fully wrapping my head around it.
Colin, as usual, had a great comment:
Product - my take: forget about it. It comes last. Banks have been product centric for ever, and that doesn’t work when you get into experiential design.
A great conversation. I had no idea the doors I was opening when I started...
Labels: banking, bankwatch, credit union, design, tinfoiling, vancity, web
posted on Saturday, May 05, 2007
Credit Unions and blogging
Ron Shevlin has a great discussion going on his Marketing ROI blog about tips and pitfalls for Credit Unions that decide to blog. The list is good and comprehensive and Colin from The Bankwatch and Trey from Open Source CU add in some good comments.Note to self: get the hell off Blogger...
See the discussion...
Labels: banking, bankwatch, blogging, credit union, opensourcecu, verity, web 2.0
posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Photos from Net.Finance
Here are some photos from my trip to Arizona for Net.Finance.
The view from my hotel room at Net.Finance. The Camelback Inn was extremely nice, which is what you'd hope at the prices they charged.
A panel discussion with (from L to R) Chris Larsen from prosper.com, Mickey Mencin from Key Bank, Shari Storm from Verity Credit Union and Gabriel Dalporto from zecco.com.
Colin Henderson from The Bankwatch presenting. Colin painted a great picture of the landscape of what web 2.0 is doing for those FIs brave enough to embrace it.
My presentation. I think I was very well received, and am very pleased with how it went.
A group of us out for dinner on the second night of the conference. Having great Mexican food was one of my goals, which I definitely met.
Ned with cacti. Ned Georgy, a colleague from Vancity and a good friend, and I stuck around Arizona for an extra day and visited the Desert Botanical Gardens, which was fantastic!Labels: arizona, azaroff, bankwatch, camelback inn, netfinance, prosper.com, vancity, verity, zecco.com
posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Bankwatch on my presentation
Colin summed up my presentation in a series of bullets. Here's his post.Labels: azaroff, banking, bankwatch, blogging, changeeverything, credit union, netfinance, socialsignal, vancity, vancouver, web 2.0
posted on Friday, April 20, 2007
Net.Finance Day Four - the big day!
Today was unequivocally the best day of the conference, and I'm not just saying that because my presentation went so darn well.I got to hear how prosper.com works straight from the CEO, Chris Larsen. This would be such a great business for Vancity to get into. I could see it as a separate spin off with its own discreet P&L. I'd be happy to run it, by the way, in case anyone in the C-Suite is reading this.
My new favourite colleague Shari Storm was fantastic. So much of the specificity of last year, the relevance, the results, the strategies that have been missing this year were there in force as Shari described why they started blogging, how they keep it going and what they get out of it. Great job Shari.
I was third up, and I'll let others describe how it went, but I'm really pleased and proud. I got a lot of great feedback and I know I had the full attention of the room. I couldn't get a break because so many people wanted to ask me questions.
Next up was Mickey Mencin from Key Bank, who spoke about podcasting. Last year I was really inspired listening to Mickey in a panel discussion and this year she had a whole presentation about what she's up to at Key. It's interesting to hear from the FIs who are willing to invest a little discretionary spending into innovative projects that don't have to rigidly prove their ROI. As Michael Seaton said so perfectly, "What's the ROI of a business lunch or a golf trip with a client." Sometimes you gotta have a little pocket money to try out new things.
I also enjoyed hearing from zecco.com CMO Gabriel Dalporto. Between them and propser.com I feel like I learned about business models that decentralized heavily centralized industries. People looking to start starfish organizations to attack the big bank spiders.
But my highlight of the day was hearing Colin Henderson. First off, he's a hell of a nice guy, and he's just so knowledgeable about this space. Great to finally put a face to a name, both for him and Jim Bruene, who should have been a speaker for sure.
Last year it was all about the amazing presentations, but I didn't meet a whole lot of people. This year it was all about the networking. Meeting people from across Canada and into the States who are doing interesting and innovative things.
Okay, I'm done. Ned and I are going to spend an extra day down here relaxing and seeing some sights. Let the vacation start...
