The Story Behind Banno
A letter from CEO Wade Arnold
During the recession of 2008 my wife and I were constantly trying to track our expenses and figure out our financial picture. With a computer science degree and a MBA, this seemingly simple task proved very complex. I quickly learned that nothing provided me with a true understanding of our money; I could only capture historical spending. This data, however, seemed useless when I was in the checkout line with my three kids deciding which payment method to use while trying to remember when the mortgage payment would clear and when the utilities were due. In the seconds leading up to a transaction, I had no way to understand my money so I could make a quick, smart decision.
The epiphany to solve this problem came as I continued to struggle with understanding my family’s financial picture. During a conversation with my wife, my son made a suggestion, “Why don’t you ask Banno?” Banno had become a household name as it was our son’s imaginary friend. If we ever questioned him about his toys being left out, his answer remained the same - Ask Banno.
Everyone has a Banno moment when they wish they had a clear understanding of their entire financial picture. As a company, we assembled a team that was passionate about solving this problem. At the beginning, Banno was an enigma of ideas. The first idea was Grip. Enabling Grip to receive its data by connecting to the banno.com infrastructure was the first step to answering some of our questions.
What if we could create banno.com so it was readily available to provide valuable answers at any time? What would happen if banno.com created a bridge between financial institutions and consumers, building stronger relationships and providing smarter insights for both?
We believe great technology can leverage a collaborative relationship between financial institutions and consumers to aid in better decision-making and reward both sides. With our banno.com tools, we are focused on leveraging behavior-driven banking to change how products and services are offered and how the benefits of the digital channel can be realized.
Even though the company name has changed, everything else will remain the same. This is not a restructure of the company or a new business. It’s simply a name change. The name reflects the story of our passion and signifies how consumers, financial institutions and merchants are all interconnected. Banno is about innovating this ecosystem and everyone here is on a mission to build a banno.com that makes life better.
