Banking Up Blog

The first version of the Compass Principles  is available for download from the Center for Financial Services Innovations’ website.

The principles apply generally to the design of consumer financial products intended to help people in their daily lives.

The first category of financial products to benefit from a detailed implementation of the Compass Principles will be prepaid card accounts.

Here are some of the specific items that my company, Plastyc,  will deploy during the next few quarters to implement the Principles:

• Make accounts easier to access with free full-featured Mobile Apps for Android phones ,  iPhones and Kindle Fire tablets, for consumers who may not have a fixed phone line and PC at home;
• Make accounts easier to open with automatic handling of soft-fails via add-on questions during enrollment, for consumers who may not have easy access to a photocopy and fax machine to send us copies of utility bills to prove their identity;
• Display product fees clearly with typical usage patterns inside a standardized “Fee Box“, to be transparent and reassure customers that we will not hit them with unexpected fees;
• Expand real-time communication with cardholders through mobile push notifications, to allow customers to always stay on top of their finances;
• Reduce time and cost of customer support through contextual interactive help, to avoid lengthy searches through solutions among  Frequently Asked Questions;
• Reduce time and cost of customer support through a collection of how-to-videos, to make learning about our services more fun and immediate;

I think that applying good product design principles pro-actively beats any kind of regulation. So kudos to the authors of the Compass Principles whitepaper.