Labels: azaroff, banking, bankwatch, blogging, credit union, netbanker, netfinance, prosper.com, vancity, verity, web, web 2.0, zecco.com
posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007
Net.Finance Day One
It was a good kickoff today at Net.Finance. This was the Customer Acquisition and Cross Selling Summit, an optional first day to the conference. I gotta say, so far it doesn't seem quite as strong as last year, but some great highlights.It's a tad early to say, but people seem to be buzzing about social media. There have been a few questions from the crowd, some comments in presentations about blogging, YouTube, Facebook, social networking, etc...
Emily Edwards, SVP of Online Sales Marketing at Bank of America was talking about Bank of America's plans in the social media space, and she asked of her company "How do we start to give up control without giving up complete control?" I thought it was great to hear a big bank talk like that. People seem to get the new world of marketing where companies don't control the message, and have to operate with a greater level of transparency to increase trust among the network of people who are talking about your company and brand online.
It's nice to reconnect with some great people I met last year and meet some new folks, including Shari Storm from Verity Credit Union in my old stomping ground of Seattle. Also nice to meet some Canadians who make up a sizable group here, including Michael Seaton from Scotiabank, who was recently in a panel in Toronto with Rob Cottingham from Social Signal.
Looking forward to tomorrow, and hopefully meeting Colin Henderson.
I am excited to give my presentation. I think it will create some good dialogue, because it's so far removed from anything anyone else is doing.
I discovered today that I can't do math. This whole time I thought I had 45 minutes, but if I had added the minutes on the schedule together, I only have 35 minutes. Ugh. I'll move fast and hope we have some time for discussion. I really don't want to cut anything out, I feel it's a strong presentation as-is.
Labels: azaroff, banking, bankwatch, blogging, credit union, netfinance, socialsignal, vancity, web
posted on Monday, April 16, 2007
America Saves
Interesting article in the NYTimes: Can Poor People Be Taught to Save?Why can't poor people save money? Part of that psychological barrier... was social pressure to not save; the minute people got a little surplus, friends and family would start asking for loans. There were other obstacles too. People in both communities feared losing welfare benefits if they accumulated cash. Many families didn’t even define savings monetarily; they talked about the things they would sell in desperation - baseball-card collections, heirlooms or other low-value assets.
Enter AmericaSaves.org. What is America Saves?
America Saves is a nationwide campaign in which a broad coalition of nonprofit, corporate, and government groups helps individuals and families save and build wealth. Through information, advice, and encouragement, we assist those who wish to pay down debt, build an emergency fund, save for a home, save for an education, or save for retirement.
It's a social network changing the peer pressure in poor communities from spending and lending to saving. According to the article, "about nine million households have effectively no financial assets - nothing to fall back on for emergencies or retirement."
Banks help out by joining the program and creating accounts that charge no fees and have no minimum balance requirements. Amazing.
Something credit unions should get involved with. Creating wealth and assets for those with none. Banking for the under-banked and under-served. Hey, isn't that already our mandate?
PS: Thanks for the link, Rob
Labels: banking, bankwatch, canada, corporate responsibility, media, opensourcecu, socialsignal, vancity, web
posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007
A new direction
I have recently been asked why I don't give my opinion about web 2.0, social marketing, banking, etc on my blog. Why I limit it to a more frivolous link blog. I was surprised by the question: lots of people are talking social web and FIs. My favourites include:Social Signal
Open Source CU
Net Banker
NextCU
But then it occured to me, all of those are written by people outside of an FI. They're written by supporters, vendors, partners, but not insiders. So I'm branching out and will start blogging more about trends I'm seeing, things I'm focusing on, ideas percolating under the surface. I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes at these other fine companies and blogs. I admire and respect all of them, and merely am attempting to join their online conversation.
I also hope I won't upset anyone at Vancity. I love the company and my job, and will strive to merely represent how we do business without giving away any trade secrets, inside information or anything else. I'm going to assume I have that freedom unless I'm told otherwise. Sara, I'll wait for your call...
Now the question is, am I doing this for myself only, or is anyone else listening.
Thanks,
Wm
Labels: azaroff, banking, bankwatch, canada, corporate responsibility, nextcu, opensourcecu, socialsignal, vancity, web, web 2.0
posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2007
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